Microsoft might have failed in its attempt to buy Yahoo, but it’s doing the next best thing. It’s placed an ad in a Silicon Valley newspaper announcing that it has openings in its search division. Sneaky. It doesn’t mention Yahoo by name, but that’s clearly who they’re going after.
This news comes as Yahoo continues to struggle with a rash of high level defections. You’ll recall that a bunch of execs jumped off the sinking ship left the company recently. You can now add the founders of Flickr to the list, along with three more execs that apparently departed today. Not to mention that there is apparently a hiring freeze at Yahoo which is never a good sign.
This proxy fight wth Carl Icahn as well as the whole Microsoft circus has likely destroyed the morale of Yahoo. All the “Rah! Rah! Rah!” e-mails from Jerry Yang will not save the day as Yahoo employees mass e-mail their CVs all over Silicon Valley. If I were in their position, I would do exactly the same thing as the perception is that it may be time to head to the exits. Sadly, what will ultimately cripple or kill Yahoo won’t be Carl Ichan or Microsoft. It will be the huge loss of talent to other companies. Something that Jerry Yang seems powerless to prevent, which I think speaks to his leadership abilities.
Perhaps Carl Icahn has a point? His new blog may provide some insight on that.
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This entry was posted on June 19, 2008 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Yahoo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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If You Can’t Buy Them, Steal Their Employees… Seeing As They’re Leaving Anyway…
Microsoft might have failed in its attempt to buy Yahoo, but it’s doing the next best thing. It’s placed an ad in a Silicon Valley newspaper announcing that it has openings in its search division. Sneaky. It doesn’t mention Yahoo by name, but that’s clearly who they’re going after.
This news comes as Yahoo continues to struggle with a rash of high level defections. You’ll recall that a bunch of execs jumped off the sinking ship left the company recently. You can now add the founders of Flickr to the list, along with three more execs that apparently departed today. Not to mention that there is apparently a hiring freeze at Yahoo which is never a good sign.
This proxy fight wth Carl Icahn as well as the whole Microsoft circus has likely destroyed the morale of Yahoo. All the “Rah! Rah! Rah!” e-mails from Jerry Yang will not save the day as Yahoo employees mass e-mail their CVs all over Silicon Valley. If I were in their position, I would do exactly the same thing as the perception is that it may be time to head to the exits. Sadly, what will ultimately cripple or kill Yahoo won’t be Carl Ichan or Microsoft. It will be the huge loss of talent to other companies. Something that Jerry Yang seems powerless to prevent, which I think speaks to his leadership abilities.
Perhaps Carl Icahn has a point? His new blog may provide some insight on that.
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This entry was posted on June 19, 2008 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Yahoo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.