

Yahoo up for sale - start123
http://www.slashgear.com/yahoo-open-to-sale-tips-insider-07177612/

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panabee
I posted this on another thread, but it was buried in comments. Curious to
hear reactions to the ideas below. Will delete this comment if inappropriate.

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First, the board should decide: media company or tech company.

If Yahoo! is a media company -- which is more conservative since its peers
would be AOL, Viacom, et al., and not Google, Facebook, et al. -- then
merge/acquire Netflix ($11.5B market cap) and anoint Reed Hastings CEO. Let
him navigate Nethoo through the transition to new media. Combining
distribution and content failed for AOL-TW, but with the media industry in
flux and with more content surfacing from the grassroots, perhaps now is the
time for vertical integration.

If technology, then Yahoo! needs a new culture and a bold vision to attract
the most talented engineers. No ambitious engineer wants to slave under PMs
when they could flourish in engineering-oriented companies like Google and
Facebook. Yahoo!'s mission? Help users discover, personalize, and consume
content.

Be the service -- mobile or web -- people turn to when they have nothing to
do, when they want to find a cool article, deal, song, video, picture,
restaurant, conversation, or event.

Today, Google is where you go when you know what you want. Yahoo! could help
people upstream of search -- before people know what they want. Which,
conveniently, is most of the time.

Lots of companies tackle the problem in different areas: Digg with news,
Pandora with music, Yelp with local businesses, Instagram with photos, Groupon
with deals.

With content proliferating faster than ever before, there is a need for some
service to help people discover and consume content. Users don't want to hunt
for content. They want the coolest deals, music, shows, restaurants, and news
to come to them.

Analyzing the web for the most relevant content -- no matter the type -- at a
personalized level is non-trivial. Because it's a daunting technical problem,
it will attract smart engineers.

Despite the naysayers, Yahoo! occupies an enviable position with massive
assets: hundreds of millions of users, deep advertiser relationships, and an
iconic brand. The question is how to organize these assets into a sustainable
and promising company.

Yahoo! has the cash flow to acquire some pieces, perhaps go private, and
execute against some vision.

There is an opportunity to once again innovate with compelling technology and
recruit talented engineers. There is an opportunity to help users navigate the
explosion of online content in a smarter, more natural way. There is an
opportunity for Yahoo! to reassert itself as one of the premier companies in
Silicon Valley, one led by pioneering technology.

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jm4
I get that Yahoo could stay afloat a while longer by riding the coattails of
Netflix, but what could Netflix possibly gain by the merger?

If Netflix ever proposed such an atrocity it would have to go down as one of
the most boneheaded decisions in the history of business. Worse than AOL-TW.
At least back then AOL still appeared to be a viable company. I think Yahoo's
ship has sailed.

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panabee
If Netflix decides it needs to source content, instead of only distributing
it, then Yahoo has enviable assets: millions of users, deep advertiser
relationships, and some homegrown content like Yahoo Autos (though no premium
content).

Yahoo is most definitely a viable company. In the worst case, it needs to
recast itself as a media company -- not a tech company. When compared to AOL,
Viacom, the NY Times, and other "old" media companies, Yahoo is a very viable
company.

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chopsueyar
Maybe Mark Cuban will buy it.

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bane
Time for that long dreaded merger with AOL.

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salem
When innovation has dried up, and revenue likewise, what other options are
there?

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robert_nsu
I'd like to see if they can get $45 billion this time around.

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outside1234
$45 billion Chilean pesos sounds about right.

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trocker
I see a reason of why yahoo's share rose 81 cents during the after-hours of
the CEO fired news.

