How Yahoo’s woes really started in 2001
David Kaplan at PaidContent.org analyzes the aftermath of Jerry Yang’s decision to relinquish the helm at Yahoo and provides insight into how Yahoo got into its mess in the first place.
Kaplan spoke to Rob Norman, CEO of GroupM, who blamed Yahoo’s problems on its attempt to compete head-to-head with the entertainment industry. The hiring of Terry Semel in 2001, who came to the company from Warner Brothers, and former TV exec Lloyd Braun, brought in to run the Yahoo Media Group, exacerbated what Norman calls a misguided direction.
It got worse when then chief sales officer Wenda Harris Millard left the company. “The zenith of Yahoo’s relationship with advertisers was when Wenda was there,” Norman said. He called Jerry Yang “a great guiding spirit (but) not a great CEO.”
As we wrote on Monday, Yahoo still has a lot of potential and its reach continues to make it relevant to advertisers. Norman pointed out that Yahoo has more e-mail accounts than everyone else, more impressions, and more photos uploaded on Flickr.
Nevertheless, there’s no denying times are tough. Don’t look to Microsoft for a quick fix though. Even if the Redmond behemoth comes back with an acquisition offer, it’s not as if MSN has been so successful in building its own online portal, especially in comparison with Yahoo. Just look at what Yahoo’s been able to do with it Newspaper Consortium.
The full interview is here.
