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Jerry Yang to Step Down – Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!

Now like I said last week,  I don’t have any ill will against Jerry Yang.  He founded a giant of the Web 1.0 era.  If Google had never shown up,  Yahoo would likely be the biggest web company around.  That being said,  Yang is NOT a great businessman,  and despite his promises upon his return that he would turn Yahoo around, he has only driven it farther into the ground.  Today after a lot of speculation (including mine) that he would/should step down,  it appears as though he has.  Here is a copy of Yang’s memo to his fellow Yahoos earlier today courtesy of BoomTown:

To: all yahoos
Fr: Jerry
Subject: update

yahoos -

i wanted to address all of you on the news we’ve just announced. the board of directors and I have agreed to initiate a succession process for the ceo role of yahoo!. roy bostock, our chairman of the board, is leading the effort to identify and assess potential candidates for consideration by the full board. the board will be evaluating and considering both internal and external candidates and has retained heidrick and struggles to help in this effort.

i will be participating in the search for my successor, and i will continue as ceo until the board selects a new ceo. once a successor is named, i will return to my previous role as chief yahoo and continue to serve as a director on the board.

last june, i accepted the board’s request that i assume the ceo role to restructure and reposition the company as a whole in order to more effectively meet the fast-changing needs of both users and partners. since taking on the ceo role, i have had an ongoing dialogue with the board about succession timing. thanks in large measure to your tireless efforts, we have created a more open, competitive yahoo! and we believe the time is now right to transition to a new ceo who can take the company to the next level.

despite the external environment we face, the fact remains that yahoo! is now a significantly different company that is stronger in many ways than it was just 18 months ago. this only makes it all the more essential that we manage this opportunity to leverage the progress up to this point as effectively as possible. i strongly believe that having transformed our platform and better aligned costs and revenues, we have a unique window for the right ceo to take ownership over the next wave of mission-critical decisions facing the company.

all of you know that I have always, and will always bleed purple. i will always do what I think is right for this great company. while this step will be an adjustment for all of us, i know it’s the right one. i look forward to updating you on this process as soon as the board has developments to share, and will continue to do everything i can to make yahoo! fulfill its full potential.

thank you,
jerry

I wish Jerry Yang all the best of luck in whatever he chooses to do.  And I wish whomever takes his place EVEN MORE luck.  He or She is going to need it.

Tags: jerry yang, Yahoo

Yahoo hits $10.34 a share. It’s over. Here’s what to do.

Isn’t it funny how Yahoo was too good for Microsoft when they were being offered, and subsequently turned down $33 a share?  Isn’t it even funnier that they have now come back begging for ANY offer from Microsoft just so they can stay afloat?

The way this has been going, it’s starting to look more and more like a bad romantic comedy.  So how long before Yahoo shacks up with AOL in some trailer home?  Seriously though, this is really starting to get sad.  Basically with the economy the way it is, no one wants anything to do with the sinking ship that is Yahoo.  And with no real direction or plan,  Yahoo is going to find it extremely difficult to survive on their own.

Personally, though I don’t use much in the way of Yahoo services besides Flickr,  I’d hate to see them go.  They were one of the first Web companies to really hit it big back in the Web 1.0 days, and one of the first web companies to really gather any sort of real brand awareness.  Also, there isn’t anything all that terrible about ANYTHING that they are doing.  That’s what makes this whole situation so sad for them.  Yahoo mail is good, Yahoo search is okay, Flickr is fantastic, Yahoo Buzz is a great site, and the new redesign of the Yahoo homepage that is currently in beta testing is nothing short of fantastic, and when released will likely become my browser homepage.

So what can Yahoo do to save themselves from the Tech Bust 2.0?  Simple.  Find out after the jump:

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Tags: Google, Yahoo

Focusing on Focus – Saving the tech industry in the bad times.

It’s no secret to anyone that the economy is going downhill fast.  In fact, it’s not as much of a downhill slope as it is a cliff.   It’s common wisdom that everyone from the biggest companies to the smallest will start to feel the pinch.  So how will many of the big tech/web companies out there survive in a climate that is hostile to startups, and possibly even more hostile to the big established companies?

Focus.

What do I mean by focus?   Find out after the jump.

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Tags: economy, focus, jerry yang, Microsoft, microsoft syndrome, Yahoo

Yahoo launches Delicious 2

Thought this was pretty neat.  After years and years of langishing under the control of Yahoo,  the social bookmarking tool Delicious (formerly Del.icio.us) has released version 2 of it’s site.  A full overhaul was made, and it seems to be up and running with the same great stability it had before.  If you use Delicious, all of your bookmarks have been preserved, and the new homepage makes it much more accessible to non-users.

Here’s a screenshot:

Note,  if any of you want to suggest a story for inclusion on this blog, please tag it on Delicious with the tag justinfloodideas .  Thanks!

Tags: Delicious, Yahoo

Why the whole Yahoo thing doesn’t really matter to me

It has been the top headline among tech sites like Silicon Alley Insider, Techmeme, Techcrunch, and more for months now.  Podcasts like TWiT and Buzz Out Loud have been talking about it.   To be honest though, I’ve had one and only one feeling about the whole proceeding.

“I don’t care.”

That’s right.  The whole Micro-Goo-Hoo-OL story doesn’t interest me in the least.  In fact, it probably shouldn’t interest any of you either unless you are stockholders of one of the interested parties.  Everyone is over analyzing this.   I hear noise from every which way on the subject, speculating on prices,  mergers, acquisitions, and search deals.  The problem is, that in the long run, while there will be changes from this, none of it will likely be good, and we’ll all just have to put up with it.   All of it comes down to the fact that no matter what happens from this point on, Yahoo in it’s current incarnation is dead.  What happens next depends on everyone else. So let me break it down.

The deal is likely off.  Microsoft isn’t interested anymore, which in the long run is probably great for Microsoft.   To be completely honest, I don’t really see any reason why Microsoft was interested in the first place.  Sure Yahoo has some great properties like Flickr and Yahoo Mail, but Microsoft is an overly bloated organization to begin with.  Combining these two giant companies both with very different corporate cultures, niether of which has a very focused plan about the future, would be an absolute disaster.  Likely the ugly and functionless conglomeration of these two companies would slowly begin to collapse under it’s own weight.  So in this situation both Microsoft and Yahoo lose.  With the deal off, Yahoo still loses.

Why does Yahoo still lose?  Because as we speak, a flood of executives from all corners of Yahoo are jumping ship.  This braindrain is aggrivating the problems of the stock tanking, and the general lack of focus in the company.  So regardless of whether or not the company sells, your favorite Yahoo property is likely to go down in quality over time whether Yahoo owns it or not.

Can Yahoo save itself?  I don’t think so.  At least, not in it’s current state.  No matter what happens, something is going to give.  All we can do is to wait and see who the board brings in as CEO after they kick out Yang (and don’t think they won’t).  Until someone actually says something substantive about the whole thing.. just please stop talking about it.

Tags: AOL, Google, Merger, Microsoft, Yahoo