I think it is too early to say that yahoo made a mistake - to me it is the safest (if not smartest) decision ever. I have very logical point of view:
1. Sometimes leasing is more profitable than selling, and that is what Yahoo has done. Instead of selling search business to MSFT, they leased it out (temporarily) to Google.
*** Getting pregnant by msft is way suicidal than flirting with google for a while and see how it goes (its non-exclusive deal).
2. Yahoo/Google deal is only for north-american market. Agreed that it is the biggest market right now but not for the future, as everyone has predicted, future belongs to BRIC (brazil, russia, china, india). Asian and BRIC is going to be biggest search market, so it is wise that Jerry will take time and resources away( from north-american team) and try to come up with technology/platform that caters to these markets. May be he has a plan to test its Panama platform for these markets and get it mature by the time it is ready to start making money.
*** North-american market is a peanut change compared to BRIC (trust me!!).
3. It is true that desktop search market is the popular right now but in the future the search on other platform such as smart-phones is bigger than desktop - and Yahoo can start looking in to it with the help of freed resources.
4. Google is king in text search ad market and not in display ads, in fact even google executives agree that yahoo is still the market leader in display ads and it is a huge revenue generator. Yahoo can work on the same technology platform to keep bringing more money thru this kind of ads. Also display ads are going to play a bigger role in mobile phone market - so it is wise to concentrate on your strength (display ads) and make money from google in text ads.
5. Yahoo has a strong presence in China, Google is still lacking in getting major revenue from this market. Jerry being from the same ethnic background can understand this market much better than anyone else … also Yahoo is already deep rooted in china, it has to just find out how to monetize their presence efficiently.
6. In couple of years yahoo will know how much it can make from this deal(with Google) and if it is mature enough to sell the north-american search business to someone (msft, google, aol etc.) than it would do so by making much more money than what MSFT is offering right now.
7. Last but not least - It is better that Jerry is more loyal to the people who are loyal to him (employees and endusers) than to be loyal who are least loyal (shareholders) to yahoo …
Conclusion: it is not a worst decision and only time will tell what a smart move it was (or it wasn’t). Jerry needs some time to prove it and now he has got what he wanted to prove his caliber and witty decision making capabilities.
PaulGlazowski
· 1 year ago
I understand a number of your points, and some are valid if taken in the way that Yahoo's CEO has supposedly acted in the best interests of the workers. But the fact of the matter is that the shareholders own parts of the company. And if the collective owners of the company deem the CEO as unfit to serve, they can push to remove him. Some particularly unhappy shareholders seem to be moving in that direction.
Regardless of whether Yang is to blame for Yahoo's current state (he hasn't necessarily caused internal damage) as far as company product development, he hasn't done what many had hoped. Thus the backlash. Any other concerns are left to the sidelines, more or less.
PacificGatePost
· 1 year ago
YAHOO’S SHAREHOLDERS LOSE ON MORE THAN ONE FRONT
Great to see that cool heads have finally prevailed at Microsoft. Nevertheless, it was a seriously missed opportunity by Yahoo shareholders.
All Comments
1. Sometimes leasing is more profitable than selling, and that is what Yahoo has done. Instead of selling search business to MSFT, they leased it out (temporarily) to Google.
*** Getting pregnant by msft is way suicidal than flirting with google for a while and see how it goes (its non-exclusive deal).
2. Yahoo/Google deal is only for north-american market. Agreed that it is the biggest market right now but not for the future, as everyone has predicted, future belongs to BRIC (brazil, russia, china, india). Asian and BRIC is going to be biggest search market, so it is wise that Jerry will take time and resources away( from north-american team) and try to come up with technology/platform that caters to these markets. May be he has a plan to test its Panama platform for these markets and get it mature by the time it is ready to start making money.
*** North-american market is a peanut change compared to BRIC (trust me!!).
3. It is true that desktop search market is the popular right now but in the future the search on other platform such as smart-phones is bigger than desktop - and Yahoo can start looking in to it with the help of freed resources.
4. Google is king in text search ad market and not in display ads, in fact even google executives agree that yahoo is still the market leader in display ads and it is a huge revenue generator. Yahoo can work on the same technology platform to keep bringing more money thru this kind of ads. Also display ads are going to play a bigger role in mobile phone market - so it is wise to concentrate on your strength (display ads) and make money from google in text ads.
5. Yahoo has a strong presence in China, Google is still lacking in getting major revenue from this market. Jerry being from the same ethnic background can understand this market much better than anyone else … also Yahoo is already deep rooted in china, it has to just find out how to monetize their presence efficiently.
6. In couple of years yahoo will know how much it can make from this deal(with Google) and if it is mature enough to sell the north-american search business to someone (msft, google, aol etc.) than it would do so by making much more money than what MSFT is offering right now.
7. Last but not least - It is better that Jerry is more loyal to the people who are loyal to him (employees and endusers) than to be loyal who are least loyal (shareholders) to yahoo …
Conclusion: it is not a worst decision and only time will tell what a smart move it was (or it wasn’t). Jerry needs some time to prove it and now he has got what he wanted to prove his caliber and witty decision making capabilities.
Regardless of whether Yang is to blame for Yahoo's current state (he hasn't necessarily caused internal damage) as far as company product development, he hasn't done what many had hoped. Thus the backlash. Any other concerns are left to the sidelines, more or less.
Great to see that cool heads have finally prevailed at Microsoft. Nevertheless, it was a seriously missed opportunity by Yahoo shareholders.
http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/05/yah...
They should have been more vocal. Now it's too late. Their board did not serve them well.