10 ms·
Yahoo is officially for sale
- eva1984 11y agoIt smells weird. Yahoo still has a lot of assets, and it is making money. Why suddenly for sales? Only Wallstreet greediness can explain this for me.
- gtk40 11y agoI wonder how this will affect Mozilla, since the search engine deal.
- e15ctr0n 11y agoMozilla earns about $300 million a year from their deal with Yahoo. The deal runs for five years from Dec 2014 through Dec 2019.[1] When the money from Yahoo runs dry Mozilla will have to go back to Google or Microsoft for a new search deal which will bring in much less than before because Firefox browser share has been falling about 3.7% a year since 2010.[2] Mozilla will be forced to shutter projects and shed staff. [1] https://blog.mozilla.org/press/2014/11/yahoo-and-mozilla-form-strategic-partnership/ https://blog.mozilla.org/press/2014/11/yahoo-and-mozilla-for... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#StatCounter_.28July_2008_to_present.29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#St...
- SCAQTony 11y agoI bet a network or a studio buys them as a content platform for their content. Include some built in users too.
- tptacek 11y agoSomething I feel like people miss in conversations about M&A is that companies are valued in large part against their existing revenue. A studio looking to buy Yahoo for their content platform is also buying a search provider. That search provider accounts for a full third of Yahoo's revenue! You can't just buy Yahoo and kill off search, unless you want to pay a gigantic tax for the content platform.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- Xixi 11y agoIt's not rare to spin-off/resell an unwanted part of a business after an M&A, assuming the company is not up for sale by the slice in the first place. A studio could buy Yahoo for their content platform and either spin-off the search platform, more likely try to resell it to either Microsoft or Google. Of course it's easier said than done...
- Animats 11y agoYahoo hasn't been a search provider for six years. They resell Bing.
- tptacek 11y agoI chose the words "search provider" carefully. In any case, the point stands: a studio buying Yahoo almost certainly doesn't want to expend time and energy maintaining Yahoo's foothold in Internet search. But that part of their business isn't for sale independent of the search business unit.
- larrik 11y agoAre there networks or studios large enough to even consider it? Seems like Disney is one of few, and it's still doesn't make a lot of sense.
- AndrewUnmuted 11y agoViacom and CBS Corporation are two media conglomerates that I could see buying. Viacom is making a huge push for mobile and digital content delivery, and has a treasure trove of content that hasn't seen much availability on services like Netflix. CBS already owns questionable web properties via its CBSi branch (CBS Interactive, which owns CNET and other horrible properties.)
- bnchrch 11y agoWhile it sounds like the beginning of the end of the early internet era I for one am excited at the thought of a company being able to do something a little more remarkable with the infrastructure Yahoo has built.
- jawns 11y agoGannett Co., the media company, was in a similar predicament recently. Its broadcasting and digital businesses were doing OK, but its print publications were in horrible shape. So it split into two companies: TEGNA (TV/digital properties) and Gannett (newspapers). In Yahoo's case, its stake in Alibaba was propping up the company. Now that Alibaba is a separate entity, I imagine that we can learn a lot about what Yahoo's fate will be by watching how Gannett has operated since its spin-off. Interestingly, since the split in July, Tegna shares have plummeted after an initial small rise, whereas Gannett shares have remained roughly even: https://www.google.com/finance?q=tgna%2C+gci&ei=DF3HVvjMA4TkmAGZ3JXQBg https://www.google.com/finance?q=tgna%2C+gci&ei=DF3HVvjMA4Tk...
- cm2012 11y agoFacebook should buy them, and let advertisers target using FB targeting (the best in the world). It would be a huge new acquisition channel for a lot of direct response orgs.
- soared 11y agoYou can't just say something is the best in the world (its not) without qualifying it at all. Yahoo advertising is some absurdly small amount compared FB, Google, or even Bing.
- cm2012 11y agoAs you say, the big platforms are FB, Google, and Bing. The only non intent driven advertiser on the big list is Facebook for a reason. According to this list, https://www.quantcast.com/top-sites https://www.quantcast.com/top-sites, Yahoo traffic is not insignificant compared to FB at all. With FB's targeting, Yahoo could be monetized soo much better. Most direct acquisition marketers I know would say that Facebook is the main scale player in non intent driven advertising, all because of its superior targeting.
- Mahn 11y agoYahoo is in such a strange position, in that they have a lot of great products, users and revenue and at the same time I can't think of a single big player that would want to own them, let alone for a fair price.
- differentView 11y ago> they have a lot of great products They do?
- monknomo 11y agoI'd be interested in hearing what other people think of as Yahoo's great products. I personally like Tumblr, but I'm having a hard time thinking of another Yahoo thing I like/use
- thenomad 11y agoFlickr springs to mind. Still the default choice for a lot of serious photographers.
- trymas 11y agoTL;DR: just a rant, about that flickr feels to be plateaued and better options are rising, even though it's still rather good platform to keep and share your photos. Flickr is great (with its 1TB of storage), though I recently tried to join '500px', since then flickr looks like desert with tumbleweed. It's a bit of exaggeration, though 500px is way more exciting, your photos are more easily shown to the public. People are encouraged to rate each other, etc. Also it has a marketplace. All in all 500px let's to improve my photography, whereas in flickr 90% people who've seen my photos are people, to who I've shown them. Also flickr's home page have the same set of pictures on carousel for weeks, where in 500px it's always fresh.
- thenomad 11y agoInteresting - I'd not heard of 500px. Will check it out: my primary concern with Flickr has always been that it doesn't really enable discovery.
- vonklaus 11y agoI would say Yahoo is not yet a massive anti-capitalist prank of a company like Radioshack, but I would say it is reminiscient of blockbuster. August 29th, 1997 Netflix was founded and on Aug 31 of 2011 Blockbuster announced no one wanted to buy an asset that was pretty much a ton of rent obligations to strip malls, and millions of DVDS & VHS tapes. However, the Yahoo assets are actually reasonably valuable and if they backout alibab it could be a good pickup for someone who was clever enough to use it.
- Analemma_ 11y agoYahoo still serves ~12% of all search engine traffic in the US. I'll bet you Google and Microsoft are going to be fighting bitterly to buy the right to redirect that traffic to their engine.
- gtk40 11y agoWell, it's already sort of Microsoft's share, since Yahoo! is powered by Bing.
- Analemma_ 11y agoI believe the advertising revenue (which is what really matters) still goes to Yahoo though. That's what Microsoft would be after.
- cosmie 11y agoYahoo Search and (most of) it's ad network are already powered by Bing. You can bet Microsoft will be scrambling to ensure at least those portions of Yahoo's properties stay out of Google's hands. Not only would they see an immediate drop in ad revenue from the loss of volume itself, but a large drop in volume would also cause many PPC marketers to reevaluate if it's worth the overhead to even manage campaigns on the Bing network in the first place. Even if they don't buy it directly, they're likely to try to get it in the hands of a company that will keep the current Yahoo-Bing agreement in place.
- bitmapbrother 11y agoNo they're not. Yahoo's results are provided by both Google and Bing. >In October, the Company reached an agreement with Google that provides Yahoo with additional flexibility to choose among suppliers of search results and ads. Google’s offerings complement the search services provided by Microsoft, which remains a strong partner, as well as Yahoo’s own search technologies and ad products.
- cosmie 11y ago
- brianbreslin 11y agoHere are my thoughts on this: - Mayer's tenure at the helm of a big co like this is over, she will take a multi year hit before she resurfaces somewhere else (will take a while for her to get another CEO job) - Yahoo still has tons of traffic (default browser tabs?), though the quality of it is questionable. - If someone can pull a 1980s style buy and chop up and resell deal, they could extract positive value instantly. They are trading right now at a negative value to their cash. - Can someone buy the company and then sell the email users to google? The search traffic to Microsoft? - They are going to need to lay off thousands of people (many might be best off quitting now and beating the crowds to the market)
- bachmeier 11y ago> will take a while for her to get another CEO job Genuinely curious: Why would she get another CEO job (excluding startups and sinking ships)? There was no reason to think she would do a good job at Yahoo, she has no track record of success as a CEO, she certainly can't point to anything she's done at Yahoo, and as far as I can tell, people don't like working for her.
- w1ntermute 11y agoBecause CEO jobs (as with most other valuable things in life) aren't doled out solely based on merit or track record. Mayer is one of the few women in a high-profile position in the Valley, and hiring a female CEO can be good for optics.
- programmernews3 11y agoAgree. Judging her on her track record would just be sexist.
- throwaway021916 11y agoI had a trading idea: create and short a portfolio of tech companies that have female CEOs. Unfortunately shorting long term is nearly impossible- the horizon is 2-3 years.
- frik 11y agoSo meta, watching their stock chart on their portal: http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=YHOO+Interactive http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=YHOO+Interactive I hope Yahoo Finance and sites like Flickr stay around - they are quite good.
- manigandham 11y agoYahoo still has a lot of potential if someone knows what to do with it. Yahoo is a portal with email. It's the browse/discover counterpart to Google's search. With all the traffic and infrastructure it has, it can definitely turn into a great ad network play and offer another option in the cloud productivity business. Just need to shed all the deadweight and ridiculous business ideas while improving quality of both content and ads back to where they were before.
- orionblastar 11y agoYahoo has a deal with AT&T to provide web email service for them. I have an account that dates back to SBC and hope I don't lose access to it. I have my bank and other stuff going to that email. If Yahoo sells their email service I hope I can still access my email account. This will effect a lot of people if they start shutting down old accounts. Already Yahoo Mail requires a mobile number to sign up for a free account and not everyone has a mobile number.
- nickfromseattle 11y agoI work at BitTitan.com an email migration company. If you'd like to get out in front of this, shoot me an email and I'll help you get your email into another mail service. NickJ@BitTitan.com
- orionblastar 11y agoI registered my email with so many services, that if I changed my email to a different one I can't change my email on each account because I got some I can't remember. Is your service free?
- nickfromseattle 11y agoMe too, unfortunately can't help you there, but this will make your data redundant if you're concerned about data loss. It's not free, but yours is on me. I landed in my current role after meeting the founders at an HN meetup and like to give back where I can.
- colmvp 11y agoPeople say that Mayer won't get another CEO job, but I wouldn't be so certain. There's a lot of defenders for her in the tech industry who just attribute her failed tenure as Yahoo being Yahoo. Plus, she has a lot of money and executive connections. And if Fiorina could be CEO for two companies over a longer time than Mayer's tenure at Yahoo, well...
- eachro 11y agoWhat are the key Yahoo assets? Finance, Sports, Mail for sure. Maybe Tumblr?
- tiatia 11y agoThis must be a female thing that Marissa Mayer does. Reminds me of Angela Merkel. If she does not know what to do with all the refugees she runs to Turkey. Help Erdogan, Help!
- stesch 11y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5HOt0ZOcYk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5HOt0ZOcYk
- mpg33 11y agoYahoo is one of those companies in which I don't really know what their core product is anymore. Similar to Blackberry.
- ThatMightBePaul 11y agoDear Writers, Stop using the term "activist investor". It strongly connotes political and social change. That is not your intent. Find better words. Sincerely,
- mmanfrin 11y agoIt's a term that has been used for a few years. It does not connote political and social change -- you are foisting your narrower understanding of the word 'activist' on to it.
- whitneyrzoller 11y agoDear Reader, please consider reading some financial journalism to familiarize yourself with common idioms.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- Jemaclus 11y agoSo here's a potentially dumb question. A lot of commenters are expressing optimism that a company could buy Yahoo and do something good with it. If that's the case, why can't Yahoo do something good with itself? If all it takes ("all") is dropping the parts that aren't profitable, why can't Mayer or some other CEO do that? What's the real benefit of another big player buying Yahoo, if Yahoo couldn't save itself? What's the real hope there?
- norea-armozel 11y agoI don't think there's much saving Yahoo in its current form. It's just all over the place as to what it's doing (media, search, email, odd sorts of services like Flickr and Tumblr...). I just don't get how Yahoo even survived this long. It seems to me it's just a fluke of the market I feel.
- UrsuppDesquen 11y agoSo, how will this affect Mozilla? Out of money soon? It really looks more and more like 2 dying companies are going together to their doomsday party.