
CEO Marissa Mayer Treated Yahoo Like a Think Tank, Not a Sinking Ship - evo_9
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/08/01/488246171/ceo-marissa-mayer-treated-yahoo-like-a-think-tank-not-a-sinking-ship
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Nomentatus
Something of a hit piece - just for starts, she didn't know (then) whether she
was joining Verizon 'cause it ain't her call, she didn't know what if any
terms would be offered. WTH.

As for her not treating Yahoo as a sinking business, and gambling... well,
that's exactly what the shareholders wanted. They didn't want the McKinsey
approach, milking the remaining profit while hollowing out the company (and
hoping some idiot would buy the husk without due diligence, just before
bankruptcy.) They could easily have had that, if that was their desire. It
wasn't. They wanted to gamble and win back their mojo. The results were
predictable.

A better yahoo mail wouldn't have saved the company either, by the way - it
might have been a surviving business, but again, that's not what the over-
optimistic shareholders wanted. Yahoo had no secret sauce left. The
shareholders wanted to find another secret sauce, and or (re)create a network
effect (which is where media might have fit in.) Media didn't work 'cause they
stuffed it with dark pattern ads, not 'cause they spent money on the wrong
faces, IMHO. I'm still looking for a good portal, there - google news doesn't
thrill me.

