I have a personal policy of not investing in companies in the tech industry (I own some Microsoft stock, but that’s just cause I’m too lazy to sell it) but if I did I’d be buying some Yahoo tonight.
I met several employees, including Jeff Weiner, executive vice president, and they were more upbeat about the company’s prospects than I’ve seen from Yahooians in years.
Now, you might say that’s their job, but I’ve been around the block a few times and I think it’s all due to one thing: Jerry Yang is back.
In fact, a few of them whispered that big things are getting done and that it’s nice to have a founder who’s a CEO again.
Let me translate that to what they wouldn’t say: the place was run by consensus before and now has a guy who can get s**t done back in charge.
It might not translate into anything that Wall Street will like this quarter or next, but I like the new attitude. Will it translate into products and services we all like? Or an advertising platform that makes tons of money and has advertisers happy?
That we’ll keep a watch on for.
And, yes, I know they didn’t report very spectacular earnings today. But we expected that, didn’t we? After all, a CEO doesn’t leave if the trains are all running on time.
Larry Dignan, over on ZDNet, has a report about how Jerry Yang is promising a strategic plan in the next 100 days.
Scobleizer 
If what you are saying is accurate, it’s interesting that such a large company can behave like a startup and react so quickly to a CEO change.
And why no tech stocks?
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If what you are saying is accurate, it’s interesting that such a large company can behave like a startup and react so quickly to a CEO change.
And why no tech stocks?
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Soso: too much conflict of interest and I hear so much insider stuff that I don’t get to report that I’d be too tempted to act on it. Better just to stay clean and invest in something else.
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Soso: too much conflict of interest and I hear so much insider stuff that I don’t get to report that I’d be too tempted to act on it. Better just to stay clean and invest in something else.
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As far as the CEO change. Remember another founder who came back as CEO? I do and it brought about some of the biggest wealth creation this decade has seen (I’m thinking of Apple).
Can Yahoo do the same thing?
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As far as the CEO change. Remember another founder who came back as CEO? I do and it brought about some of the biggest wealth creation this decade has seen (I’m thinking of Apple).
Can Yahoo do the same thing?
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That was my first thought but I wasn’t sure. Pretty disciplined of you to flat out say no tech stocks.
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That was my first thought but I wasn’t sure. Pretty disciplined of you to flat out say no tech stocks.
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It’s easy to have ethics when you have no money, truth be told. When I get some money, that’ll be when things get tougher.
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It’s easy to have ethics when you have no money, truth be told. When I get some money, that’ll be when things get tougher.
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That said, I’ll always disclose any financial dealings that could bring conflicts of interest my way.
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That said, I’ll always disclose any financial dealings that could bring conflicts of interest my way.
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I think it’s way too to compare Yang to Jobs. Jobs is a proven CEO and seems more like a CEO than a founder, whereas Yang’s unproven track record as CEO and limited operational experience labels him a founder more than a CEO. But like you say, we will see.
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I think it’s way too to compare Yang to Jobs. Jobs is a proven CEO and seems more like a CEO than a founder, whereas Yang’s unproven track record as CEO and limited operational experience labels him a founder more than a CEO. But like you say, we will see.
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way too (early)
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way too (early)
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Good, Yahoo can get started performing their changes by actually talking to my web host, who has sent several requests to them over the past 5 weeks in regards to several servers (including mine) being blacklisted on their mail servers.
Actually, Yahoo should fire every support person they have and hire new ones, everyone I’ve talked to who has contacted them haven’t received a single response… ever.
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Good, Yahoo can get started performing their changes by actually talking to my web host, who has sent several requests to them over the past 5 weeks in regards to several servers (including mine) being blacklisted on their mail servers.
Actually, Yahoo should fire every support person they have and hire new ones, everyone I’ve talked to who has contacted them haven’t received a single response… ever.
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I think Yahoo has a hell of a lot of work to do to get back to where it once was. Personally, I don’t think it will ever reclaim the market share that it once had or the popularity. At one point it was “search for it on Yahoo” but now it’s become simpler. “Google it”.
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I think Yahoo has a hell of a lot of work to do to get back to where it once was. Personally, I don’t think it will ever reclaim the market share that it once had or the popularity. At one point it was “search for it on Yahoo” but now it’s become simpler. “Google it”.
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An upbeat attitude is very important, to be sure. But even more so is the end of consensus decision-making. It might have been the lack of mobility in long-term planning that caused them to lose so much market share in the past few years.
http://mikeelliottsblog.wordpress.com
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An upbeat attitude is very important, to be sure. But even more so is the end of consensus decision-making. It might have been the lack of mobility in long-term planning that caused them to lose so much market share in the past few years.
http://mikeelliottsblog.wordpress.com
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Your reason for hanging on to your MS stock sounds a bit lame. All it takes is a phone call to sell your MS stock. How hard can that be?
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Your reason for hanging on to your MS stock sounds a bit lame. All it takes is a phone call to sell your MS stock. How hard can that be?
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Scoble, so now you say you only hold on to MS stock because you’re too lazy to sell. So how about all those times when you used the fact that you still held MS stock to prove that you still believed in Microsoft’s ability?
I don’t know about you sometimes man.
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Scoble, so now you say you only hold on to MS stock because you’re too lazy to sell. So how about all those times when you used the fact that you still held MS stock to prove that you still believed in Microsoft’s ability?
I don’t know about you sometimes man.
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skc: I lost my faith. I kept it to see what Office and Vista would do. They bumped the stock up a couple bucks. But now it’s flatlined again. I’ll sell it next week when I get back from Portland.
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skc: I lost my faith. I kept it to see what Office and Vista would do. They bumped the stock up a couple bucks. But now it’s flatlined again. I’ll sell it next week when I get back from Portland.
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Scoble – that’s ‘Yahoos’, not ‘Yahooians’. I don’t work there, but I’m always amused at the all-company emails that are sent in Yahoo that start with ‘Dear Yahoos’.
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Scoble – that’s ‘Yahoos’, not ‘Yahooians’. I don’t work there, but I’m always amused at the all-company emails that are sent in Yahoo that start with ‘Dear Yahoos’.
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I have been a loyal my.yahoo.com user for years and used it as my RSS reader. I was quickly becoming frustrated at how certain feeds stopped working so I’ve moved to Google reader now. Other changes like changing the paging from tabs to a drop down making you wait for ALL the ads and javascript etc to finish loading before being able to move to other pages. Little changes that really bothered me. I really like their financial section and their fantasy sports are the best hands down. I’ve have tried to give my suggestions but I’ll be damned if I can find any method for sending feedback. They have a ways to go to catch up and they are being picked at from every direction it seems. But of luck to them.
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I have been a loyal my.yahoo.com user for years and used it as my RSS reader. I was quickly becoming frustrated at how certain feeds stopped working so I’ve moved to Google reader now. Other changes like changing the paging from tabs to a drop down making you wait for ALL the ads and javascript etc to finish loading before being able to move to other pages. Little changes that really bothered me. I really like their financial section and their fantasy sports are the best hands down. I’ve have tried to give my suggestions but I’ll be damned if I can find any method for sending feedback. They have a ways to go to catch up and they are being picked at from every direction it seems. But of luck to them.
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Just a foot note for Big Y :
It’ s really so difficult to find ways of payment for flickr pro account , other then a risky credit card posting ?
😦
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Just a foot note for Big Y :
It’ s really so difficult to find ways of payment for flickr pro account , other then a risky credit card posting ?
😦
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Something is indeed up: mass layoffs.
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Something is indeed up: mass layoffs.
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Yahoo is trying very hard at this moment.
Some one traditional, easy on ideas and feel of customer and community can make difference. I expect Jerry Yang to be the person who has this quality.
Pinal
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Yahoo is trying very hard at this moment.
Some one traditional, easy on ideas and feel of customer and community can make difference. I expect Jerry Yang to be the person who has this quality.
Pinal
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Nice, so YHOO drops 4.82% on the news that Scoble thinks they’re a buy 😛
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Nice, so YHOO drops 4.82% on the news that Scoble thinks they’re a buy 😛
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The behavior and psychology of a company almost always conforms to match the behavior and psychology of the CEO (or whatever other position is most influential in the office politics). Microsoft is bugshit crazy because they’ve had autistic Bill Gates and psychotic Steve Ballmer in charge.
Yahoo betrays its customers to the Chinese dictatorship to be tortured in prison for the rest of their lives, and when confronted with this, Terry Semel said he didn’t know if he would have refused to cooperate with the Nazi party. Someone that completely amoral at the top poisons an entire company. Cooperating with Yahoo means you’re cooperating with an evil, criminal organization.
It’ll take hard work and years of influence to make them change their ways, even if Jerry Yang is a better person, which there’s no evidence of.
Google’s not perfect at the “don’t be evil” thing, but at least they have a clear moral statement, and refused the same kind of demands from the Chinese dictatorship.
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The behavior and psychology of a company almost always conforms to match the behavior and psychology of the CEO (or whatever other position is most influential in the office politics). Microsoft is bugshit crazy because they’ve had autistic Bill Gates and psychotic Steve Ballmer in charge.
Yahoo betrays its customers to the Chinese dictatorship to be tortured in prison for the rest of their lives, and when confronted with this, Terry Semel said he didn’t know if he would have refused to cooperate with the Nazi party. Someone that completely amoral at the top poisons an entire company. Cooperating with Yahoo means you’re cooperating with an evil, criminal organization.
It’ll take hard work and years of influence to make them change their ways, even if Jerry Yang is a better person, which there’s no evidence of.
Google’s not perfect at the “don’t be evil” thing, but at least they have a clear moral statement, and refused the same kind of demands from the Chinese dictatorship.
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I don’t know – I met a few of my former Yahoo! colleagues who are still at Yahoo! – and they say morale is sooooooooooooooooooooooo low. Yahoo! is having a hard time keeping good people, and even reaching out to former Yahoo!’s like me (that must mean they are desperate 🙂 )
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I don’t know – I met a few of my former Yahoo! colleagues who are still at Yahoo! – and they say morale is sooooooooooooooooooooooo low. Yahoo! is having a hard time keeping good people, and even reaching out to former Yahoo!’s like me (that must mean they are desperate 🙂 )
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