
Transformation at Yahoo Foiled by Its Leader’s Inability to Bet the Farm - daegloe
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/technology/transformation-at-yahoo-foiled-by-its-leaders-inability-to-bet-the-farm.html?_r=0
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danso
> _But that’s the trouble: Marissa Mayer wasn’t hired to do the safe thing.
> She was picked to be bold, and so far, she has failed._

While I agree that Mayer's term hasn't been great...I never got the impression
that she was hired to do move fast and break things until Yahoo was back in
the game with Google...wasn't the hot take that she could be counted not to
screw things up as Yahoo's investors struck it big on the Alibaba investment?
Was there ever the implication that the board would be cool with it if she
decided to go for broke in such a way to spoil the Alibaba windfall?

However things end up for her, I hope we get to hear a little more about their
acquisition strategy. Tumblr seemed like a reasonable thing (though sure,
Yahoo doesn't seem to have done much to capitalize on it)...but what about all
the other acquihires that were ostensibly done to bring in engineering talent?
How many of those engineers stuck around to become pioneers within the
company? I think shoveling out millions to bring in unique talent is a great
idea...but I'm guessing there's a huge difference between giving a suitcase of
$30M in cash to bring in someone like Peter Norvig/Jeff Dean/Guido/etc, versus
bringing in a 17-year-old entrepreneur [1].

Yahoo did receive a lot of attention for the money it used to bring in _media_
superstars such as Katie Couric and David Pogue...but speaking as someone who
has worked in journalism...that's not a viable strategy for turning around a
tech company.

I hope one acquisition Yahoo makes is Foursquare/Swarm...I hear so little
about 4SQ that I have to wonder if it's on life support (though maybe I'm
vastly underestimating how popular it is in NY compared to SF?)...having
another location-based social service between Google and Yelp seems as vital
as keeping Tumblr around in the fight between the web and Facebook...and
location data and engineering seems like it could find an easier fit into
whatever Yahoo's tech strategy is (versus, say, buying
Path/TaskRabbit/Lyft/Quora/Evernote, etc)

[1] [http://allthingsd.com/20130325/yahoo-paid-30-million-in-
cash...](http://allthingsd.com/20130325/yahoo-paid-30-million-in-cash-
for-18-months-of-young-summly-entrepreneurs-time/)

~~~
smacktoward
_> wasn't the hot take that she could be counted not to screw things up as
Yahoo's investors struck it big on the Alibaba investment?_

Why would you hire someone with a background in products if you don't want to
see new products?

~~~
ed_blackburn
Perhaps it was an acknowledgement that their own product portfolio required a
shakedown?

------
trhway
it seems like there is a wave of critical articles about Mayer's tenure and
results (mostly lack of it). I'd wish it were that people are finally starting
to see the reality. Unfortunately, i think, it is just some activist investors
causing that wave. A wave of the same pure buzz/hype type that was the "Mayer
admiration" wave in the beginning.

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mruniverse
Seems like these articles can be written by anyone. "She wasn't bold, blah,
blah". And if she was bold and failed "She was being too risky, blah, blah".

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rbanffy
Hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it?

This is an easy assessment to make, to say she didn't do something risky
without considering that something risky would have a big chance to fail
spectacularly.

The comparison to Apple is particularly interesting. Before Jobs came on
board, many people suggested Apple to ditch the hardware business and focus on
software, like Microsoft did. In the end, Jobs came in with the unheard of
idea of building attractive hardware. Who would have anticipated that?

~~~
theandrewbailey
> many people suggested Apple to ditch the hardware business and focus on
> software, like Microsoft did.

Xbox and Surface says hi.

~~~
rbanffy
It was the late 20th century. Xbox and Surface did not exist then.

Well... Microsoft helped destroy Sega with the Dreamcast...

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truthexplodes
This article provides no insights, but it's not wrong either. Shortly after
Marissa took over, she became obsessed over minutia like tweaking the Yahoo!
logo font[1] and making the homepage _“fresh and dynamic”_ [2]. Oh brother.

Still, she she deserves credit for making Flickr much better, and for shrewd
acquisitions like Tumblr.

She made Yahoo! better. No failure in that.

[1][http://humancode.us/post/60431192797/marissas-tumblr-
geeking...](http://humancode.us/post/60431192797/marissas-tumblr-geeking-out-
on-the-logo)

[2][http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/bits/2013/02/20/marissa-
maye...](http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/bits/2013/02/20/marissa-mayer-puts-
her-stamp-on-yahoo-com/?referer=)

