
How Yahoo came up with its new name: Altaba - taylorbuley
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/01/09/how-yahoo-came-up-with-its-new-name-altaba/
======
AndrewKemendo
_Still the third most visited Web property in the United States_

According to Alexa it's the 5th [1] but I'm sure it's not a huge difference
between third and fifth.

Yahoo still makes almost $5BN a year. It's a 24 year old internet behemoth.

I mean by any reasonable measure of a company, those are ungodly numbers.
Given how people talk about Yahoo though you'd think it was populated with
lepers.

I guess it's all about managing expectations.

[1][http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/US](http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/US)

~~~
__jal
Part of it is that this is HN, and Yahoo as an internet company has been
boring for a long, long time[1].

Another part of it is that it shows the incredible value of inertia. Sports
scores and email is with $5B.

And I think a third is just a bit of schadenfreude from the internet insider
set. Selling half of yourself to a Baby Bell-revenant and turning the rest
into a tracking stock is a sad way for the first internet directory to die.

[1] The last vaguely interesting thing I can remember was Yahoo Pipes.

~~~
paulddraper
> Part of it is that this is HN, and Yahoo as an internet company has been
> boring for a long, long time

It's like the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3M](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3M)). They
make $30 billion in annual sales with 55k products. How often do you hear
about them? They're big, profitable, and news is mostly boring to HN
interests.

~~~
linsomniac
Part of why you probably don't hear about "Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing"
is that the company is no longer named that. :-) Wikipedia says "formerly
known as". But, fascinating, I didn't know that.

~~~
paulddraper
> no longer named that

And now Yahoo will be Altaba :)

------
panic
This article could be a tweet:

 _The new name is meant to be a combination of the words “alternative and
Alibaba,” according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity because the individual was not authorized
to speak on the record about the name change._

~~~
puranjay
Most articles could be condensed into headlines

~~~
guftagu
> Most articles could be condensed into headlines

There really needs to be an app for that

~~~
BronSteeDiam
There was, it was bought by Yahoo... [http://summly.com](http://summly.com)

~~~
dom96
I remember this. Created by a 16 year old[1].

1 -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_D'Aloisio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_D'Aloisio)

~~~
owebmaster
Now we know what kind of mentality took Yahoo down. Marisa Mayer should have
read less HN?

------
ENGNR
Alt + Tabber

Someone particularly proficient in changing between windows

~~~
silvestrov
In Danish it sounds like "alle taber" which means "everybody loses".

~~~
sova
spectacular

------
mdesq
Altavista + Alibaba was my first thought.

~~~
Raphmedia
I was about to comment on the same thing.

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jobin
Altaba is the abbreviation of alibaba's father in China. 阿(A)里(Li)它(Ta)爸(Ba)
XD

------
est
On Chinese Interwebs, it's been called Ali's Dad. You can google for 阿里他爸.

------
keypress
As an English speaker this comes across as such a horrible name (for me at
least).

A typo: alt-abc?

------
quickConclusion
I really do not get it.

Verizon spends a lot of money for what essentially is a widely recognizable
brand, popular destination, and an email service, and they change it?

"I saw it on Altaba"???

All these people with emails @yahoo.com is free advertising for yahoo.com, but
guess what, no more yahoo.com? Will they try to force a change of email domain
over 20 years and kill the email service for good?

I have no clue now why they bought Yahoo in the first place...

Edit: got it all wrong. Thanks all for clarifying which piece is what.

~~~
adevine
There is a lot of misunderstanding about what is going on. The current Yahoo
basically exists of 3 main parts:

1\. The Yahoo website and properties that most folks think of when they think
"Yahoo". 2\. The 15% share of Alibaba 3\. The share in Yahoo Japan.

Verizon bought part #1. That is not changing its name and will continue to be
accessible on yahoo.com. Parts 2 and 3 are being left behind in a company that
is being renamed Altaba.

------
yeukhon
Well, one wonders how AOL still strike to survive after all these years. MSN
gone. Yahoo gone.

~~~
apaprocki
We just had this discussion at work.. one of the recent reports stated over 2
million subscribers still pulling in ~600 million a year just from that (pales
in comparison to ad revenue and past performance, but still... 2 million!).
The average per-account income was something like $21/month.

~~~
SwellJoe
Well, the AARP has 38 million members, so that's not too surprising, I guess.
(I'm saying that a lot of old folks don't realize there is an Internet, or
email, or online news, etc. without AOL.)

~~~
Azeralthefallen
My grandparents still use AOL, because they live in the absolute middle of
nowhere (aka they drive roughly an hour to be able to do groceries). Their
options have been basically dial up, or extremely expensive satellite
internet.

Verizon has been promising the little place they live for around 5 years that
they will eventually get some sort of service, however last time i was there i
could barely get any cell coverage.

~~~
SwellJoe
My previous company built web caching servers for independent ISPs. We served
a bunch of providers in rural areas who offered WiMAX to customers that were
too far out to get DSL or cable internet, and with lower latency than
satellite. It was usually somewhat expensive, compared to DSL/cable, but the
ISP could profitably serve individual customers the "last mile" (or last dozen
miles, with a repeater or two). A lot of those ISPs died as antitrust
regulation in the broadband industry failed and their nearby customers got
poached by the telcos and cable operators, making it harder to operate at
large enough scale to make it work. So, there was a moment where it looked
like a lot of those difficult to reach customers would be reached by ISPs
willing to roll out WiMAX with tall antennas and repeaters. But, it didn't
work out, and most of them died.

Anyway, I agree with you that there are still stretches of the US that have
people but no broadband. And, my primary internet is mobile broadband (from
two different carriers, since I travel and often find only one of them works
reliably), so I know the pain of it first-hand. But, still, I'd wager that
most AOL customers are older folks (even if the reason is also that people
living in rural areas tend to be older).

~~~
JPLeRouzic
Wi-Max or alternatives like DIY long range Wi-Fi, cannot have both 10 miles
(~15 km) range and high throughput. At the very minimum because earth
curvature, and also because the radio signal has to go right through the
moisture in between the sender and receiver. I came up a few years ago with
the idea that it would be possible to use the mesospheric layer as a passive
relay for communications at 40 miles range in desert areas. This even during
daylight. It is inspired by the "laser guide star" in astronomy with coding à
la 802.11 (Golay/LDPC).

More about it here: [https://padiracinnovation.org/2017/01/10/mesosphere-
light-sc...](https://padiracinnovation.org/2017/01/10/mesosphere-light-
scattering-as-cell-tower-substitute/)

~~~
analognoise
Sure you can, you just need a bigger tower; you can get gigabit speeds with
microwaves, no sweat, very directional too. Signal loss due to moisture? Up
the power. It doesn't work? Use more power, or add 5 feet to the tower and try
again. Remember, if brute force isn't working, you aren't using enough of it.

BTW: I like how you kinda gloss over the advanced math for atmospheric
corrections. The idea is interesting, though.

~~~
725686
"if brute force isn't working, you aren't using enough of it"

You just made my day with that phrase.

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henrikschroder
[https://www.aabacosmallbusiness.com/](https://www.aabacosmallbusiness.com/)

With Aabaco being taken by the original spin-off plan, this is simply an
alternative company name so that they still get the stock symbol they want for
the investment company that will remain behind after all the web assets have
been sold to Verizon.

That's it.

------
Steeeve
How do you even pronounce that?

~~~
piracyde25
Ahl-tah-bah

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dintech
Altabadabadoo!

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arenaninja
Alt + Tab + A?

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seppin
Did no one ever have the conversation about how Alibaba is a racist stereotype
or do we just give Asia a pass on this kinda thing?

~~~
jessaustin
What "stereotype" does "Ali Baba" invoke? As I recall the story, Ali Baba was
a clever man who started out poor but made his fortune by outwitting dangerous
thieves with the help of his brother's super-capable slave girl. Is there
something bad there? Even if there is, is there something that anyone would
have a stereotype about?

There are other characters from literature that could be problematic, but this
just isn't one of those.

------
baybal2
alt+tab it

Alibabers will kill the company, they have no talent running western style
dotcoms

~~~
notatoad
?

Neither altaba or Alibaba is a western style dot-com. That part of yahoo is
being sold to Verizon. Altaba is just a holding company for Alibaba stock.

~~~
baybal2
Well I had an impression that Alibaba was a party to the deal. It appears,
they aren't

