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Yahoo Bidders Can't Even Agree On What They're Buying (recode.net)
It's been a while since Yahoo has been up for sale, but the interested companies are still struggling to figure out what parts of Yahoo are worth purchasing. "Being for sale is what Yahoo does for a living now," Kara Swisher reports. "This is a pretty basic deal with everyone trying to figure out the risk and reward here of taking over a clearly failing business," said one bidder quoted in the report. "Everyone has different criteria for what matters." Yahoo essentially has three things to offer, which come with their own set of problems. From the report: (1) Its core business that includes search, advertising and media assets, all of which are in decline and getting worse.
(2) Its patent portfolio that the company thinks is worth as much as $3 billion, but others peg at $1 billion.
(3) Its real estate, which the company is pegging at about $1 billion, while others put it at a much lower value.It's also being reported that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer will have to leave the company, regardless of whether it gets acquired or not. Some of the potential buyers include Verizon, which according to the report, isn't interested in getting Yahoo's patents. It is offering $3B to $3.5B all-cash. Several private equity firms, who are interested in getting hold of Yahoo-owned patents and real estate, are offering Yahoo a sum of $5 billion or more. "This deal is not one in which everyone's really enthusiastic, since there is a giant question of how quickly the business is deteriorating," said another bidder. "If you win, you might lose and vice versa."
(2) Its patent portfolio that the company thinks is worth as much as $3 billion, but others peg at $1 billion.
(3) Its real estate, which the company is pegging at about $1 billion, while others put it at a much lower value.It's also being reported that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer will have to leave the company, regardless of whether it gets acquired or not. Some of the potential buyers include Verizon, which according to the report, isn't interested in getting Yahoo's patents. It is offering $3B to $3.5B all-cash. Several private equity firms, who are interested in getting hold of Yahoo-owned patents and real estate, are offering Yahoo a sum of $5 billion or more. "This deal is not one in which everyone's really enthusiastic, since there is a giant question of how quickly the business is deteriorating," said another bidder. "If you win, you might lose and vice versa."
Yahoo shareowners are probably angry they didn't accept Microsofts $44 billion bid in 2008. And Microsoft is probably very lucky Yahoo rejected the bid! That might very well have been with the end of Microsoft. This bid of Microsoft back then was to me (a lay person) obviously a full-retard crazy bid for a faltering business. This just proves how incompetence thrives even (or especially actually) at the higher ladders of management. In most companies I have been employed that did well, it seems the success was more despite of management than because of it. Most leaders, CEO's etc. are utterly incompetent, despite of the picture the media often attempts to paint of "great leaders". By the way, note how the tech press has even seemed to "glorify" the supposed value of Yahoo in even the past few years, praising it as a high tech company even though there is nothing noteworthy about the products offered. $3.5 billion is also way too much - but it is small enough the loss can be "covered up" by the acquirer down the line (hidden behind dubious "synergistic effects") so it is plausible it could sell at that price.
They're buying nothing... Nothing at all... A bunch of email addresses and a bunch of technologies that are either worthless or long ago replicated elsewhere. Yahoo isn't worth one millionth of whatever its pieces manage to earn in its dismantling. It was a worthless bit of property a decade ago, and it has only depreciated since then.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
This is the warning for CEOs who destroy the *ability* for the techs working hard to make a company like that function. We all know that it doesn't matter how keen or gung-ho you are to make things work for a company, if you take away an employee's ability to balance their responsibilities to their lives then you are going to get poor quality, if any, innovation in a business of that size because of the resentment and exhaustion it causes.
Telecommuting, helps you restore your energies because suddenly a few hours of commuting is out of the way and you can get a few things done, and still get your work done. Not being able to balance telecommuting is the the elephant in the room for Mayer. Rather than "amplifying it's greatness" she destroyed a principle at Yahoo that would help them get there. Now the entire company is paying the price for all of the symptomatic issues of an exhausted workforce.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.