Jerry Must Go...So Please Help Find a New Yahoo CEO
This does not mean we think shareholders should support Carl Icahn's slate in the proxy fight. We don't. We think decapitating Yahoo at this juncture would be a disaster: The multi-month CEO search combined with the multi-month getting-up-to-speed process would be the death-knell for the company. And, although we think Yahoo should revisit the latest Microsoft search offer, we think an Icahn-run Yahoo would have no negotiating leverage.
We think Jerry should voluntarily offer to step aside and initiate a search for a new CEO, and we think he should do it soon (preferably before the shareholder meeting).
We think the new CEO needs the following:
- Major operating experience, preferably including turnaround experience
- Deep Internet expertise and relationships (the company can't afford to wait six months for a gee-whiz education process)
- Demonstrated ability to both fire AND inspire people
- Demonstrated ability to inspire confidence in investors and partners
- Clear strategic vision for the company
Unfortunately, there are relatively few candidates who meet these criteria, and there are no obvious choices. We have proposed some candidates below, several of which are obviously controversial. Now we need your help.
What do you think of these names? Who are we missing? Who should Yahoo consider? Please include as much logic as possible, and we'll add the compelling suggestions and feedback to our list below. Please hurry: Yahoo can't afford to wait...
YAHOO CEO CANDIDATES
Bob Pittman. A talented, driven, and highly experienced media operator who turned around AOL in the mid-1990s and built it into a powerhouse. Deep understanding of consumers, brands, and advertising. Extremely demanding and obsessed with meeting financial targets. Not afraid to restructure the company or fire thousands of people. Failed at integrating AOL and Time Warner, but anyone would have.
Dan Rosensweig. Former Yahoo COO. Plenty of operational experience, albeit at the helm of smaller companies. Deeply connected in the industry. Detached enough to be able to provide a fresh look, and, we expect, make the tough decisions.
Sue Decker. Most people we talk to say Sue's days at Yahoo are nearly done--in part because of her own decisions and in part because she's so closely associated with Jerry. If we were in charge of Yahoo's CEO search, however, we would want to hear what Sue has to say about this. She is light on operational experience, which may be a fatal weakness. But she knows the company and industry cold, she's smart as hell, and she is capable of inspiring great confidence.
Jon Miller. Made bold decisions at helm of AOL during a hellish period, and undoubtedly learned much from the experience. Knows industry, media, and Yahoo cold.
Jeff Weiner. Well-respected within Yahoo and departure perceived as a major loss. We do not know enough about his strategic and operational abilities to have a clear opinion here.
More to come...
The critical decision on Yahoo's plate is how much additional money to invest in Panama (which affects the search deal). That's a hard one to make if you're new to the industry.
2 solid candidates are Brian McAndrews (beloved at AQNT and on the buyside) and David Rosenblatt (DoubleClick miracle worker). In fact, I'd like to see those 2 replace this Yang/Decker combo asap!
Thoughts?
Knowing Yahoo!, they'll probably try to lure Rick Wagoner away from GM, since he has just a bang-up job in destroying shareholder value and running the company further into the ground. He's my top choice.
She could run Yahoo much futher into the ground, and so much faster than Jerry.
David Rosenblatt's done an excellent job at DoubleClick. It's a much smaller company, and he doesn't have experience at helm of public co (which most of these folks don't). But knows industry and an outsider. Certainly worth considering.
Dan R: NO way. He's part of the reason doing business with Yahoo sucks so much. I believe he was responsible for integrating Overture into Yahoo back in the day. It never happened. Rather than letting my buy for my clients from one salesperson, on one IO, getting reporting through one system, LIKE GOOGLE, I still need to have completely separate process and points of contact to get shit done....and we're in 2008!
Snag someone who has no ties to the motley crew running the place today so he/she can clean house and take a run at fixing this place. Any current/X-Yahoo's end up at the top means more of the same - nepotism over results!
Should Yahoo jump off a cliff? Or just Jerry Yang? Stay tuned to SAI for all of the latest scoop.
Should Yahoo change its strategy again this week or just its CEO? Hmmm..
This is all getting a little to People magaziney for me.
Check out Sue Decker's cellulite on Page 23.
Take the company private and let PE kick ass.
Ah, if only there were money available....bring on SilverLake
Right back at ya, Henry. ;-)
Just going by the standard opinion of her: extreme political savvy but lacking a true, profound understanding her own industry to have any vision or answers, responsible for any number of huge missteps by the company, etc...
This list is analogous to an NFL team making a list of head coaching candidates who are all fired coaches from other teams.
Where is the new blood? Certainly there are others who could run Yahoo who dont come from AOL, MSFT, and alike.
Help!
He can design a contraption to suck all the crap out of Yahoo, then hand the company over to MSFT for a tidy sum.
This list is analogous to an NFL team making a list of head coaching candidates who are all fired coaches from other teams.
Where is the new blood? Certainly there are others who could run Yahoo who dont come from AOL, MSFT, and alike.
Help!
Pittman is not normally mentioned in these discussions (and nor are some of the others). He's a great operator and has demonstrated the ability to turn around companies of this size in this industry. Doubt he's available, but someone should ask.
Poor execution has long been Yahoo!'s Achille's heel. Our current situation is heartbreaking because the issues that have caused it were all avoidable, if only we'd learned to get out of our own way. But too many layers of senior management, glacial decision-making, business units run as highly-political fiefdoms, and most frustrating: NO ACCOUNTABILITY - have caused Y! to bumble its way to it's current sad state.
I and many of my fellow old-timers who are still here (fewer and fewer these days) believe the company still has a tremendous amount of unrealized value and can easily shine again under the leadership of a focused, ruthlessly disciplined operational leader. We crave such leadership and would instantly rally behind a new CEO with these qualities.
One of the first actions I'd hope for from a new leader, painful as it would be, would be to order a reduction-in-force of 1/3 of the employee base. Over the past 4 years, the company has become bloated with mediocre 9-to-5ers (really more 10:30-to-5ers) for whom Y! is simply a paycheck with a nice benefits program; vs an opportunity to change the world, which was the motivation (and still is) for those of us who still work our asses off. This company needs to get lean, hungry and focused - quickly.
As to the names Henry has suggested, I can confidently say that Rosensweig, Wiener and Sue are all BAD options (particularly Rosenzweig). I know them all well enough to say it's folly to expect any better success from them as CEO than under their previous involvement in the company's executive circle.
Personally, I'd like to see a consortium of PE firms, perhaps along with some sovereign wealth funds, take Y! private (though I sadly feel this is a real long shot). Install a true no-nonsense, hard-charging, results-focused CEO who can quickly make the hard choices our execs have waffled on for so long: what assets should we shut down/sell? what areas are we going to double-down on? what *is* Yahoo? And most importantly, get rid of those leaders who don't hit their milestones while granting more responsibility to those that do.
Sorry for the long post here, but this is the first one of these I've written and I had a lot to get off my chest. Thanks for reading, it's been cathartic.
Here's my left field idea: Pull someone from the Venture side of the business... Brad Feld, Fred Wilson, etc. They can evaluate the company as a collection of different stage startups. Doing that will give each group a sense of ownership and pride and will inspire people to push themselves a little bit harder. Companies like Yahoo are, in my opinion, filled with entrepreneurs who just can't risk starting their own company for one reason or another. Being an intrapreneur and really being given ownership of your work can be an amazing experience. Having someone from the venture capital world running the show would make it more than just words.
Of course the near-impossible part would be convincing a top-tier VC to take the job. :-)
- creating strong open partnerships with advertisers/publishers/developers/users
- developing next generation ad platform for the industry
- and perhaps most important, their strategy embraces partnerships with other industry players, while GOOG and MSFT are threatening
They just need someone who can understand that strategy and embrace it, then:
- layoff about 4,000 employees
- shut down redundant and low value products
- hire great engineering talent
- simplify org structure and put an end to legacy politics
in other words, they need an operator. candidates are as follows:
Brian McAndrews (very well respected in industry)
Jon Miller
Hector Ruiz - credited with turnaround of AMD.
Ed Breen - running Tyco now
Both Sue Decker and Jeff Weiner have some major problems.
Sue Decker:
1. The fact that you are a Harvard MBA does not mean that you can easily switch between CFO and Head of Products. Yahoo is not just a software company. Understanding online advertising requires background in mathematical modeling and economics. I have listened to various interviews by Sue and she comes across as really shallow.
2. Even as a CFO, Sue Decker never got hiring under control. This was a fatal failing. Profitability has always been a bane of Yahoo and some senseless hiring binges in 2005-06 heavily contributed to this malaise.
Jeff Weiner:
1. Yet another MBA types - under his watch, Yahoo's search share fell from 30%+ to 20%. For this reason alone, he should have been kicked out.
2. Many of his "breakthrough" ideas in search were downright laughable.
Yahoo needs operating experience and *intellectual firepower* at the top.
Your list is ridiculous--these are all the same buffoons who screwed up yahoo already, particularly Susan (wholly incompetent per EVERYONE talented's views), Dan and Jeff or complete has-beens like Jon Miller and Bob Pittman, who have no clue about what drives the Internet today.
Yang is indeed useless, but these ideas are so bad that they actually make him appear palatable.
Anyway, Yahoo is not an "internet" company as far as I'm concerned. They're claim to that title is valid insofar as they have a website.
internet companies TODAY are about taking massive amounts of information and distilling it into something useful/gaining insight. They're about finding ways to distribute content and making it easily accessible. Posting content on your website and getting people to view it is NOT the internet today, but that's exactly what Yahoo is doing.
Furthermore, their strategy of aligning with newspapers and other partners to sell their own ads is an old school model. Ok, os they're selling internet advertising....it DOES NOT make them an internet company in 2008 terms.
(im not very articulate this morning...i should be at a meeting...damn u henry!)
The above being said, they need someone who can operate a company and not an internet pioneer. I think anyone who is a true internet visionary would quit after 6 months. Sure, from the outside Yahoo looks like a bastion of innovation but the reality is it is an old company...that's the path current mgt choose. Get a hard nose SOB to run the place and it'll be cool in 2 years.
Rafael Solis
www.mosugar.com
How do you go back to hot dogs once you've had chateaubriand???
Wrap that hot dog in millions of RSU that begin vesting immediately and are not tied to performance in any way?
Oh wait, that would be taking one out of Decker's playbook!
I don't really care as look as it isn't Jerry Yang. I am very, very mad at Mr. Yang. I will go for anyone Carl picks. I don't really care. He is going to tell me his pick after August 1. No problem because I am very mad.
Bob Pittman? Give me a break. An over-rated Cendant roll-up guy. Want another over-rated dude, how about Tom Rogers? How about anyone that has ever worked for Barry Diller?
Bring back the original pot smoking CEO, Tim Koogle, or whatever it was. He could keep the party going at Yahoo. Cafeteria costs might rise though.
And as the author of this screed, Henry Bl. has never admitted his conflicts of interests as a tech hustler during the dot com era. Remember, this is the man who was pimping tech stocks when the average dot com was fetching Google level prices.
Jerry will eventually fire the detritus accumulated during the tenure of Terry Semel. He cannot fend off Microsoft without stability among and within Yahoo's ranks. Initiating a mass layoff is simply not in the cards for the moment. In fact what Yahoo should be doing is hiring!
This reminds me of the clamor for Carly Fiorina's head over at HP. Now she is justly acknowledged as the brains behind HP's takover of the PC market.
To me, a lot of people are not comfortable with a non-white male CEO. Well better get used to it because the technology industry is moving East.
She doesn't need the money, but think of the benefits to her ego if she were able to take credit for two success stories in one lifetime in Silicon Valley (the birth/growth of EBay and the turnaround of Yahoo). Could set her up to run for President with no political background since the U.S.A. will need a major turnaround artist in 4 to 8 years, unfortunately.
Peter Thiel, but he will not take the job.
1) He turned around a company left for dead (DoubleClick) and got it sold for a ridiculous premium to the best tech company in the world
2) He's respected in Silicon Valley (Stanford boy), Wall Street (former banker), and Asia
3) Understands technology and its role in the ecosystem better than anyone
4) To Henry's point, he's an outsider with no emotional ties to the old regime.
Not sure if he'd consider a Sunnyvale move, but he knows this industry better than anyone.
Bob Pitman - Please, if it didn't work at AOL for him, (whilst they were printing money there), it will not work at Yahoo. Remember Pitman was the guy who DIDN'T want AOL to go into the broadband business!!!! He's too web 1.0, or web 0.5.
Dan Rosenweig - As CEO of Yahoo...nope he's not at that level.
Sue Decker - I think she's already proved she's not at that level.
Jon Miller - OK I am a fan. He turned AOL around, (before Grant and Co screwed the pooch), maintained their $2.1BM EBITDA every year for TW whilst making bold move to take AOL free and ad supported, (something Grant and Co have tried to take credit for). He's the only one on your list who actually has done it. Whether he would take the gig, OR COULD take the gig is another question.
Jeff Weiner - Again not CEO level for this size of company.
So Henry, the only one on your list is Miller. You could come up with some more...Levinsohn for example, but he's in the Miller camp so you could get them both. You need someone who can understand the business, the advertising side of the business, the audience side of the business and the growth. How many execs can understand the complexities of different levels of the sales side, search, network, targeted CPM's. SO OK I'm a Miller fan, but hey, you put the list together and he fits the bill.
How about Naveen Jain?
Pittman: Only out for Pittman. Bob's guys were Colburn, Berlow and company that cooked the books and cost the company credibility and about $500M in legal fees and SEC settlements. Hired incompetent friends with ZERO Online ad sales experience for the top sales job: Friedman and Sherman. Shareholders lost BILLIONS with Pittman while he walked away with hundreds of millions.
Dan R: Considered an empty suit, even though he never wore one, by the rank and file. Spent his days sucking up to Semel. Would have been toast were it not for Wenda and her staff.
Sue & Jeff: If they couldn't turn it around before, why now? New blood is needed, not retreads recycling failed ideas. Do we really think Jerry called all the shots? And if he did, then what kind of leadership could Sue & Jeff exert? Say good-bye.
Jon Miller: You have got to be kidding, Henry! I'm sure he learned from his mistakes...like he doesn't have the chops to run a business. A former title does not bestow capability. Miller was clueless about ad sales and had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the ad-supported, tear-down-the-walled-garden business model. This guy talks a good game but had big problems pulling the trigger. Also hired a useless and obnoxious friend, Lisa Brown to run sales who so pissed off everyone that she did not last a year! Replaced with Mike Kelly, the easy and safe, no-experience-in-online guy from Time Warner..probably due to Don Logan pushing him.
More choices, Henry!!
Here is a list of the two candidates who could do the job. When you think about how unrealistic the possibility of them becoming CEO, you realize why the dire reality dawned on me.
1) Steve Jobs -- Y! needs the internet version of Steve Jobs. There isn't one. Next best person is Steve Jobs. He's done the turnaround. He gets consumer products. He demands AND inspires. Imagine if you actually anticipated the next version of a Yahoo! product; he's done it for mundane products like notebook computers.
2) Jeff Bezos -- If he can do *that* with an e-tailer, imagine what he could do with a higher margin business.
Both guys have product sense.
COME ON PEOPLE! We collectively know a hell of a lot more talented folks in this industry than I do. More names, more names...
Elon Musk would also be interesting...not quite enough experience but has an interesting background and is innovative.
It'd be interesting to bring someone that would disenfranchise the gelling of Google>Apple>Disney among others (look at the boards of those companies).
What about a crazy merger or collaboration with Facebook. In essence they are also going head-to-head with Google, and latest buzz is a sub-$5B valuation.
Giving Miller his due:
- Transformed AOL from ISP to Web company.
- Met his financial targets every quarter while undergoing a messy transformation. is that not operating?
- Grew AOL sites ad revenues from $600M to $1.3B. Delivered 40+% growth in the last 2 quarters of his tenure.
- Good eye for business innovation. Truveo, Userplane, and Ad.com. Check w entrepreneurs
- Well connected in both media and internet worlds. See list of boards in which he is involved.
- Dealt with unsophisticated shareholders: Time Warner
Bonus: Helped Barry build what is now IAC
Issues: Trusted Parsons and Bewkes, Maybe too nice a guy. Has a fund to worry about.
Imagine how different Y! would have been if Todd Wagner had not turned down COO those many years ago.
In fact, as a techie, I think a techie should run a tech company. Why? Because it is easy to fool a MBA (even from Harvard) with a self-serving algorithm claiming that can bring millions (while in reality the algorithm may not be scalable). It has happened at Yahoo! countless times. The CEO should know what questions to ask his/her executives. Jerry has been doing that. But alas! he doesn't have the commanding skills. Only a techie who naturally has good operational skills can do that. Just look at google or other successful the companies run by techies.
first of all they should get rid of the whole hr departement
second they have to reduce the # of senior vp´s . most of them are working like junior´s
they should set up clear activity plan for each country and region and should do a tough controlling..
they should set themselve more ambitious targets..
How about Shelby Bonnie?
A truly gifted visionary backed by the intestinal fortitude of Ballmer.
Henry, the reality is that at this point, all of us are putting lipstick on a pig.
Just get Yang out of the door and put in just about anybody who doesn't think of Yahoo as its own baby, neglecting fiduciary duty and staying with an obsolete Microsoft hatred.
On the other hand, there's Meg Whitman.
He was the #2 guy in charge when AOL entangled itself in the Purchase Pro scandal. How dumb are your readers - and how uneducated - or merely too forgiving of the past - are you? From the linked post:
"AOL Time Warner announces the departure of Robert W. Pittman, the No. 2 officer of the No. 2 company. The news comes after a company board meeting in Dulles. On the same day, The Washington Post runs two articles offering more details on AOL Time Warner's unconventional advertising deals. In one piece, the newspaper detailed the windfall netted in a deal with PurchasePro.com Inc., a Las Vegas-based Internet company. In one deal, AOL gave $9.5 million in cash to PurchasePro for $30 million in stock warrants in the firm, and AOL booked the difference -- $20.5 million -- as ad and commerce revenue. The main article looked at how America Online's business unit regularly awarded employees for their creative work. One perk: Top performers of David M. Colburn's business division were awarded Bammys, a knockoff of television's Emmy awards."
Spare me dreams of Bob Pittman's abilities, Henry, would ya?
But you'll find a decent vote might yet come in for Jon Miller - he's a favorite amongst most of the AOL insiders who email me about the latest crap going on over there. I don't publish most of those emails because I can't - they're from my friends. But trust me, from Jason Calacanis on down, almost everyone at AOL simply loooooooves Jon Miller.
Or, how about Filo--what kind of a business (if any) person would he be. He should certainly know all about yahoo. He seems shy, so maybe not.
"Friendly Advice" quite correctly pointed out something that I forgot in my earlier post...Miller basically built IAC with Diller.
If Meg comes in, she'll keep Sue...which is a BIG mistake.
Therefore, no Meg.
However, I do see a high probability of SUe lobbying for Meg for this reason. SUe knows Meg would be in for a short tenure clearing the way for her.
All I can deduce based on the feedback is Mr. Icahn is the best choice for the job.
Bring on August 1!
How about Naveen Jain - he is perfectly capable of destroying any value in a company... as well as Yang.
On the flipside - Jim Voelker has managed quite the turnaround at Infospace. He is a bit older, but would be a good person to straighten up the ranks at Yahoo.
Rajiv Dutta - Ebay CFO, Skype/PayPal CEO becoming available.
Carly Fiorina - resume may be too tarnished unfortunately.
Jonathan Schwartz - deep technologist but shine has worn off at Sun.
Christos Cotsakos - flyer.
Jim Clark/Jim Barksdale - multiple tech successes.
On the other hand, the problem with Bob Pittman is the the inclination and orientation towards the media (Terry Semel anyone?), instead of a tech/engineering approach needed such as what Google's been using to good effect.
If you have to get known names, there's:
1) Tim Koogle
2) Meg Whitman
3) Steve Case (did DID AOL good, albeit to the detriment of TWX overall, but AOL would have been a LOT worse off today if not for that)
etc. etc.
Otherwise, a relative unknown (in the spirit of Mark Hurd) would be absolutely a good bet than the stagnant and sinking current one
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1011006/000095013408012864/f41908a9defa14a.htm
I think this thread is misguided. Yang never wanted to be CEO and was forced into that role, because Terry Semel sucked big time and had to be fired. Also they had become quite complacent and lost their sense of urgency. But now that they have been constantly pestered by MSFT, they are taking all the right decisions and seem to have fire in their bellies.
They have already signed a deal with GOOG, which can generate significant additional cash flow. Its also in GOOG's interest to have some credible competition in the form of independent YHOO, so that they don't get under the anti-trust scanner too often. The terms of GOOG deal are very good for YHOO and still leaves YHOO flexibility to consider other transactions. In this latest letter they are also talking about spinning off Asian assets.
I think Yang's win on Aug 1 is almost a given, unless they screw up big-time in their earnings, which doesn't seem likely. This may cause a short-term drop in the share price. But this will also get rid of the YHOO employees who are simply hanging on to make some bucks out of MSFT deal. Short-term holders who bought simply to ride Icahn's coat-tails will also bail out at that point. I think that would be an opportunity to get into YHOO at a reasonable risk-reward valuation (under $20). In another year's timeframe, MSFT will be really desperate for growth and will end up having to pay the valuation guarantees that YHOO is asking for and MSFT has balked at so far. They really don't have any other hope of gaining a foothold against GOOG.
Get over yourselves.
We have a saying in these parts that might be a bit applicable to you right now.
"PRIDE GOETH BEFORE A FALL."
Do some analysis like you used to.
Problem with yhoo is not products, not reach, but monetization
they need an OPERATOR who knows how to MONETIZE
Decker, as "brilliant" as she may be, has proven she can't do that
Weiner is a joke - guy hasn't focussed on revenue for past 3 years
I loved the Mark Hurd comment/idea
Thanks for the reflection.
TV1Turtle
Other candidates that would likely not take the job but have the right credentials include Ellen Siminoff formerly of Yahoo! and Shai Agassi formerly of SAP.
Other candidates that would likely not take the job but have the right credentials include Ellen Siminoff formerly of Yahoo! and Shai Agassi formerly of SAP.
If know yahoo and I do .
I could write the script..
They do the 2 week pay check wait don't they?
Warm Regards
Newstatement
Please see;
aytug akdogan ödüllü 1. seo yarışması ve yurtta barış dünyada barış
aytug akdogan ödüllü 1. seo yarışması ve yurtta barış dünyada barış
aytug akdogan ödüllü 1. seo yarışması ve yurtta barış dünyada barış
asus m68n battery
asus m6000 battery
asus a42-w1 battery
asus w1 battery
asus w1g battery
asus w1v battery
asus w1000 battery
asus w1000n battery
asus w1000g battery
asus a42-w3 battery
asus w3a battery
asus w3n battery
asus w3v battery
asus w3000a battery
asus w3000 battery
asus w3000v battery
asus a31-s5 battery
asus a32-s5 battery
asus s52n battery
asus s5000 battery
asus s5200n battery
asus s5n battery
asus 90-naa1b1000 battery
asus s2691061 battery
asus a42-v6 battery
asus a32-u5 battery