To come in as an outsider and try to save an ailing web giant nearly everyone had already written off is no easy feat. Wall St. is valuing things like Tumblr at zero and so now she has to do a 180 and unwind this company, maximally and efficiently, while pregnant with twins. Naturally we're inclined to armchair QB, but I think the hand she took over when she sat down at the table was bad. While she never went "all in" on a moonshot, that would have been a literal gamble, and she played smart. Wall Street can be inefficient. Core Yahoo is worth more than nothing.
She's a Silicon Valley darling; in what way was she an outsider?
>I think the hand she took over when she sat down at the table was bad.
I agree with this.
>she played smart
But not this. During her tenure the company treaded water for a few years, lost nearly all value, and now might be looking to break itself up. Is this the standard we should be holding high-profile, high-priced executives to?
An outsider to Yahoo, not Silicon Valley. This feeds into point 2. She didn't make Yahoo a media company, it was already one when she got there.
The smart part is meant as not gambling on a Carly Fiorina-type merger to "save" the company. Her deals were smaller and focused, and my contention is she didn't blindly throw capital around (at least in a way that makes headlines) to try to save the company. Value is decided by the capital markets, and I still believe core Yahoo is not worthless, whatever it's problems or other management issues.
(edits for spelling, slight re-phrasing of last point)
What I consider her accomplishments,
1. Firefox deal
2. NFL Live on Yahoo!
3. negotiating out of the search agreement with MSFT is considered as accomplishment by some (not by me)
If Ms.Mayer is able to sell Yahoo! assets to Google in a profitable way for shareholders, that would be a WIN, without it, her regime is a failure not a total failure, but a failure none the less.
They could also try sell to private equity, or someone like John Malone & Liberty Media. I think even a separate capital stock of the core assets would force more value recognition than what shareholders are seeing now, even as a low priced issue. I'm not sure that Google would want anything here that they couldn't build themselves or don't already have the lead on, but if there's any interest, Yahoo should solicit those offers.
Yahoo Search and Yahoo Mail are two assets that GOOG and MSFT would be suitors for. MSFT/MSN looks like a good suitor too, but you never know. From Mayer's side, since she is Google alum, there can be something out there.
Consolidate Media. More NFL, More Hulu, More Content like Finance. More Messaging, buying Telegraph or something. She was wrong person for the job, but Yahoo could have exploited the TV golden age, by picking some elements there. Yahoo should have double downed on Tech X Media, while improving the Mail. Her #1 job is to sell Yahoo! assets to Google, that is what she should focus on.
