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Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang To Step Down
JagsLive was one of several readers to point out Jerry Yang's departure as Yahoo CEO. He's not leaving the company; he will return to his former role as Chief Yahoo, whatever that entails. Yang has been under fire in recent months from investors for his handling of Microsoft's recent acquisition attempt."Yahoo, under fierce financial pressure, has begun a search to replace company co-founder Jerry Yang as chief executive, the company said Monday. 'Jerry and the board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level,' Chairman Roy Bostock said in a statement."
when a company's main goal is to be acquired as soon as possible?
That's not Picasso, that's Kandinsky!
the next AOL.
No- because investors today think the stock price means everything. Played that way, the entire thing is a giant pyramid scheme waiting to collape... oh too late.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Should have sold it back when M$ was offering $33 a share. It's kinda pathetic he had to beg M$ to buy now. I don't think he has done enough "plan B" for Yahoo as a company. It doesn't take a genius to predict that regulators in US won't be too happy with this kind of merger with Google.
I think the Yahoo/Microsoft saga is one of the most shocking displays of directors' self-interest vs their shareholders' interests. For the sole reason of maintaining independence, Yang and the rest of the Yahoo board instituted poison pill defences worth millions, attempted to a deal with a competitor which was good short term but very bad long term and held out for a price (in the absence of any other interest too) that was way above their previous closing price.
In hindsight shareholders have lost $20 billion. At the time of the offer the premium was around $10 billion. Astronomical numbers to waste just so a board of directors can maintain their personal wish to remain independent.
Its an indictment of the USA's corporate law that shareholders have not sued for breach of fiduciary duty. If they can, but haven't, well they deserve all they got.
Jerry Yang - good riddance. Just becasue you can create an online yellow pages in your garage, (and get very lucky), does not qualify you to run a billion dollar company.
I'll see your hokum and raise you a boondoggle.
Or basically dividends allow your investors the option to take part of your profits and either put them back into the stock or use them for income or other purposes.
One symptom the lack of dividends leads to is companies feeling compelled to branch out in order to make use of the money they have on hand; they usually aren't as good at their new tacked-on field, and the formerly well-focused company that the investors bought into no longer exists.
If the companies don't issue dividends, the only reason to buy its shares is to sell those later, at a profit. That is a Ponzy scheme, it works on times of inflation and that's all, without severe inflation, if fails. Now, when the companies issue dividends, they can be avaliated on a P/E basis, and bought because of those dividends. There is no need to resell the stocks in order to make profit. That is a stable market (that can become a ponzy sceme sometimes, but doesn't need to be one).
That the US government encorages the first, and not the latter, tells a lot.
Rethinking email
I know Jerry and he is smart and insightful, but way too nice to be a CEO in an industry where he has to compete against SOBs like Ballmer and Schmidt. Jerry is polite and considerate. He is thoughtful and modest. The other guys are rude, arrogant, aggressive, nasty folk.
Jerry did a lot of useful changes, but what he didn't get that it is all about perception of being a leader and being on the path upward. A lot of the issue for the market is PR versus reality. And, let face it, search and search advertising are the things the market views as keys to future success and Yahoo has fallen further behind in this area. The decision to outsource search to Google by Yahoo may prove to be one of the top 5 greatest business mistakes of all time and Jerry has to share blame for that as well.
Jerry didn't move boldly enough, but his Board should have known that his base style wouldn't allow it. He should have reorg'ed immediately and publicly, giving folks ownership and accountability. You get the job but you get fired if you don't hit the goals. He let key services stagnate. Yahoo mail took too long to fix their UI to match Google and Yahoo still charges for POP access. Yahoo was the calendar leader, but Google launches a slightly better calendar and is viewed as the leader, even without a customer base. Yahoo Groups is a leader but is old and stale compared to something like Ning. There are lots of examples of how to upgrade their services out there for Yahoo and they seem to ignore them and let others steal mind share and leadership from them.
I fear that it is too late. Yahoo is the AOL of Web 2.0. It is only a matter of time.
Now all competitors know that Microsoft as a business is going to die. Because the main cash cows, Office and Windows are under fierce attack.
Your statement is correct insofar as all things happen if given an infinite time span. Excluding an infinite time span, your statement is really, really reaching.
Office and Windows are huge cash cows for Microsoft. Office alone commands more than 90% of all office productivity software in the world. If you think that's going to be replaced en masse by OpenOffice or Google apps anytime soon, you're delusional in the extreme. It may work fine for you, but the vast majority of the business world does not agree with you. You can argue the merits of OO vs. Office all day long, but in the end it comes down to where businesses place their faith. Despite the huge price, despite the bugs, despite the bloat...they choose Office. They do it not only because it's the devil they know but because it's the devil everybody else uses as well. Businesses do not operate in a vacuum, and they must be able to reliably and accurately exchange documents and data with other businesses. With Office they are assured of this. With anything else it's a crapshoot unless you're dealing with only the most basic types of documents, spreadsheets, or presentations.
As for cloud computing, the idea will gain traction over time, but Microsoft isn't sitting idle. Do you think Microsoft isn't investing in cloud computing? They are, and quite a bit at that. If and when cloud computing becomes a panacea, Microsoft will control a healthy chunk of it. Maybe more, maybe less, but there is no doubt they'll be a sizable player.
It seems rather obvious that you're letting your anti-MS stance interfere with objectively judging the situation. Microsoft just finished hugely profitable -- in some cases, record profits -- for the last couple of quarters. The company has cash reserves eclipsing pretty much every competitor on the planet. You obviously want Microsoft to fail, but that does not mean they're anywhere near failing. Quite the contrary, actually. You need to stop letting your bile skew your judgement.
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I look at it from the point of view of a Yahoo user (of various services) and I feel it was a great decision. Yahoo isn't going anywhere - they are a PROFITABLE company, even if they don't rake in billions per quarter. a few hundred million bucks is nothing to sneeze at.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Companies continue to exist until they run out of money. Yahoo! made a $92m profit last quarter and they have assets worth over $11bn. They are growing, albeit slowly, so it will be a long time before they go away. They still have a recognisable brand and a lot of customers.
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