> As all of them would now have to pay for legal, accounting, recruiting, HR, customer support and other services True, but I guess this is true for all startu

> As all of them would now have to pay for legal, accounting, recruiting, HR, customer support and other services True, but I guess this is true for all startups. And the reality is, for a bunch of guys and gals working out of a garage you don't need a lot of that stuff until you are actually successful. > how many of these tiny pieces would generate enough cash flow to sustain themselves a few years down the road Not many, and I guess that is the point. You are giving the worthy parts of Yahoo the freedom to succeed, while letting the dead wood go to dust. It seems the alternative is watching the whole thing die a slow death and there will be nothing left at all (apart from the not-really-Yahoo Alibaba and Yahoo Japan).