![\"\"](\"\/Themes\/Release\/images\/responsive\/ettelecom-default.jpg\")
By Brad Stone<\/em>\n
The epilogue in the long, sad story of Yahoo<\/a>!, the web portal with the perpetually ebullient exclamation mark, is finally being written. After emerging as the top bidder in a five-month auction, Verizon<\/a> Communications has agreed to buy the historic web franchise’s core assets for $4.83 billion.
\n
Yahoo<\/a> Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer<\/a> will assist with the transition until the sale is complete and then depart the company with a comfortable parachute worth more than $50 million in cash and stock. So let’s not weep for her. But inevitably, a passel of eulogies will be crafted about her failed four-year attempt to turn around the company. These reflections will be largely unfair, because the decline and demise of Yahoo isn’t totally her fault. It’s at least partially the fault of its founders, Jerry Yang<\/a> and David Filo<\/a>.
\n
\nThe early story of Yahoo is now Silicon Valley mythology. As graduate students at the Stanford School of Engineering in 1994, Yang, a math-oriented Taiwanese immigrant, and Filo, a quiet programmer from Louisiana, created a directory of links called Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web. It was a handy map to what was then an unnavigable digital landscape, and web surfers loved it. The following year, when Sequoia Capital invested in the newly renamed startup, it brought in a former Motorola executive named Tim Koogle to be CEO.
\n
\nThe move reflected the reigning conventional wisdom of the time—bring in an experienced chief executive and go public early. But while they stepped aside to become “chief Yahoos,” as their business cards said, Filo and Yang stayed intimately involved. Filo, as the technical leader, wrote the very first version of Yahoo search and made the bulk of decisions about the company’s underlying technical architecture. Yang stayed close to strategic decisions and was instrumental after the dot-com crash in replacing Koogle with Terry Semel, the longtime co-CEO of Warner Brothers.
\n
\nSemel brought with him a core group of native media execs whose names are now familiar in Silicon Valley, like Jeff Weiner, the CEO of LinkedIn, and Dan Rosensweig, CEO of textbook rental service Chegg. This was the origin of what would become Yahoo’s enduring split-personality: Was it a technology company or a media company? Sitting on perhaps the most valuable piece of real estate on the web, shuttling between its offices in Santa Monica, California, and Sunnyvale, Yahoo executives tried to be a little bit of both.
\n
We now know what it takes for technology companies to succeed: fierce, often unpleasant, founders who are able to make hard choices and place unpopular bets. During the years that Yahoo was banking on the media business, Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, for example, expanded into unprofitable lines of online retail, brooked a painfully hollow stock price, cut workers, and finally spawned a completely different business in the cloud, called Amazon Web Services. At Google, Larry Page<\/a> and Sergey Brin brought in Eric Schmidt as CEO, but they governed as a triumvirate of equals, inventing an insanely profitable text advertising business that augmented web search results, rather than distracting from them like Yahoo’s eye-ball burning banner ads.
\n
During the 2000s, Yahoo’s biggest mistakes were failures of will. Semel, billed as a “deals guy” from Hollywood, could have bought Google in 2002, as Fred Vogelstein reported in Wired. Yahoo also came close to buying Facebook in 2006, until Semel lowered his offer from $1 billion to $850 million after a disappointing earnings report, alienating an already reluctant Mark Zuckerberg<\/a> in the process, according to David Kirkpatrick’s book, The Facebook Effect.
\n
\nThese acquisitions probably looked like risky, uneconomical moves that Yahoo investors might hate. That’s the whole point. Web companies need the unique power of founders to do unpopular things. Page advocated for Google to buy the money-losing video sharing site YouTube in 2006; Zuckerberg made what seemed like an outrageously overpriced bet on the photo app Instagram in 2012. This is how tech companies survive—the ability to take risks.
\n
\nYang took over as CEO from Semel in 2007 but was either too nice or too unwilling to make hard decisions. In retrospect, he should have fired more employees, and banked hard toward technology and the emerging smartphone revolution. In what now looks like his biggest blunder, he turned away one of the best exits Yahoo would ever see, Microsoft’s unsolicited $45 billion bid in 2008, an effort by then CEO Steve Ballmer to compete with Google.
\n
\nIn what should now be the canonical photo of Yahoo’s decline, from the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, that June, Yang was pictured sitting with Page and Brin, his head in his hands, presumably bemoaning the overture from the big, lame software blunderbuss from the north. The photo reveals Yang’s confusion at the time about Yahoo’s true enemy. It was not Ballmer and his gang of Windows fanatics. It was the Google guys, there listening supportively across the table from him.
\n
After that, it was pretty much over for slow-footed Yahoo, trying to navigate a fast-changing internet<\/a> landscape with uninspired CEOs like Carol Bartz and Scott Thompson at the helm. In periodically leaked missives, executives bemoaned that Yahoo was spreading itself too thin over too many lackluster products. Without a steadier hand from its founders, Yahoo had lost its way culturally as much as strategically. It was fat with layers of accountants, lawyers, and product managers, people whose job it was to mitigate risk, rather than take it. Yang didn’t respond to requests for comment, and Filo declined to comment through a spokeswoman.
\n
\nThe founders did make big contributions. In 2005, Yang helped orchestrate what would be the company’s best deal: the sale of its businesses in China to Alibaba, along with a $1 billion investment. He deserves tons of credit for that. It’s also likely that his voice was not always heard. In 2012, Yang left the company’s board of directors after its disastrous decision to hire PayPal’s Scott Thompson as CEO and then promptly fire him upon discovering he fibbed on his résumé. For his part, Filo has been the picture of corporate loyalty in an age sorely lacking it. He joined the Yahoo board when Mayer took over the company and, by all accounts, remains an inspirational figure.
\n
But by that time, the mistakes of the past loomed too large. Perhaps there was a short window of opportunity for Mayer to bet the company on a bold acquisition or a new product, but it closed fast. She made strange moves, spending a huge chunk of her figurative and literal capital on a $1.1 billion deal for the also-ran social network Tumblr<\/a> in 2013. Tumblr<\/a>, like so many other Yahoo acquisitions (Flickr, et al.) went nowhere fast, perhaps because there were not enough nutrients in the Yahoo soil for any startup to thrive.
\n
\nOthers have chronicled more of Mayer’s mistakes. But now it’s all ancient internet<\/a> history, to be parceled out and puzzled over by business school students. It’s time for us to mourn Yahoo. Sorry, I mean—Yahoo!\n\n<\/body>","next_sibling":[{"msid":53384033,"title":"IBM looks to transform work culture with entrepreneurial thinking among employees","entity_type":"ARTICLE","link":"\/news\/ibm-looks-to-transform-work-culture-with-entrepreneurial-thinking-among-employees\/53384033","category_name":null,"category_name_seo":"telecomnews"}],"related_content":[],"msid":53385526,"entity_type":"ARTICLE","title":"What sank Yahoo? Blame its 'nice guy' founders - Jerry Yang and David Filo","synopsis":"Two Stanford University students put their studies on hold to create what was at one time an essential part of the internet. Then they stopped taking risks.","titleseo":"telecomnews\/what-sank-yahoo-blame-its-nice-guy-founders-jerry-yang-and-david-filo","status":"ACTIVE","authors":[],"analytics":{"comments":0,"views":113,"shares":0,"engagementtimems":427000},"Alttitle":{"minfo":""},"artag":"Bloomberg","artdate":"2016-07-25 22:38:13","lastupd":"2016-07-25 22:41:01","breadcrumbTags":["Jerry Yang","David Filo","Yahoo","Internet","Larry Page","Mark Zuckerberg","Verizon","Tumblr","Marissa Mayer"],"secinfo":{"seolocation":"telecomnews\/what-sank-yahoo-blame-its-nice-guy-founders-jerry-yang-and-david-filo"}}" data-authors="[" "]" data-category-name="" data-category_id="" data-date="2016-07-25" data-index="article_1">
读到
由布拉德·斯通
结语在长,悲伤的故事雅虎!永远的门户网站热情洋溢的感叹号,终于被写入。后成为为期5个月的拍卖中出价最高的,威瑞森通讯已同意收购的历史网络特许经营的核心资产为48.3亿美元。
雅虎首席执行官Marissa Mayer将协助过渡到销售完成,然后离开公司,一个舒适的降落伞价值超过5000万美元的现金和股票。所以我们不要为她流泪。但不可避免的是,一群人将精心制作的关于她失败的四年试图扭转该公司。这些反射将很大程度上是不公平的,因为雅虎的衰落和灭亡完全不是她的错。至少部分其创始人的断层,杨致远和大卫•费罗(David Filo)。
早期的雅虎现在硅谷神话的故事。是1994年在斯坦福大学工程学院的研究生,杨math-oriented台湾移民,和费罗,一个安静的程序员从路易斯安那州,创建了一个目录的链接叫杰瑞和大卫的万维网指南。这是一个方便的地图,当时无法数字景观,与网民爱它。第二年,红杉资本投资于新更名为启动时,它带来了一个摩托罗拉前执行官蒂姆Koogle)被任命为首席执行官。
此举反映出统治时的传统智慧在一个经验丰富的首席执行官和提前上市。但是当他们成为“首席雅虎”辞去了自己的名片说,费罗和阳保持紧密联系。费罗,作为技术领导者,写了第一个版本的雅虎搜索,决定对该公司的大部分底层技术架构。杨呆接近战略决策,帮助互联网泡沫崩溃后用特里•塞梅尔代替Koogle,华纳兄弟的长期联合首席执行官。
塞梅尔带来了本地媒体的核心集团高管的名字现在熟悉在硅谷,像杰夫•韦纳LinkedIn的首席执行官,首席执行官和丹罗森格Chegg教科书租赁服务。这是什么将成为雅虎的持久的人格分裂的起源:科技公司或媒体公司吗?坐在也许最有价值的房地产在web上,穿梭于办公室之间在圣莫尼卡,加利福尼亚州森尼维耳市,雅虎高管试图有点。
我们现在需要知道技术公司成功:激烈,经常不愉快,创始人是谁能够做出艰难的选择和地点不受欢迎的押注。在年,雅虎是银行对媒体的业务,例如,Amazon.com的杰夫·贝佐斯扩展到无利可图的在线零售,布鲁克痛苦中空的股票价格,减少工人,并最终催生了一个完全不同的业务在云中,被称作是亚马逊网络服务。在谷歌,拉里•佩奇和布林(Sergey Brin)首席执行官埃里克•施密特(Eric Schmidt)但他们统治的三等于,发明一个疯狂赚钱的文本广告业务,增强网络搜索结果,而不是从他们分散像雅虎目击等燃烧的横幅广告。
在2000年代,雅虎的最大的错误是失败的。塞梅尔号称好莱坞的“交易”,可能在2002年收购了谷歌,Fred Vogelstein在连线报道。雅虎也接近2006年购买Facebook,直到塞梅尔放下提供从10亿美元到8.5亿美元的一个令人失望的盈利报告后,疏远已经不情愿马克•扎克伯格在这个过程中,根据大卫·柯克帕特里克的书,Facebook的效果。
这些收购可能看起来有风险的,不经济的举措,雅虎投资者可能会恨。这是重点。网络公司需要创业者的独特力量做不受欢迎的事情。页面主张谷歌收购亏损的视频分享网站YouTube在2006年;扎克伯格又做出了一个看起凶残地高估押注2012年照片应用Instagram。这就是科技公司在承担风险的能力。
杨接任CEO从2007年塞梅尔但不是太好或太不愿意做出艰难的决定。回想起来,他应该解雇员工,和倾斜向技术和新兴智能手机革命。在现在的样子他最大的失误,他转过身的最佳退出雅虎会看到,微软的主动在2008年450亿美元收购,然后CEO史蒂夫·鲍尔默为与谷歌竞争。
现在应该是规范化的照片雅虎衰落,Allen & co .在太阳谷,爱达荷州,6月,杨被拍到与佩奇和布林坐在一起,头埋在双手,想必哀叹的序曲大,蹩脚的软件来自北方的蠢材。照片显示当时杨的混乱对雅虎的真正的敌人。这不是鲍尔默和他的团伙Windows狂热分子。这是谷歌人,听附和着桌子对面的他。
之后,它几乎是在速度慢的雅虎,试图导航迅速变化互联网景观与平凡的ceo卡罗尔•巴茨(Carol Bartz)和斯科特汤普森掌舵。在定期泄露的信件,雅虎高管抱怨,摊子铺得太大太多的产品乏善可陈。没有一个稳定的手从其创始人,雅虎已经迷失了方向的文化战略。这是脂肪层的会计师、律师和产品经理,工作是降低风险的人,而不是接受它。杨没有回应记者的置评请求,费罗通过一位发言人拒绝置评。
创始人做出大的贡献。2005年,杨帮助安排公司的最佳交易是什么:阿里巴巴出售其在中国的业务,以及10亿美元的投资。他应该得到大量的信贷。也可能他的声音并不总是听到。2012年,杨离开了公司的董事会后灾难性的决定雇佣贝宝的斯科特汤普森担任CEO,然后立即解雇他发现他简历上弄虚作假。费罗的图片,企业忠诚度的时代非常缺乏。他加入了雅虎董事会当Mayer接管了公司,据说,仍然是一个鼓舞人心的人物。
但到那时,过去出现太大的错误。也许有一个短暂的机会之窗Mayer打赌公司在大胆的收购或新产品,但它迅速关闭。她奇怪的举动,她花费大量的图形和文字资本11亿美元交易的失败者的社交网络Tumblr在2013年。Tumblr,像许多其他雅虎收购(Flickr, et al。)不了了之快,可能是因为没有足够的任何启动雅虎土壤中的养分茁壮成长。
其他人已经记载Mayer的错误。但现在都是古老的互联网历史,是分配和困惑在商学院的学生。是时候让我们为雅虎。对不起,我意味着雅虎!
评论
现在评论 阅读评论(1)所有评论
找到这个评论进攻?
下面选择你的理由并单击submit按钮。这将提醒我们的版主采取行动