Executive Clan Chat: Yahoo Turns a Corner

Yes, hugs & chocolates for everyone. 

See you!

Good night, Earthlings. I'll be watching you. 

Thanks, all, talk to you again soon. 

Thanks, @Mary, for today's presentation and hosting this chat for us. :) 

@Kim: Not so soon, though!

Thanks all for joining us! Chat with you later!

Perfect.

Nice to talk with you all. Thanks!

Goodbye Yahoo, and thanks for all the... er, not sure...

Final thoughts from the crowd?

Well, I think "hugs for everyone" is a great place to wrap up.

@SF: The Search Network descent into demise

:)

Well good thing my arms are wide enough to hug Carol AND all the Yahoo employees.

The Search Network

Ahh, yes, the employees, too. This Yahoo case can be a Hollywood film any time, just as Facebook. Time to stat writing the script.

Yes, and thinking that Carol B. walks with millions doesn't help.

Ah, Mary, good way of putting it into perspective. All Yahoo employees had better be reconsidering their options and their futures at this point.

@NF: I agree. 

LOL @Nicole. And the box of chocolates. 

In a way, I feel worse for the Yahoo employees who are no doublt struggling with worry over their futures, even as Carol takes her millions and runs home, cursing.

Ah, well hounhosp I don't think Yahoo was posing any sort of threat to Google anymore anyway.

LOL @Nicole!

@NF "just saw your comment about clearing the way for Google. Do you mean in the search realm?" . Yes that is what I meant

OK so I guess Susan and I won't invite you on our road trip to Carol's house to give her a hug.

Agreed, Kim. I really have trouble getting too upset on Carol's behalf.

I am hard hearted enough to think $14 million might have softened the blow.

@NF: Yes, after all there are human beings with emotions and all behind all the mess and stocks and bad decisions made and everything we want to consider about the rise or fall of a company or how it is going to survive at least. 

@SF I feel that way too. I always go straight to worrying about people's emotions. But yes hopefully the severance is a nice comforting blanket.

True, @MJ. I read an article today -not tech stuff- that made me now think how she would feel at this point in her life and how she would tell the story of her life, how she would see this failure. (article on my wall)

That's the message Loeb has for the shareholders.  Will they believe him or will they stick with what they know?

Yes, fast and in a different direction.

Well, SF, that was the chance Bartz took. Also, the rich, rich compensation is a likely huge solace.

And unless Yahoo wants to follow HP's path it must find a way to change -- fast.

I am now thinking that is has to also be hard for a CEO to be fired at 63, to end a career with a failure. 

So, my point is that Yahoo is in a precarious position to say the least.

@HH just saw your comment about clearing the way for Google. Do you mean in the search realm?

And recall, HP's problems seemed to start with its board.

That can be, @Mary.

A company can have superior technology and a solid market position and still not make it.

But the leadership isn't there at Yahoo now. And look what's happened to HP!

So, SF, to answer your question, there may be some who would invest in Yahoo stock in the hope of seeing it redeemed.

@SF: Some analysts have said that Yahoo shares could have an "upside" if Loeb is right.

I would suspect so, @Nicole. 

@Nicole.  If you're going to have Bartz's personality, you also need to have a great track record, I think.

@Nicole, yes, at 63 Carol won't be leading anything else anytime soon.

@Kim: I am not shocked because my shockability peaked when Jerry Yang refused Microsoft.

Also I'm guessing Bartz's career is over in general, yeah?

Is there anyone who would invest high in Yahoo's stock? 

And Alibaba CEO Jack Ma appears to want to ditch the Yahoo relationship.

Yahoo's board seems to have slept for decades.

Well Yahoo's stock is dropping, indicating a great loss of confidence.

Anybody else shocked that the board is so deficient in experience in this sector?

And Yahoo's board right now is NOT IMHP sophisticated or savvy enough to deal in China.

But I question the the ability of Yahoo to navigate the Alibaba deal effectively, given how complicated a China alliance can be for even the most sophisticated Internet firms.

Maybe it's about time we planned Yahoo's funeral. :D

But the Alibaba shareholders may want to buy Yahoo shares back cheap, it seems. It's a bad situation it seems for Yahoo, which wanted to profit from alliances in China.

@HH, well, we were just saying that a change in leadership won't be enough. 

Hi HH!

Hounhosp in the house!

I think some shareholders may start demanding the sale of the Alibaba stake.

Hey, HH! :)

It seems that the reliance on Alibaba has made Yahoo vulnerable to being kind of raided by Alibaba.

Well not having an agreed-upon vision for the company is certainly a problem!

If I was being offered the job :), I'd want to see if I could command support from the shareholders as well as the board.

@Kim: There are big problems with the Alibaba holdings.

Thanks, @Mary. Another question could be, is there any CEO candidate really interested in taking the challenge? 

A;pparently Levinsohn, who worked at News Corp, sees Yahoo as a content company. The board apparently can't decide whether Yahoo is a content company or a tech platform

One suggested today in a Reuters piece: "Ross Levinsohn, currently in charge of all of Yahoo's business in the Americas, may be first in line to take the CEO job"

I agree with @Nicole, replacing leadership won't be enough. 

Mary, I think that's a quick way of realizing shareholder value.  I've seen estimates that 40% of the company's value lies in its Alibaba holdings, for example.

Are there any CEO candidates?

@Kim: so you think it's possible Loeb wants a piecemeal sale too?

@Mary, yeah, I think the company is inherently broken now. Replacing leadership won't be enough.

SMK: I think being sold off in pieces is probable.

The company, as a whole, lost all the reapect it once could have had. 

@MJ.  The letter is all about the value to be realised in the company.  But the shark has shiny teeth.

Loeb suggests a new CEO and board. But it may in fact be too late for that to work.

smkinoshita, that's my suggestion. That's the only potential solution I see.

@Mary: Yes, the cursing is just as bad as the firing over the phone. What kind of image is that? I really would love to know what investors think about all this childish show. 

@smk: I think that's the probable result if Loeb gets his way.

But Loeb, the author of the letter you discussed, seems to think the company doesn't need to be split up.

Loeb holds around 5.15%, which isn't peanuts, but would need some more support.

Anyone see any hope for Yahoo?  I heard suggestions of just selling off pieces.

Well that would be interesting.

Shareholder activists have just been credited with the split-up of McGraw Hill.

I think Kim you're right, that the shareholder activists could have a huge say in dismantling the present board.

For all Loeb's grandstanding and self-interest, his criticisms of the board just seem right.  It's the wrong board for the company in terms of experience, it has been responsible for these failed CEO appointments, it seems to have no vision for the business.

It was funny when she and Arrington were talking publicly and cursing together. Argh. What's wrong with these people?

So what's next... the board is potentially getting fired, according to Kim's blog Friday, right?

Tech writers are the only ones who really like the potty mouth activity.

But I'm probably simplifying her by assuming that.

Exactly, @Nicole, ->"like a bunch of children are running the show over there." I was thinking the same. 

@Kim: I agree on shocked by her carelessness regarding the contract stipulation.

If not I think she probably did it once at Yahoo, tech writers loved it, and she stayed with it.

@Nicole: Yes, very out of touch with what the market and shareholders want these days.

I am not so much shocked by her language as her inability to conform to her contract, which prohibits that kind of criticism of the board.

I mean, was she like that at Autodesk? Did she run around dropping F bombs all over the place?

Then again, perhaps she thinks it's a show of strength and overall coolness. Mike Arrington seems to think so too

What an odd choice. I feel like she's trying to live up to some tough broad, potty-mouth persona.

I think Loeb has a fighting chance of forcing some resignations in these circumstances.

It's kind of shocking to me that she can't control her mouth.

And cursing about it, no less.

Also, Bartz may have jeopardized a multimillion-dollar severance package by downing the board in public.

Agreed, @Susan.

And now Bartz is off the board because of mouthing off. It's just all too silly -- ilke a bunch of children are running the show over there.

Though Yang and the other board members clearly didn't seem to be paying attention to the basics.

@Mary, yes, I was referring to the firing over the phone, that it tells something about the company. 

"... While I sit here telling you how to do it."

@Nicole, I agree. It's like he was given the chance to say, "I failed at this job, so you do it."

So, immaturity and shortsightedness demonstrated by all involved.

Kind of odd to me that Yang still has a board seat and was influential in this matter. He royally screwed things up. He made this mess, and Bartz failed to clean it up.

And I think it's pathetic that Bartz took to cursing the board after the fact.

@Kim: Yes, the problem goes boyond Bartz performance. Yahoo! has been out of the realm for a long time. 

It is also sad that they had to have an audit to tell them what everyone else in the world knew: Namely, that Yahoo wasn't performing up to snuff.

I agree that firing over the phone reflects poorly on the board.

@Susan: Are you referring to the firing?

The board understands that the CEO is accountable to them, but is being reminded that the board, in turn, is accountable to shareholders for this mess.

And Carol Bartz is the lead independent director on Cisco's board.

It may not be the main issue, @Nicole, but it also tell something about the company. 

Yes, Jerry Yang is still on the board: http://investor.yahoo.net/directors.cfm

There had to be some way to do it other than this. And that points to the overall bumbling this board has been guilty of.

I'm a little perplexed by Yang's role in all of this. Is he still on the board?

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, to lose one CEO smacks of misfortune, to lose four seems like carelessness.  Four in four years, I read somewhere.  Suggests to me that the problem is not the CEO (however poor Bartz's performance was).

I'm not saying, though, that the firing by phone was in any way acceptable. I think it surely wasn't.

Gotcha, Mary. Even though it was hasty I don't see the firing over the phone issue as the main one here.

Bartz apparently knew that the phone confrontation was excusable because she was out of the office on a speaking engagement, but she nevertheless made a great deal of fuss over the situation.

Actually, @Susan and Nicole, the phone thing happened simply because Bartz and Bostock could not be in the office at the same time.

Thanks Mary. And great intro. I think the options for Yahoo are very limited right now.

Another point Loeb makes in his letter, only one member of the current board has any experience running an Internet business.

So, it looks to me as though Yahoo's days as it now exists are numbered.

@Nicole: It might be that the firing over the phone was the result of a rush of anger in the conversation. 

@Nicole: Good that Arrington is out.

Might as well have sent her an email.

@Nicole: You basically nailed it as far as the potential for an AOL/Yahoo merger, I think.

Related but not, according to Techmeme, Arrington is officially out.

LOL, @Nicole! :D

Thanks Kim! Here I am, all.

@Nicole -- as to the over-the-phone thing, who knows.  He was reading from a script, too.

I'll be signing autographs after the chat.

Thanks, Mary! :) The audience is here waiting for you.

Wowee. Being quoted on air was exhilarating. I feel famous.

Hey.  Not too sure what to make of the Yahoo situation.  Just seems like a bunch of flailing to me.

Aggressive intro, Mary!

Hey, Scott!

Ah I was gonna say pong!

I wonder why he chose to do it over the phone. Could only be cowardice or complete disregard.

Hi, Kim. Definitely.  

Pong!

Ping!

Hi Susan.  That reflects very badly on the Chairman.

Ni, Nicole! :)

Though were I in charge of creating words, I'd prefer the plural to be doofi.

Well, being fired over the phone has to be quite horrible. 

"Doofuses." Love it.

Welcome Susan. Glad you could be here today!

Hello, Earthlings

What a mess.

Hi hi

Hello hello.

Hello chatters.