Chris Winfield in USA Today: ‘Yahoo co-founder Yang becomes CEO’
Jun 19, 2007 by Chris Winfield | Press, Yahoo!
Yesterday I spoke to Jeff Graham from USA Today regarding Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang taking over for former CEO Terry Semel. My thoughts from the article:
“Yahoo had to do something,” says Chris Winfield, who runs 10e20, a New York firm that helps businesses run search-marketing campaigns. “I’m hoping Jerry gets in there and really tries to fight to get Yahoo back on top, so Google isn’t the only option in town.”
There are lots of different ideas and rumors flying around about this move. CNBC has sources that say Yahoo! is going to buy MySpace in a $10 billion dollar deal (giving News Corp a 25% stake in YHOO) and then Yahoo! is going to go back to outsourcing their search to Google. Others think that it will be much of the same (Yang carrying on in much the same way Semel did) and then Yahoo becoming a possible acquisition target.
Personally, I hope that Yang builds upon a theme from his blog post yesterday about his “new job”:
I look forward to teaming more closely with her as we pursue our joint vision. What is that vision? A Yahoo! that executes with speed, clarity and discipline.
For awhile many (from inside Yahoo! and outside observers) have said that the company has become to beaureacratic and”heavy” – this is what allowed Google to surpass them in search and many other facets. This was especially brought to light by the infamous “Peanut Butter Manifesto” and the executive shakeup that followed it. It seems to me as if Yang is addressing this head-on and looking to change that. I hope he can. We need another dominant player in the search field right now, someone to challenge Google and continue to spur innovation & opportunity.
You can read the whole USA Today article at Yahoo co-founder Yang becomes CEO.
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5 Responses to “Chris Winfield in USA Today: ‘Yahoo co-founder Yang becomes CEO’”
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This is a great point- we need Yahoo to make a big come back- Yang’s our man!
I don’t know much about Yahoo’s inner-workings, but it seems that bureaucracy is the source of their woes at this point. I’ve heard it elsewhere and pretty much about every company that has been left in the dust by Google.
Yahoo will pull itself back though. They do some decent things with mail, news, and mobile. They need to narrow their focus.
As a former employee of Yahoo!, I am happy to hear this news. I am definitely rooting for them to make a comeback, and not just because I still own stock…their products have great potential, and there are a lot of really smart, innovative people working for the company. I have faith that good things will happen as a result of this change.
Such a media darling……
Hey Kate! Thanks for checking in. I’d hang onto that stock if I were you. Any more nuggets of insight to share on Yahoo!?
Check back soon.