

Can Marissa Mayer save Yahoo? - jmduke
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-01/can-marissa-mayer-save-yahoo

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IvyMike
I thought Yahoo was a goner for sure.

On the day Mayer took over, if you sat me down and said "Michael, discuss the
most optimistic yet still possible scenario for Yahoo's future", I would have
dismissed the current course as implausible.

That doesn't mean they're saved, but Mayer as a CEO has exceeded my (very low)
expectations.

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leothekim
Agree that part of their success is that they're setting low expectations.
When Meyer said "We promise not to screw it up"[1] after dropping >$1 billion
on Tumblr, I thought to myself "Way to set the bar low, Marissa."

[1] [http://yahoo.tumblr.com/post/50902111638/tumblr-
yahoo](http://yahoo.tumblr.com/post/50902111638/tumblr-yahoo)

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twerquie
She was just being direct and honest. She knows Yahoo's reputation precedes
her.

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kevinconroy
A: I don't know and neither does Business Week

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sdoowpilihp
I suppose we all love the game of conjecture though. It is certainly a
favorite past time of many.

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fmsf
I recently declined a job at yahoo UK becouse their hiring process was a mega
mess. It took nearly 4 months from first interview till I got a proposal, and
the engineers there seemed to be demoralised a lot.

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troebr
That's a ridiculous amount of time, nobody would wait that long unless they
are changing jobs and are not in a hurry.

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znowi
No.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines)

~~~
kmfrk

        if title.endswith("?"): block(submission)

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kevinconroy
Does this mean we'll finally block these kinds of submissions?!

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d23
"Are the days of question headlines on HN over?"

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mathattack
“Name another Internet giant that went through three years of decline and then
started to grow again,”

This captures the difficulty of their situation. If she turns it around,
she'll be one of the Valley's great CEOs.

"most recently, it languished under Carol Bartz and Scott Thompson as a dot-
com relic known mostly for losing its top talent to competitors."

When top talent choose to join Yahoo instead of Google, Facebook and Twitter,
that will be a sign that things have changed. This doesn't count acquihires.

~~~
general_failure
Talent follows money. If yahoo pays more than Google, talent will come.

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mathattack
Some of the comp is in equity, so the talent has to believe in equity.

People also join firms for brand image, and future career opportunities. The
talent has to believe in that too.

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antitrust
It seems clear that most of what needs to be done (to "save Yahoo") involves
ceasing to do certain things so that core competencies can rise. That she's
gearing it toward the mobile age is astute, but not necessarily out of step
with what competitors have been doing for some time.

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dr_
Who knows, but I can say this. I've started using Yahoo mail regularly again,
and I've started giving it out as my preferred email contact again. And, at
least until ios 7 comes out, I've been using Yahoos weather app pretty
regularly. I wouldn't have been doing either of these one year ago.

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devonbarrett
No - the opposite; but in the meantime lets place bets on how many companies
she will buy. My bet is 40.

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pavs
There is a method in this madness, if you are implying that she is buying
companies for shits and giggles, I think you are wrong.

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willbill
Can we stop posting articles from businessweek? Please?

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hga
I don't know, if you read between the lines it's got useful info, e.g. Yahoo
has been historically very hostile to mobile, and they can't recruit mobile
talent without " _[buying] talent, spending close to $200 million to acquire
at least 18 startups, in addition to blogging network Tumblr for $1.1 billion.
In each instance, Yahoo has locked up engineers with two- to four-year
contracts...._ "

Yeah, that sounds like a recipe for success....

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ollysb
That depends if they're set to task or given enough to room to build something
cool.

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Macsenour
The exact path to survival is hers, but to save any company you MUST change
things. Did Jobs change Apple when he came back? Of course!

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foobarqux
The smart (inside) money says no.

Loeb's hedge fund who appointed Mayer has sold their stake and has removed its
directors from the board.

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boomzilla
where could one get this kind of info for the traded companies?

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foobarqux
This particular piece of info was widely reported in business news.

SC 13D is the SEC disclosure form. There are probably sites that aggregate
that type of information.

[http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1011006/0000899140130...](http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1011006/000089914013000399/0000899140-13-000399-index.htm)

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general_failure
What an article. It goes on for page and pages that with lite information. I
want my 10 mins back!

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foobarqux
> Mayer prefers to focus on the company’s increase in Web traffic. She won’t
> give numbers but says it’s enough to erase the entire decline from the
> previous year.

Probably the most costly acquisition of Web traffic ever.

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rorrr2
No.

