Yahoo up for sale

http://www.slashgear.com/yahoo-open-to-sale-tips-insider-07177612/

by start123 • 15 years ago

48 10 15 years ago

slashgear.com

robert_nsu• 15 years ago

I'd like to see if they can get $45 billion this time around.

outside1234• 15 years ago

$45 billion Chilean pesos sounds about right.

chopsueyar• 15 years ago

Maybe Mark Cuban will buy it.

bane• 15 years ago

Time for that long dreaded merger with AOL.

salem• 15 years ago

When innovation has dried up, and revenue likewise, what other options are there?

panabee2• 15 years ago

I posted this on another thread, but it was buried in comments. Curious to hear reactions to the ideas below. Will delete this comment if inappropriate.

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First, the board should decide: media company or tech company.

If Yahoo! is a media company -- which is more conservative since its peers would be AOL, Viacom, et al., and not Google, Facebook, et al. -- then merge/acquire Netflix ($11.5B market cap) and anoint Reed Hastings CEO. Let him navigate Nethoo through the transition to new media. Combining distribution and content failed for AOL-TW, but with the media industry in flux and with more content surfacing from the grassroots, perhaps now is the time for vertical integration.

If technology, then Yahoo! needs a new culture and a bold vision to attract the most talented engineers. No ambitious engineer wants to slave under PMs when they could flourish in engineering-oriented companies like Google and Facebook. Yahoo!'s mission? Help users discover, personalize, and consume content.

Be the service -- mobile or web -- people turn to when they have nothing to do, when they want to find a cool article, deal, song, video, picture, restaurant, conversation, or event.

Today, Google is where you go when you know what you want. Yahoo! could help people upstream of search -- before people know what they want. Which, conveniently, is most of the time.

Lots of companies tackle the problem in different areas: Digg with news, Pandora with music, Yelp with local businesses, Instagram with photos, Groupon with deals.

With content proliferating faster than ever before, there is a need for some service to help people discover and consume content. Users don't want to hunt for content. They want the coolest deals, music, shows, restaurants, and news to come to them.

Analyzing the web for the most relevant content -- no matter the type -- at a personalized level is non-trivial. Because it's a daunting technical problem, it will attract smart engineers.

Despite the naysayers, Yahoo! occupies an enviable position with massive assets: hundreds of millions of users, deep advertiser relationships, and an iconic brand. The question is how to organize these assets into a sustainable and promising company.

Yahoo! has the cash flow to acquire some pieces, perhaps go private, and execute against some vision.

There is an opportunity to once again innovate with compelling technology and recruit talented engineers. There is an opportunity to help users navigate the explosion of online content in a smarter, more natural way. There is an opportunity for Yahoo! to reassert itself as one of the premier companies in Silicon Valley, one led by pioneering technology.

jm4• 15 years ago

I get that Yahoo could stay afloat a while longer by riding the coattails of Netflix, but what could Netflix possibly gain by the merger?

If Netflix ever proposed such an atrocity it would have to go down as one of the most boneheaded decisions in the history of business. Worse than AOL-TW. At least back then AOL still appeared to be a viable company. I think Yahoo's ship has sailed.

panabee2• 15 years ago

If Netflix decides it needs to source content, instead of only distributing it, then Yahoo has enviable assets: millions of users, deep advertiser relationships, and some homegrown content like Yahoo Autos (though no premium content).

Yahoo is most definitely a viable company. In the worst case, it needs to recast itself as a media company -- not a tech company. When compared to AOL, Viacom, the NY Times, and other "old" media companies, Yahoo is a very viable company.

samstave• 15 years ago

Facebook should buy Yahoo.

trocker• 15 years ago

I see a reason of why yahoo's share rose 81 cents during the after-hours of the CEO fired news.

Yahoo up for sale

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