
Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer Stumbled After Secret Truce with Activist Investor - jackgavigan
http://www.wsj.com/articles/yahoos-marissa-mayer-stumbled-after-secret-truce-with-prodding-investor-1466174597
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whack
I enjoyed the first couple of Yahoo/Meyer post-mortems, but at this point, it
just seems like people are flogging a dead horse and taking potshots at Meyer
while she's down.

She took on a hard job at a struggling company with minimal core competencies
and a downward trajectory. Yes, she spent big and made a number of risky bets,
which ultimately didn't pay off. Few people took a stand against her when she
made those bets, but now that we know the outcome, everyone's suddenly an
expert who knew better all along.

Yes, she wasn't able to save a sinking ship, and yes, we now know that she's
no Steve Jobs. But that just makes her an average executive, in the same
league as most SVPs/CEOs out there. It doesn't make her a failure or
incompetent. Let's bury this dead horse already.

~~~
xenihn
>Few people took a stand against her when she made those bets

I'd like to know why you think that nobody wanted to call her out publicly.
I'm not disagreeing with you, I just want to know your opinion in regards to
why people kept quiet.

~~~
asimuvPR
People kept quiet? I'm not a Mayer apologist (or even a "fan"), but she has
been criticized for everything. From her looks (people said she is a dumb
blonde who is going to wreck everything) to her decisions (everyone knew
tumblr was a bad idea). I have even read about people saying that Google
offloaded her to Yahoo in order to sink them. All of this right here on HN.

So no, they did not keep quiet. They've treated her worse than Jobs. Who by
the way, conspired with others to pay tech workers less...

------
joslin01
> She has defended her strategy by stressing that growth is the lifeblood of
> internet businesses.

Or, you know, utility.

It's funny how she defends all these acquisitions underneath some imaginary
fable that growth == success. Google didn't reach where it is today because it
grew fast -- it was able to grow because it has basic utility and was known as
the best amongst the competitors.

The key question for Yahoo has always been, what is the core part of our
business that users love us for? As she probably knew, fantasy sports is a big
one, but unfortunately that's not going to be enough for a company as large as
Yahoo. As a result, they bought up a bunch of startups to try and find more
core-utility.

It's been fun to watch, but I'm with the crowd that says Yahoo can't really
change and should just sell its core off. When the average consumer thinks
internet, they're not thinking "oh thank god Yahoo is there", but without
Google or Amazon -- two companies that can justify aggressive growth -- we'd
be left with a shoddier internet and that's just the basic truth of it all.

~~~
Touche
Yahoo was sustainable and profitable. They weren't as big as Google or Amazon
but they made a lot of money. But that wasn't good enough for the investors or
the public, who want infinite growth.

~~~
WalterBright
I never understood the mania for growth. If a company is reliably returning,
say, 20% profit, I wouldn't mess with success.

~~~
refurb
OK, but unless that company is paying out a dividend, why would you invest in
it?

Theoretically, a stock price reflects future earnings. If future earnings are
constant, then the stock price doesn't move.

Why buy $1M in stock if you know 5 years from now it'll be worth $1M?

~~~
ergothus
But in turn, if a company is getting 20% profit, why do they need people to
invest?

~~~
toast0
Because they're currently a public company, and without people interested in
buying the stock, it's going to attract activist investors which often ends up
as a big distraction without making any real changes.

~~~
ergothus
So it sounds like the problem is systemic - this is why I'm never eager about
companies going IPO...for every Google that ensures shareholders can't kill
the company, there are hundreds that guarantee mid-term failure for short-term
gain.

------
codezero
If you're curious what an activist investor is:

"An activist investor is an individual or group that purchases large numbers
of a public company's shares and/or tries to obtain seats on the company's
board with the goal of effecting a major change in the company."

------
cxseven
It's strange that Yahoo once had a very popular suite of multiplayer online
Java games (mostly board games) and failed to use them to gain an early
advantage on mobile apps.

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chetanahuja
When Meyer left google, I was of the opinion that it's a good move for her.
She had strong signals that her rise at Google was limited. This is when Larry
Page had taken over as CEO and created a new "inner circle" of 7 senior VP's
and Marissa was not one of them.

I thought it was a good move for her because she gets to be a big fish in a
smaller pond and gets her name out there as a CEO. Pretty much nobody would
blame her if Yahoo ended up bankrupt anyway since nobody had high hopes. But
at this point it feels like her brand is damaged along with Yahoo's because of
the leaks of boardroom struggles more than just the failure to revive Yahoo's
business.

~~~
vl
>created a new "inner circle" of 7 senior VP's

Interesting, who was on the inner circle?

~~~
e15ctr0n
As per John Paczkowski's AllThingsD blog post dated April 8, 2011 [0], six of
them were:

* Sundar Pichai, SVP of Chrome

* Vic Gundotra, SVP of social

* Andy Rubin, SVP of mobile

* Salar Kamangar, SVP of YouTube and video

* Alan Eustace, SVP of search

* Susan Wojcicki, SVP of ads.

Nicholas Carlson's article _Sex and Politics at Google: It 's a Game of
Thrones in Mountain View_ [1] goes into details about the rivalry and
jockeying within Google's top ranks.

[0] [http://allthingsd.com/20110408/pageyank-as-a-new-svps-are-
bo...](http://allthingsd.com/20110408/pageyank-as-a-new-svps-are-born-at-
google-whither-the-others-already-there/)

[1]
[http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2013/09/20/sex_a...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2013/09/20/sex_and_politics_at_google_it_s_a_game_of_thrones_in_mountain_view.html)

~~~
vl
And 3 of them are already out! Ouch!

~~~
jonnathanson
That often happens with inner circles. The higher you climb, the fewer
positions are available on the next rung up the ladder. And once you reach a
certain rung, you are pretty much always fighting political battles just to
stay where you are, let alone climb any higher.

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jasonshen
Someone have the full text?

~~~
sikhnerd
Hitting the |web| button above usually works (and did for me in this case)

~~~
choward
Holy crap. I had no idea that existed.

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fridayoff
Why are posts that require a sign in or subscription even allowed?

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nemothekid
Why do people who complain about wsj on every thread even allowed? Click the
"web" link.

~~~
smcl
I think if so many people complain about it then the link isn't very well
known

~~~
coderdude
I've been here for ages and it didn't occur to me to use the Web link to sneak
past their sign up wall earlier today. I support no longer allowing
submissions that require "one weird trick" just to read.

~~~
bryanlarsen
"Tell HN: Paywalls with workarounds are OK; paywall complaints are off topic"

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989)

~~~
coderdude
That's lame. If I had seen that post that one day I would have chimed in. Good
to know their stance though.

Added:

Send us update emails when you come to decisions like these. It would help
keep me and others informed. I don't regularly re-read the guidelines and
sometimes I miss threads like those.

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undecidedly
I'd consider reading it if I didn't have to sign up.

~~~
kartD
Just go a google search of the title and you can get around the sub-wall

~~~
jessriedel
This doesn't work for me on my default browser.

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choward
It's lame that I have to use the google referrer trick:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=Yahoo%27s+Marissa+Mayer+Stum...](https://www.google.com/search?q=Yahoo%27s+Marissa+Mayer+Stumbled+After+Secret+Truce+With+Investor)

~~~
manigandham
Why is it lame that the publisher would like to be compensated for their work?

~~~
icebraining
It might not be, but it's kinda lame to link to it here since many can't
afford to pay for every single subscription site. Maybe if there was an option
to pay per-article, but until then, it's simply unfeasible.

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0xmohit
Hacker News appears to be turning into Mayer News.

Is Yahoo! acquiring YCombinator?

~~~
mathattack
I think you have the buyer and seller backwards. :-)

