Mathew's comments - Latest Comments in Yahoo staffers clogging the exits

Re: Yahoo staffers clogging the exits

awilensky — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:03:06 -0000

Brad Horowitz was the conscience of Yahoo's technical and product arm. He was poised to remake that company into a coherent whole, with all the pieces meshing, until the Semel Decker team burdened the organization with layer upon layer of inertia and useless content acquisitions that could have been better couched as partnerships.

What a loss for Yahoo, a gain for Google.

Re: Yahoo staffers clogging the exits

mathewi — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:33:01 -0000

That's a fair point, er... n00b. There certainly aren't many signs of
creativity coming out of Yahoo, so maybe some of those people who are
leaving are no real loss -- but it's also possible that there's a lot
of ability inside the company that hasn't been able to make an impact.
Arguably they wouldn't have been able to do so under Microsoft
either, so better they leave now, I suppose.

Re: Yahoo staffers clogging the exits

n00b — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:16:26 -0000

Is there really any evidence that Microsoft wants the tech people at Yahoo? Maybe they just want to get some of their brands and do something with them before Yahoo can completely run any last bit of value into the ground?

What have Yahoo's technologists managed to do other than shed their own marketshare and buy hyped Web 2.0 companies? I actually subscribed with my credit card to Yahoo's music service; too bad it didn't actually work and Yahoo thought the best approach was to refund my money rather than lift a finger to even inquire as to what kind of error I was getting.

Maybe I just don't get why these people that Yahoo is letting go of (along with the ones leaving on their own) are suddenly hot properties, ones whose departure is decreasing the value of Yahoo and increasing the value of anyone who hires them. Yahoo's in a death spiral, largely due to technology, so where were these people to pull them out of it?

Re: Yahoo staffers clogging the exits

mathewi — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:46:01 -0000

I agree, Joe -- at some point enough creative people will have left
that it could definitely affect what comes out of either the merged
company or the standalone company (in the unlikely event it manages to
fend off the takeover).

Re: Yahoo staffers clogging the exits

JoeDuck — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:38:37 -0000

I'm wondering how much politics played a roll vs employee performance in the layoff decisions. Horowitz's departure's got to hurt - his team was *so good* and one of the reasons I felt Yahoo had great potential. They still do of course, but it's getting harder by the day to realize that potential as people leave and the board seems more concerned about fending off MS than making Yahoo valuable.