Happy Birthday, Yahoo: 15 Years Old Today

Although its web site launched in 1994, Yahoo is celebrating its 15th birthday today — that’s in honor of the company being incorporated on March 1, 1995.
The story of Yahoo’s founding is well known: Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo created a directory of web sites originally called “Jerry and David’s Guide [...]

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Yahoo Founders To Sell Up To 5 Million Shares

paidContent.org reports Yahoo’s founders will be selling up to 5 million shares of Yahoo stock. The SEC filing shows that Jerry Yang, the former CEO, will be selling 3 million shares and David Filo will sell up to 2 million shares.
Overall, in the scheme of how many shares both own, 5 million shares of [...]

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Yahoo Revenue Down 12%, Net Income Up 244%

2008 was a rough year for Yahoo. First Microsoft tried to acquire them, then Yahoo spurned them, then shareholders wanted a merger, then they lost CEO Jerry Yang, then their search ad deal with Google fell through. There was nowhere to go but up in 2009, right? We got a new CEO, Carol Bartz, and Yahoo finally looks like it’s making an effort and has a new search ad deal with Microsoft in the works.

But in some ways, they’re wishing for the old days—the Q3 report today says that the company has seen a year over year drop of 12% in revenues (to $1.575B). They’ve also seen a drop in operating cash of 6% ($384M). Considering last year’s Q3 was rough (although even then, their revenues were up), even lower revenues this year isn’t exactly what they wanted to hear.

But the Q3 report has good news, too. While revenues fell, net income was up an amazing 244% (to $186M). (I know, that kind of growth makes you think “creative accounting.”)

Carol Bartz has been cracking down on the company and trimming the fat, one of the tasks she was brought in to do. Even with lower revenue, they ended up with a substantially higher net income—that’s pretty darn good.

Of course, there’s still one big question here—will a search deal with Microsoft help Yahoo where it’s struggling in the long run? Well, since the deal currently says that their revenue/search must match Google’s, there’s a big “maybe” on that one. Yahoo’s notoriously suffered from a lower revenue per search, something they’ve tried to ameliorate with now two search deals. Will this be the one to do it—and will that be enough to turn the company around?

What do you think? Is this more good news than bad news for Yahoo? Will a partnership with Microsoft reverse their revenue fortunes?

Icahn Sells Off (Some) Yahoo

Remember all the drama between Carl Icahn and Yahoo last year? As a major shareholder, he lobbied for Yahoo to take Microsoft’s buyout offer (any offer!). And then there were some I’ll-replace-your-whole-board-of-directors threats, and some nuh uhs. And some I’ll-get-you-yet,-Yang!s and some “what-ever”s and some pbbbts and “You’re nuts”s. . . . Yeah, for a while there it was a little ugly. Eventually, Yahoo tried to placate Icahn with a luxurious spot on their board for him and two of his closest friends!

But it looks like even that wasn’t enough to keep Icahn happy for long. AllThingsD reports today that Carl Icahn has recently sold off a sixth of his shares in Yahoo at a significant loss—$125M. Although he retains his and his cronies’ seats on the board, and 63M shares (about 4.5% of the company), taking that kind of loss doesn’t look so good for Yahoo.

Icahn, of course, can argue the same line he’s held all along: that Yahoo should have removed the “poison pill” severance plan and taken Microsoft’s original deal instead of letting their stock prices fall and wimping out with this search deal with Microsoft. However, he did get at least one wish, in addition to his board seats: Jerry Yang is no longer Yahoo’s CEO.

In the SEC filing, Icahn says that he’s just balancing his portfolio, and he’s still bullish on Yahoo, its CEO and its future (including the MSFT deal). (Carol Bartz, however, doesn’t return the compliment: in a recent Forbes piece, she said, “Icahn is just another shareholder. What’s he going to do, fire me?”)

What do you think? Is Icahn preparing to cut and run? Punishing Yahoo for not obeying (pretty hard lesson to inflict on himself!)?

Yahoo Board Member Icahn Trims Stake, Bartz Wants Wants To Stop “Navel Gazing”

Investor and Yahoo board member Carl Icahn has reportedly reduced his holdings in Yahoo by roughly 12 million shares, according to a recent regulatory filing with the US SEC. Icahn became a board member last year after a prolonged and very public episode that involved heavy criticism of then Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and an attempt [...]

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The One in Which I Ponder the Chances of Success for Microsoft & Yahoo

Now that we’ve all had time to digest Microsoft’s 10-year deal with Yahoo, it’s time to ask ourselves if this partnership will live up to the hype?

It seems like we’ve been talking about this deal every other day for the past year or more. In fact, digging through the Marketing Pilgrim archives–and ending up 30 pages deep in “Microsoft/Yahoo” rumors–I discovered it was back in September of 2007 that the idea first germinated:

…Under the scenario discussed by top executives, Yahoo would have outsourced that search-advertising activity — which places small text ads next to Web search results — to either Google or Microsoft Corp…

At the time, Yahoo’s then CEO Jerry Yang said there were “no sacred cows” for the company. Then promptly dismissed any notion that the company would give up operating its own search engine.

My, how things have changed.

Now–with the drama behind us and the deal announced–we need to consider if this act of collusion will end up presenting a serious challenge to Google’s dominance. While Microsoft’s Bing.com continues to inch forward with market share, will the general search public flock to the Google alternative–or will it send us deeper into the warm embrace of the search engine we’ve loved for the past decade?

I could see how we might ultimately come to like Bing. It’s got a catchy name, some cool TV ads running, and could provide those that love to live outside the mainstream, a flashy new search engine to evangelize. But, does a partnership with Yahoo actually dilute Bing’s chances of success? I’m not talking about success as measured by an increase in market share–by that measure, the deal is already a winner. I’m talking about real success. The kind of success that doesn’t just come from cannibalizing Yahoo’s existing search traffic, but from honest-to-goodness market share stolen from Google.

That’s where I simply don’t see much chance of a happy ending. I’ve worked for a company that decided it wanted to increase market share by means of acquisitions. Sure, you get to show growth on paper, but that’s not growth that’s sustainable. It pleases the shareholders, but neither the heart or mind are satisfied. Want further proof that buying market share is not sustainable? Take a look at the stagnation going on over at IAC’s Ask.com.

The biggest obstacle now facing Microsoft’s Bing is this: do we consider it a weaker offering, because it had to partner with Yahoo? Or, does the partnership increase its chances of success?

Perhaps the only glimmer of hope for Microsoft is that Yahoo has played this role in a previous life. Remember when all of your searches at Yahoo were powered by Google? Back then, Google was still building its own audience, and the exposure provided by Yahoo was, obviously, valuable to the company. Can Yahoo do the same for Bing?

There are many questions that I’m leaving unanswered. This post is merely a means for me to share my own thoughts on the deal–not to tell you how you should feel about it. Feel free to chime in with your own opinion on the chances of Microsoft and Yahoo truly challenging Google. I look forward to reading them!

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Yahoo’s Branding Push Gets New Blood

For a while now there has been a lot of talk of the new and improved Yahoo. Since Carol Bartz took over as CEO there has been a more hopeful buzz around the company than back in the days of Jerry Yang.

One nagging question that keeps coming up is “What is Yahoo these days?”. Kara Swisher over at the WSJ’s All Things Digital has been keeping a watchful eye on this process. She has had some interesting conversations with Bartz and now tells of the latest addition to the team that will be leading the Yahoo of the future, Penny Baldwin.

Baldwin became an official Yahoo exec, as SVP of global integrated marketing and brand management.

Baldwin, said Yahoo (YHOO), “will lead the company’s global brand efforts, and is responsible for developing and executing Yahoo!’s brand marketing approach including brand management, corporate messaging, integrated marketing and advertising.”

Said Baldwin in a statement, signaling that Yahoo is poised for an important brand makeover: “This is a seminal moment for the Yahoo! brand and for the business overall.”

As with all things press release related, there is painting of a rosy picture and new opportunity on the horizon (Does anyone really pay attention to the fluff in press releases anymore? It’s really kind of ridiculous. Just the facts please.). Baldwin, who has significant experience at the highest levels of marketing, will be reporting to CMO Elisa Steele. She is replacing Allen Olivo who left Yahoo recently after serving as SVP of global brand marketing and her style is not very ‘Yahooesque’ in the traditional sense. What does that mean exactly?

…. unlike past Yahoo marketing execs, Baldwin has been described to me by many people at the company as much more colorful and bold in her style, and that she has been advocating more aggressive ideas about reinvigorating the Yahoo brand.

“Well, Penny is definitely not Yahoo,” said one Yahoo source, joking about the company’s quainter, yodel-focused and purple-toned image. “Which is probably a good thing.”

So we can expect some changes pretty quickly since the new Yahoo home page is slated for roll out in the fall time frame. There is plenty of work to be done to unify Yahoo’s image and put some shine back on a once high-flying brand that was a front runner and now is more of a reclamation project. As discussed in the past here, just trying to bring the many different Yahoo properties into a more cohesive social networking community is a substantial task from a logistical standpoint . As in many technology situations, it’s easy to outrun reality with marketing and hype so everyone would be better served to see how Yahoo works in reality rather than in the marketing hype that will likely trumpet it’s ‘new and cohesive’ community feel.

According to Swisher, one motto that is being thrown about is “your home on the web”. There are more apparently. Let’s hope so. If this is the new and dynamic road that Yahoo is embarking on then Ms. Baldwin certainly has her work cut out for her. I yawned halfway through that potential byline for the Yahoo brand. What else is out there, “This is not your father’s Yahoo!”?

Stay tuned. Yahoo is certainly at a critical juncture in its existence. There is so much potential that has been underutilized to this point, is there enough left in the tank to make Yahoo the Internet powerhouse it once was? How do you really view Yahoo? How do you use it? What services do you use in the Yahoo family? Do you even know what properties are owned by Yahoo?

Excuse me, however, I have to go check my Yahoo mail that I have had since forever. Maybe today I’ll look around some more and then again, since there is so much more on the Internet to pay attention to, maybe I won’t.