My Thinking on YHOO

Fred Wilson — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:57:34 -0700

Mike Arrington calls Yahoo!'s decision to partner with Google and finally walk from Microsoft a "Massive Destruction Of Shareholder Value, Employee Morale and Internet Balance Of Power" I don't agree with that view and have stated my opinion about this deal on this blog since the day Microsoft started it's hostile attempt to buy Yahoo! [YHOO]

Here's my comment to Mike's post:

Mike add me to that list of Jerry, Sue, and Tim [O'Reilly]

I’ve been rooting for this outcome since Microsoft first started
their effort to acquire Yahoo! It’s worth noting that at today’s
closing price, Yahoo! stock is trading about where it was a year ago
and above where it was at the start of the year.

The Microsoft hostile move backfired on Microsoft and pushed Yahoo!
closer to Google. Yahoo! finally woke up and did what they should have
done years ago, cede search monetization to Google who simply does it
better and will always do this era of search better than anyone else.

Now Yahoo! will do what it needs to do. Clean house, get lean, get
out of businesses it shouldn’t be in. Focus on what it’s good at. And
start making money and growing again.

They may need new leadership to do that. But selling this asset to
Microsoft just because they had the wrong leadership and probably still
have the wrong leadership is a mistake.

Imagine what the right CEO could do with Yahoo!