17 ms·

Yahoo SEC Filing: Name change to Altaba Inc and director resignations

399 points by patmcguire 10y ago

Crito 10y ago
I'm surprised she lasted this long.
- r00fus 10y ago
  At times I wonder if these kind of CEO stints are entirely "fall-guy" propositions.
- throwaway91111 10y ago
  Nobody cares.
  - Crito 10y ago
    Sounds like you might. ;)
Apocryphon 10y ago
Etymology of that name - AltaVista + Ali Baba?
- edvinbesic 10y ago
  First thing I thought of as well.
- Crito 10y ago
  Makes me thing "Alternate Ali Baba".
  - r00fus 10y ago
    Amusing since "Baba" is well known as either a sponge cake, a grandma, a holy man, father, baby or blanket [1]. so what's an alt-baba? [1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/baba#Noun https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/baba#Noun
- georgeglue1 10y ago
  I think it might be: Alt(ernate) + A(li) + Ba(ba)
- sixothree 10y ago
  Alt-Tab-Away?
- larkinrichards 10y ago
  I figured it is pronounced "alt tabba"; it's so handy that you keep it an alt-tab away. Perhaps Ogden Nash wrote a poem about it?
  - voidz 10y ago
    "T'alt-tab or not t'alt-tab?" Wait, that wasn't Nash's. Never mind, carry on.
- yabatopia 10y ago
  In an alternate universe, Altaba Inc propably translates to Detroit Online. Once the center of The Web, now a shrinking core surrounded by blight.
- codecamper 10y ago
  It's Canadian for changing tasks: alt-tab, aye?
  - maxerickson 10y ago
    That word is spelled "Eh", eh.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
wopwopwop 10y ago
Around 4 years too late.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
devopsproject 10y ago
this is dumb
mindcrime 10y ago
That has to be the worst name I've ever heard... it is probably actually worse than "Inprise"[1]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borland#The_Inprise_years.2C_and_name_changes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borland#The_Inprise_years.2C_a...
meowschwitz 10y ago
the name is not the problem.
- ryanlol 10y ago
  now it might be!
shshhdhs 10y ago
Changing the brand under these circumstances doesn't make sense to me. Brands take years to build, and Yahoo dominates as a brand in Japan. It seems sloppy PR to pick a name like "Altaba" within mere weeks/months of deciding to buy Yahoo.
- tlackemann 10y ago
  This is what I'm confused about. Yahoo is a big brand with a lot of companies, is Tumblr now owned by Altaba? Altaba Weather?
  - bmuon 10y ago
    No. Nothing changes for the products. Altaba is a new company that just owns stock in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan. Tumblr will be owned by Yahoo Holdings, which will be owned by Verizon. Yahoo Weather will still be Yahoo Weather.
- xja 10y ago
  Yahoo Japan is a separate entity. Yahoo (Altaba) is a minority shareholder (35.5%). Of course, the Yahoo brand in general has value elsewhere too, but I don't think this meaning Yahoo Japan will be rebranding.
- bmuon 10y ago
  Yahoo is splitting into two companies: Yahoo Holdings and Altaba Inc. Yahoo Holdings owns the "Yahoo" trademark and is being sold to Verizon. Altaba is an investment company that owns everything that is not being sold to Verizon. Yahoo will still be alive in yahoo.com.
PaulRobinson 10y ago
First scan read I thought they were changing their name to "Alberta Inc." and thought to myself "well, that's one way to deal with the inauguration..." "Alt + Tab" is the only reasonable thing I can think of it being rooted in. But even that sucks like a sucky thing.
- TallGuyShort 10y ago
  I wondered if it was related to Alibaba, which has been closely linked with Yahoo.
mkaziz 10y ago
Yeesh, that name sounds like something a fifth grader would come up with.
- dingaling 10y ago
  It has been registered for 15 years but it looks like it was purchased by Yahoo within the last three months: Creation Date: 2001-10-09T04:22:42-0700 Updated Date: 2016-10-25T09:47:51-0700 Appears to have previously been owned by a Barcelona-based furniture supplier: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site:altaba.com https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site:altaba.com who are now on altaba.cat. But the new owners have quickly modified the robots.txt and hence locked-out public access on archive.org
LeoPanthera 10y ago
The headline was changed but the new one reveals nothing. For those who don't want to dig through the filing: Meyer has resigned from the board and Yahoo is renaming to "Altaba". Edit: It changed again. That's better.
- cheald 10y ago
  The document says that Mayer is resigning from the Board of Directors, not necessarily as CEO. > Marissa Mayer ... has indicated that he or she intends to resign from the Board effective upon the Closing,
  - ec109685 10y ago
    Will resign. She hasn't resigned yet.
- djsumdog 10y ago
  It was a link to a Buzzfeed news tweet. O_o
  - LeoPanthera 10y ago
    Fine, but I was more concerned with the text of the link, not the destination.
- ceejayoz 10y ago
  There really needs to be a log of "Previously titled: X | Previously linked to: Y | Moderator comment: Foo bar." in these situations.
reid 10y ago
This says Marissa will not be involved with Altaba Inc. (RemainCo) after Yahoo's operating business is sold to Verizon. Which makes sense, since any future of her leadership is with the operating business instead of the investment company Altaba.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
coderholic 10y ago
The only mention of Mayer I can find is > Each of David Filo, Eddy Hartenstein, Richard Hill, Marissa Mayer, Jane Shaw and Maynard Webb has indicated that he or she intends to resign from the Board effective upon the Closing, and that his or her intention to resign is not due to any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices. Which indicates that she'll resign from the board, but doesn't say anything about her resigning as CEO. Is that just left off here because it doesn't require SEC disclosure, or is it a possibility that she'll stay?
- SonOfLilit 10y ago
  If she stays, it should be with Verizon Yahoo, not with Altaba (shell containing Alibaba shares formerly known as Yahoo), which is a kind of company Mayer has no experience managing (and also not a managerial challenge worth the kind of salary she can get elsewhere)
folz 10y ago
Key takeaways from this filing: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is resigning and the company is changing its name to "Altaba Inc." (The article link was changed from https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedNews/status/818589759320637440 https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedNews/status/818589759320637440 at around 50 points)
- patmcguire 10y ago
  Yeah, I feel like that one tweet was a better distillation of what is happening than a dump to the dry source. Oh well.
- kchoudhu 10y ago
  How much is she being paid as part of this resignation?
- bmuon 10y ago
  For the record, this is incorrect. The SEC filing does not indicate she is resigning as CEO. See other comments for explanations about what's actually going on.
stanleydrew 10y ago
Rather than the inevitable bashing of Marissa that will undoubtedly unfurl on this thread, I'd like to put in a little reminder that we usually celebrate taking on big projects and big risks and that we should commend her for taking on the immense challenge of steadying the Yahoo ship. Yes, she wasn't able to keep the ship from sinking. But I do think she put in a good-faith effort.
- icelancer 10y ago
  I do as well. As outlined in The Halo Effect, people want very tidy, clean, and rational reasons why a company failed. Blame must be specifically laid somewhere. However, there's a pretty good chance no one available could have saved the demise of Yahoo. Variance is a thing.
  - Gargoyle 10y ago
    I don't really mind people failing. I do think there's something wrong with someone earning massive amounts of money to fail and then everyone saying, "Oh well, anyone would have failed in that role." Why pay someone huge sums of money if failure is the expected outcome?
    - icelancer 10y ago
      >Why pay someone huge sums of money if failure is the expected outcome? Because all big C-level positions work this way? Doesn't make it a good idea, or even rational. But humans are of the rationalizing type, not actual rational beings.
    - akjainaj 10y ago
      I suppose, there's a huge responsibility coming with that role, and you also know your name will be stained forever. But it's something somebody has to do.
      - shitgoose 10y ago
        their names are never stained. she will resurface in some other high profile position in no time. these C*O's live in their own universe, where common sense and peasants' logic do not apply.
gigatexal 10y ago
end of an era -- I wonder what Jerry Yang is thinking right now?
- hkon 10y ago
  He remembers 2007, when he won the big one
- petercooper 10y ago
  I'd like to imagine the multi-billionaire has taken a nostalgic moment out to reminisce, but I doubt he will be too cut up :-)
  - gigatexal 10y ago
    right, i bet he's laughing a lot.
- rocky1138 10y ago
  Honestly, he should start a new simple web directory with David Filo called "Jerry and David's new guide to the World Wide Web" and run it completely manually in a curated fashion, just like the old days.
meesterdude 10y ago
It makes perfect sense if you look at it from the perspective of deliberate ship sinking.
- voidz 10y ago
  Altabandon Ship? Alt-A, Backspace? All t'abort, aaaah! (OK, I'll show myself out.) Sneaks in edit: ah of course: Altabasta!
protomyth 10y ago
Was Marissa Mayer expected to stay with the investment company, move over to Verizon with the Yahoo property, or leave entirely?
- harryh 10y ago
  She was expected to leave entirely. This is not a surprise.
  - praneshp 10y ago
    Source? She has said repeatedly she will be with the unit that is going to Verizon, and I didn't see anything different yet.
    - harryh 10y ago
      Ah yes, you appear to be correct. As of now she's going to Verizon with the sale. Personally I can't imagine her lasting very long there but I suppose you never know.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- voidz 10y ago
  She'll be rebranded as Marwassa Nothx and offered a lead position in the archiving department. (Ok, I think I've reached my joke quota. sorry, dang et al!)
djsumdog 10y ago
I wish there was a real alternative to search. I use DuckDuckGo, but I believe they run on AWS and purchase index data from Yandex et. al. At this point, is it even feasible for anyone to enter the general search market, or has Google simply set the barrier to entry too high? Are there any niche search engines that focus on things Google has either removed or doesn't index? Are there other alternatives besides DDG, StartPage, Yandex and Bing?
- viraptor 10y ago
  It's going to take a couple of years for it to be realistically usable day to day, but I have some faith in the distributed search. http://yacy.net/en/index.html http://yacy.net/en/index.html In a long run, but only is personal storage going to allow this easily, but our searches are usually pretty limited in scope. I could resolve ~90% of my queries with indexes of SO, cooking websites, very limited number of blogs, documentation of standard libraries of a few languages. This would even fit on my phone right now.
- sixothree 10y ago
  What I miss about Yahoo! in the early days was explorability. Many sites were categorized. You could browse a category or find a site you liked and explore from there.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- saycheese 10y ago
  DuckDuckGo uses more than 400 sources: https://duck.co/help/results/sources https://duck.co/help/results/sources
  - LeoPanthera 10y ago
    Actual list of sources: https://duck.co/ia https://duck.co/ia But these "sources" power the instant answers, and not the main search results.
powera 10y ago
"In light of the fact that following the Closing the Company will operate as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940" - this is why. It will let Verizon save billions of dollars on Alibaba stock if it can get Yahoo out of the way. http://fortune.com/2016/02/08/verizon-yahoo-alibaba-taxes/ http://fortune.com/2016/02/08/verizon-yahoo-alibaba-taxes/
- harryh 10y ago
  It won't let verizon save anything. Verizon is purchasing the operating companies and has nothing to do with the alibaba shares.
interknot 10y ago
Well, at least they registered Altaba.com. No IP address as of now, though it looks like their mail is handled by Google Apps!
- logicallee 10y ago
  You're kidding. Tell me you're kidding.
  - akjainaj 10y ago
    And that's not everything because this is the TXT record altaba.com. 1800 IN TXT "google-site-verification=vO3De5z6qb-AeM1GmHkcC5dlWA_cw-7WKN5xhcyFFPM"
    - stanleydrew 10y ago
      That's required for Google's domain ownership verification, which is a pre-requisite to enabling G Suite (formerly known as Google Apps for Domains).
  - interknot 10y ago
    Maybe I could be hitting a cache or something, but here's what I see: $ host Altaba.com Altaba.com mail is handled by 10 alt4.aspmx.l.google.com. Altaba.com mail is handled by 1 aspmx.l.google.com. Altaba.com mail is handled by 5 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com. Altaba.com mail is handled by 5 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com. Altaba.com mail is handled by 10 alt3.aspmx.l.google.com. Here's yahoo.com for reference: $ host yahoo.com yahoo.com has address 206.190.36.45 yahoo.com has address 98.138.253.109 yahoo.com has address 98.139.183.24 yahoo.com has IPv6 address 2001:4998:58:c02::a9 yahoo.com has IPv6 address 2001:4998:c:a06::2:4008 yahoo.com has IPv6 address 2001:4998:44:204::a7 yahoo.com mail is handled by 1 mta7.am0.yahoodns.net. yahoo.com mail is handled by 1 mta5.am0.yahoodns.net. yahoo.com mail is handled by 1 mta6.am0.yahoodns.net.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- 10y ago
inetsee 10y ago
Does this mean that my email addresses will change to "@altaba.com"?
- bmuon 10y ago
  No. Yahoo as a brand will continue to exist. Verizon will own the brand.
  - voidz 10y ago
    Sounds contradictory though, doesn't it?
    - bmuon 10y ago
      No. It doesn't.
erickhill 10y ago
Changing a company name is one thing. Google did the same, essentially, with the formation of Alphabet. But please, dear God, don't tell me they are changing their domain. It's like the Eddie Murphy joke about falling down the stairs - for what seems like an eternity. ["My shoe!"] It's hard to believe what's become of the mighty Y! brand.
- voidz 10y ago
  You know what they say! The bigger they are...! Yahoo, I mean. Or shoes.. I guess that this saying would indeed apply to shoes as well. So I guess that Yahoo and shoes have two things in common. 'Being grounded' being the other one.
- BinaryIdiot 10y ago
  Yahoo will still be around. Essentially the assets / pieces sold to Verizon will be "Yahoo". The rest of this company will be under "Altaba".
shuri 10y ago
I'm guessing the brand doesn't need to change.
user982 10y ago
Altabax is a skin cream for bacterial infections.
ubercow 10y ago
I wonder what's going to happen to Flickr. I still haven't found a replacement place to host my pictures that I want to show off to others.
- harryh 10y ago
  It will likely continue running in its current mostly neglected state under verizon ownership.
- uptown 10y ago
  Check out Koken. Self-hosting but it's pretty great.
  - scott_karana 10y ago
    Looks nice, but for some of us, Flickr is also about externalizing management of TBs of redundant storage ;)
- ghaff 10y ago
  SmugMug? At one point pricing changes made it pricey for relatively casual users but current plans seem pretty reasonable.
- poooogles 10y ago
  500px is what I moved to a few years ago. No regrets.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
CydeWeys 10y ago
Is this like Google's move to be under Alphabet as a parent company? Altaba is for the holding group that controls that substantial overseas investments while Yahoo becomes just a brand used for some of their web properties that can be sold off if necessary?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- harryh 10y ago
  That's exactly right except for the "if necessary" part. A deal to sell off all of the web properties to verizon has already been made.
  - CydeWeys 10y ago
    That deal may have gone pear-shaped following the latest and greatest breach, though. Maybe "if possible" would have been wording on my part.
gm-conspiracy 10y ago
Will they sell the broadcast.com domain (or will it 301 to altaba)? I have a great idea to use that domain to host streaming of live youth sports.
- harryh 10y ago
  broadcast.com (as well as all the rest of Yahoo's domains) is undoubtedly part of the sale of assets to Verizon.
thinkloop 10y ago
What's the verdict on Marissa, did she do a bad job, or was yahoo simply unsaveable?
- chmaynard 10y ago
  All of the above.
- rvail2 10y ago
  I think it could have been saved. I stopped going there when 90% of the articles was either a sponsored story, or a story so left leaning it was almost unreadable.
riemannzeta 10y ago
For those confused, this filing is reporting a name change because the operating business (including its brand, domain name, etc.) is being acquired by Verizon out of what is now Yahoo! Inc. So the Yahoo business, its name, domains, and so on are not going anywhere as a result of this announcement. Altaba is just the name of of the company that will hold the investments that Verizon didn't acquire, including Alibaba shares.
- sperglord 10y ago
  Haha, Verizon owns America Online as well. Perhaps they're going to collect all relics of the 90's internet into some kind of Voltron monster.
  - LeoPanthera 10y ago
    I hope someone at Verizon cares about history and is preserving things for future museums.
vthallam 10y ago
I understand the recent security failures of Yahoo must have weakened the company brand name to certain extent, but it's a 2 decade old web company almost every know off, not sure what made the decision in favor of the new name.
beedogs 10y ago
What an absolutely TERRIBLE new name. Why do they think this is a good idea?
- dpark 10y ago
  Because it doesn't matter. It'll be a holding company for people who basically want to own Alibaba shares. From that perspective, it's a great name, because it reads a lot like "alternate alibaba".
voidz 10y ago
Should have called it Yooha!
- tyingq 10y ago
  I'd have gone with an semi-anagram like: Oh,Hay!
oh_sigh 10y ago
Is Altaba etymologically related to Alibaba?
Animats 10y ago
Altaba is just a investment company. The operating business will be sold to Verizon (if Verizon doesn't back out), and the money from the sale goes to Altaba. At that point Altaba ought to liquidate and divide the money among the shareholders, but the management may try to invest in other things to justify their jobs.
goldfishcaura 10y ago
When all else fails, try renaming the business...
rabboRubble 10y ago
Alta Vista + Alibaba = Altaba? This new name is a confusing mishmash.
cowardlydragon 10y ago
I would like yahoo to go screw itself for one specific reason: Microsoft had offered its war chest to buy them, and yahoo turned them down. It had a good chance of bringing down Microsoft in the long run, and yahoo would have done a solid for the world. But they turned them down. The ONE TIME I want a goddamn company executive leadership to take the money and run, and they didn't.
jpswade 10y ago
Yahoo should focus on discussion.
akvadrako 10y ago
I wish Yahoo would make more great series like... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other_Space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other_Space
mdekkers 10y ago
Altaba? Because a rebrand is certainly going to rescue the company. I can see the meetings now. "we need to do something" "....." "Let's do a rebrand! It will all give us the feeling we are doing something"
wbsun 10y ago
Probably shouldn't laugh at the new name, but "altaba" really sounds like "ali(baba)'s father" in Chinese...

399 points by patmcguire 10y ago

Crito 10y ago

I'm surprised she lasted this long.

r00fus 10y ago
At times I wonder if these kind of CEO stints are entirely "fall-guy" propositions.
throwaway91111 10y ago
Nobody cares.
- Crito 10y ago
  Sounds like you might. ;)

Apocryphon 10y ago

Etymology of that name - AltaVista + Ali Baba?

edvinbesic 10y ago
First thing I thought of as well.
Crito 10y ago
Makes me thing "Alternate Ali Baba".
- r00fus 10y ago
  Amusing since "Baba" is well known as either a sponge cake, a grandma, a holy man, father, baby or blanket [1]. so what's an alt-baba? [1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/baba#Noun https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/baba#Noun
georgeglue1 10y ago
I think it might be: Alt(ernate) + A(li) + Ba(ba)
sixothree 10y ago
Alt-Tab-Away?
larkinrichards 10y ago
I figured it is pronounced "alt tabba"; it's so handy that you keep it an alt-tab away. Perhaps Ogden Nash wrote a poem about it?
- voidz 10y ago
  "T'alt-tab or not t'alt-tab?" Wait, that wasn't Nash's. Never mind, carry on.
yabatopia 10y ago
In an alternate universe, Altaba Inc propably translates to Detroit Online. Once the center of The Web, now a shrinking core surrounded by blight.
codecamper 10y ago
It's Canadian for changing tasks: alt-tab, aye?
- maxerickson 10y ago
  That word is spelled "Eh", eh.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

wopwopwop 10y ago

Around 4 years too late.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

devopsproject 10y ago

this is dumb

mindcrime 10y ago

That has to be the worst name I've ever heard... it is probably actually worse than "Inprise"[1]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borland#The_Inprise_years.2C_and_name_changes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borland#The_Inprise_years.2C_a...

meowschwitz 10y ago

the name is not the problem.

ryanlol 10y ago
now it might be!

shshhdhs 10y ago

Changing the brand under these circumstances doesn't make sense to me. Brands take years to build, and Yahoo dominates as a brand in Japan. It seems sloppy PR to pick a name like "Altaba" within mere weeks/months of deciding to buy Yahoo.

tlackemann 10y ago
This is what I'm confused about. Yahoo is a big brand with a lot of companies, is Tumblr now owned by Altaba? Altaba Weather?
- bmuon 10y ago
  No. Nothing changes for the products. Altaba is a new company that just owns stock in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan. Tumblr will be owned by Yahoo Holdings, which will be owned by Verizon. Yahoo Weather will still be Yahoo Weather.
xja 10y ago
Yahoo Japan is a separate entity. Yahoo (Altaba) is a minority shareholder (35.5%). Of course, the Yahoo brand in general has value elsewhere too, but I don't think this meaning Yahoo Japan will be rebranding.
bmuon 10y ago
Yahoo is splitting into two companies: Yahoo Holdings and Altaba Inc. Yahoo Holdings owns the "Yahoo" trademark and is being sold to Verizon. Altaba is an investment company that owns everything that is not being sold to Verizon. Yahoo will still be alive in yahoo.com.

PaulRobinson 10y ago

First scan read I thought they were changing their name to "Alberta Inc." and thought to myself "well, that's one way to deal with the inauguration..." "Alt + Tab" is the only reasonable thing I can think of it being rooted in. But even that sucks like a sucky thing.

TallGuyShort 10y ago
I wondered if it was related to Alibaba, which has been closely linked with Yahoo.

mkaziz 10y ago

Yeesh, that name sounds like something a fifth grader would come up with.

dingaling 10y ago
It has been registered for 15 years but it looks like it was purchased by Yahoo within the last three months: Creation Date: 2001-10-09T04:22:42-0700 Updated Date: 2016-10-25T09:47:51-0700 Appears to have previously been owned by a Barcelona-based furniture supplier: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site:altaba.com https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site:altaba.com who are now on altaba.cat. But the new owners have quickly modified the robots.txt and hence locked-out public access on archive.org

LeoPanthera 10y ago

The headline was changed but the new one reveals nothing. For those who don't want to dig through the filing: Meyer has resigned from the board and Yahoo is renaming to "Altaba". Edit: It changed again. That's better.

cheald 10y ago
The document says that Mayer is resigning from the Board of Directors, not necessarily as CEO. > Marissa Mayer ... has indicated that he or she intends to resign from the Board effective upon the Closing,
- ec109685 10y ago
  Will resign. She hasn't resigned yet.
djsumdog 10y ago
It was a link to a Buzzfeed news tweet. O_o
- LeoPanthera 10y ago
  Fine, but I was more concerned with the text of the link, not the destination.
ceejayoz 10y ago
There really needs to be a log of "Previously titled: X | Previously linked to: Y | Moderator comment: Foo bar." in these situations.

reid 10y ago

This says Marissa will not be involved with Altaba Inc. (RemainCo) after Yahoo's operating business is sold to Verizon. Which makes sense, since any future of her leadership is with the operating business instead of the investment company Altaba.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

coderholic 10y ago

The only mention of Mayer I can find is > Each of David Filo, Eddy Hartenstein, Richard Hill, Marissa Mayer, Jane Shaw and Maynard Webb has indicated that he or she intends to resign from the Board effective upon the Closing, and that his or her intention to resign is not due to any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices. Which indicates that she'll resign from the board, but doesn't say anything about her resigning as CEO. Is that just left off here because it doesn't require SEC disclosure, or is it a possibility that she'll stay?

SonOfLilit 10y ago
If she stays, it should be with Verizon Yahoo, not with Altaba (shell containing Alibaba shares formerly known as Yahoo), which is a kind of company Mayer has no experience managing (and also not a managerial challenge worth the kind of salary she can get elsewhere)

folz 10y ago

Key takeaways from this filing: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is resigning and the company is changing its name to "Altaba Inc." (The article link was changed from https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedNews/status/818589759320637440 https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedNews/status/818589759320637440 at around 50 points)

patmcguire 10y ago
Yeah, I feel like that one tweet was a better distillation of what is happening than a dump to the dry source. Oh well.
kchoudhu 10y ago
How much is she being paid as part of this resignation?
bmuon 10y ago
For the record, this is incorrect. The SEC filing does not indicate she is resigning as CEO. See other comments for explanations about what's actually going on.

stanleydrew 10y ago

Rather than the inevitable bashing of Marissa that will undoubtedly unfurl on this thread, I'd like to put in a little reminder that we usually celebrate taking on big projects and big risks and that we should commend her for taking on the immense challenge of steadying the Yahoo ship. Yes, she wasn't able to keep the ship from sinking. But I do think she put in a good-faith effort.

icelancer 10y ago
I do as well. As outlined in The Halo Effect, people want very tidy, clean, and rational reasons why a company failed. Blame must be specifically laid somewhere. However, there's a pretty good chance no one available could have saved the demise of Yahoo. Variance is a thing.
- Gargoyle 10y ago
  I don't really mind people failing. I do think there's something wrong with someone earning massive amounts of money to fail and then everyone saying, "Oh well, anyone would have failed in that role." Why pay someone huge sums of money if failure is the expected outcome?
  - icelancer 10y ago
    >Why pay someone huge sums of money if failure is the expected outcome? Because all big C-level positions work this way? Doesn't make it a good idea, or even rational. But humans are of the rationalizing type, not actual rational beings.
  - akjainaj 10y ago
    I suppose, there's a huge responsibility coming with that role, and you also know your name will be stained forever. But it's something somebody has to do.
    - shitgoose 10y ago
      their names are never stained. she will resurface in some other high profile position in no time. these C*O's live in their own universe, where common sense and peasants' logic do not apply.

gigatexal 10y ago

end of an era -- I wonder what Jerry Yang is thinking right now?

hkon 10y ago
He remembers 2007, when he won the big one
petercooper 10y ago
I'd like to imagine the multi-billionaire has taken a nostalgic moment out to reminisce, but I doubt he will be too cut up :-)
- gigatexal 10y ago
  right, i bet he's laughing a lot.
rocky1138 10y ago
Honestly, he should start a new simple web directory with David Filo called "Jerry and David's new guide to the World Wide Web" and run it completely manually in a curated fashion, just like the old days.

meesterdude 10y ago

It makes perfect sense if you look at it from the perspective of deliberate ship sinking.

voidz 10y ago
Altabandon Ship? Alt-A, Backspace? All t'abort, aaaah! (OK, I'll show myself out.) Sneaks in edit: ah of course: Altabasta!

protomyth 10y ago

Was Marissa Mayer expected to stay with the investment company, move over to Verizon with the Yahoo property, or leave entirely?

harryh 10y ago
She was expected to leave entirely. This is not a surprise.
- praneshp 10y ago
  Source? She has said repeatedly she will be with the unit that is going to Verizon, and I didn't see anything different yet.
  - harryh 10y ago
    Ah yes, you appear to be correct. As of now she's going to Verizon with the sale. Personally I can't imagine her lasting very long there but I suppose you never know.
deleted 10y ago
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voidz 10y ago
She'll be rebranded as Marwassa Nothx and offered a lead position in the archiving department. (Ok, I think I've reached my joke quota. sorry, dang et al!)

djsumdog 10y ago

I wish there was a real alternative to search. I use DuckDuckGo, but I believe they run on AWS and purchase index data from Yandex et. al. At this point, is it even feasible for anyone to enter the general search market, or has Google simply set the barrier to entry too high? Are there any niche search engines that focus on things Google has either removed or doesn't index? Are there other alternatives besides DDG, StartPage, Yandex and Bing?

viraptor 10y ago
It's going to take a couple of years for it to be realistically usable day to day, but I have some faith in the distributed search. http://yacy.net/en/index.html http://yacy.net/en/index.html In a long run, but only is personal storage going to allow this easily, but our searches are usually pretty limited in scope. I could resolve ~90% of my queries with indexes of SO, cooking websites, very limited number of blogs, documentation of standard libraries of a few languages. This would even fit on my phone right now.
sixothree 10y ago
What I miss about Yahoo! in the early days was explorability. Many sites were categorized. You could browse a category or find a site you liked and explore from there.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
saycheese 10y ago
DuckDuckGo uses more than 400 sources: https://duck.co/help/results/sources https://duck.co/help/results/sources
- LeoPanthera 10y ago
  Actual list of sources: https://duck.co/ia https://duck.co/ia But these "sources" power the instant answers, and not the main search results.

powera 10y ago

"In light of the fact that following the Closing the Company will operate as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940" - this is why. It will let Verizon save billions of dollars on Alibaba stock if it can get Yahoo out of the way. http://fortune.com/2016/02/08/verizon-yahoo-alibaba-taxes/ http://fortune.com/2016/02/08/verizon-yahoo-alibaba-taxes/

harryh 10y ago
It won't let verizon save anything. Verizon is purchasing the operating companies and has nothing to do with the alibaba shares.

interknot 10y ago

Well, at least they registered Altaba.com. No IP address as of now, though it looks like their mail is handled by Google Apps!

logicallee 10y ago
You're kidding. Tell me you're kidding.
- akjainaj 10y ago
  And that's not everything because this is the TXT record altaba.com. 1800 IN TXT "google-site-verification=vO3De5z6qb-AeM1GmHkcC5dlWA_cw-7WKN5xhcyFFPM"
  - stanleydrew 10y ago
    That's required for Google's domain ownership verification, which is a pre-requisite to enabling G Suite (formerly known as Google Apps for Domains).
- interknot 10y ago
  Maybe I could be hitting a cache or something, but here's what I see: $ host Altaba.com Altaba.com mail is handled by 10 alt4.aspmx.l.google.com. Altaba.com mail is handled by 1 aspmx.l.google.com. Altaba.com mail is handled by 5 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com. Altaba.com mail is handled by 5 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com. Altaba.com mail is handled by 10 alt3.aspmx.l.google.com. Here's yahoo.com for reference: $ host yahoo.com yahoo.com has address 206.190.36.45 yahoo.com has address 98.138.253.109 yahoo.com has address 98.139.183.24 yahoo.com has IPv6 address 2001:4998:58:c02::a9 yahoo.com has IPv6 address 2001:4998:c:a06::2:4008 yahoo.com has IPv6 address 2001:4998:44:204::a7 yahoo.com mail is handled by 1 mta7.am0.yahoodns.net. yahoo.com mail is handled by 1 mta5.am0.yahoodns.net. yahoo.com mail is handled by 1 mta6.am0.yahoodns.net.
- deleted 10y ago
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10y ago

inetsee 10y ago

Does this mean that my email addresses will change to "@altaba.com"?

bmuon 10y ago
No. Yahoo as a brand will continue to exist. Verizon will own the brand.
- voidz 10y ago
  Sounds contradictory though, doesn't it?
  - bmuon 10y ago
    No. It doesn't.

erickhill 10y ago

Changing a company name is one thing. Google did the same, essentially, with the formation of Alphabet. But please, dear God, don't tell me they are changing their domain. It's like the Eddie Murphy joke about falling down the stairs - for what seems like an eternity. ["My shoe!"] It's hard to believe what's become of the mighty Y! brand.

voidz 10y ago
You know what they say! The bigger they are...! Yahoo, I mean. Or shoes.. I guess that this saying would indeed apply to shoes as well. So I guess that Yahoo and shoes have two things in common. 'Being grounded' being the other one.
BinaryIdiot 10y ago
Yahoo will still be around. Essentially the assets / pieces sold to Verizon will be "Yahoo". The rest of this company will be under "Altaba".

shuri 10y ago

I'm guessing the brand doesn't need to change.

user982 10y ago

Altabax is a skin cream for bacterial infections.

ubercow 10y ago

I wonder what's going to happen to Flickr. I still haven't found a replacement place to host my pictures that I want to show off to others.

harryh 10y ago
It will likely continue running in its current mostly neglected state under verizon ownership.
uptown 10y ago
Check out Koken. Self-hosting but it's pretty great.
- scott_karana 10y ago
  Looks nice, but for some of us, Flickr is also about externalizing management of TBs of redundant storage ;)
ghaff 10y ago
SmugMug? At one point pricing changes made it pricey for relatively casual users but current plans seem pretty reasonable.
poooogles 10y ago
500px is what I moved to a few years ago. No regrets.
deleted 10y ago
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CydeWeys 10y ago

Is this like Google's move to be under Alphabet as a parent company? Altaba is for the holding group that controls that substantial overseas investments while Yahoo becomes just a brand used for some of their web properties that can be sold off if necessary?

deleted 10y ago
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harryh 10y ago
That's exactly right except for the "if necessary" part. A deal to sell off all of the web properties to verizon has already been made.
- CydeWeys 10y ago
  That deal may have gone pear-shaped following the latest and greatest breach, though. Maybe "if possible" would have been wording on my part.

gm-conspiracy 10y ago

Will they sell the broadcast.com domain (or will it 301 to altaba)? I have a great idea to use that domain to host streaming of live youth sports.

harryh 10y ago
broadcast.com (as well as all the rest of Yahoo's domains) is undoubtedly part of the sale of assets to Verizon.

thinkloop 10y ago

What's the verdict on Marissa, did she do a bad job, or was yahoo simply unsaveable?

chmaynard 10y ago
All of the above.
rvail2 10y ago
I think it could have been saved. I stopped going there when 90% of the articles was either a sponsored story, or a story so left leaning it was almost unreadable.

riemannzeta 10y ago

For those confused, this filing is reporting a name change because the operating business (including its brand, domain name, etc.) is being acquired by Verizon out of what is now Yahoo! Inc. So the Yahoo business, its name, domains, and so on are not going anywhere as a result of this announcement. Altaba is just the name of of the company that will hold the investments that Verizon didn't acquire, including Alibaba shares.

sperglord 10y ago
Haha, Verizon owns America Online as well. Perhaps they're going to collect all relics of the 90's internet into some kind of Voltron monster.
- LeoPanthera 10y ago
  I hope someone at Verizon cares about history and is preserving things for future museums.

vthallam 10y ago

I understand the recent security failures of Yahoo must have weakened the company brand name to certain extent, but it's a 2 decade old web company almost every know off, not sure what made the decision in favor of the new name.

beedogs 10y ago

What an absolutely TERRIBLE new name. Why do they think this is a good idea?

dpark 10y ago
Because it doesn't matter. It'll be a holding company for people who basically want to own Alibaba shares. From that perspective, it's a great name, because it reads a lot like "alternate alibaba".

voidz 10y ago

Should have called it Yooha!

tyingq 10y ago
I'd have gone with an semi-anagram like: Oh,Hay!

oh_sigh 10y ago

Is Altaba etymologically related to Alibaba?

Animats 10y ago

Altaba is just a investment company. The operating business will be sold to Verizon (if Verizon doesn't back out), and the money from the sale goes to Altaba. At that point Altaba ought to liquidate and divide the money among the shareholders, but the management may try to invest in other things to justify their jobs.

goldfishcaura 10y ago

When all else fails, try renaming the business...

rabboRubble 10y ago

Alta Vista + Alibaba = Altaba? This new name is a confusing mishmash.

cowardlydragon 10y ago

I would like yahoo to go screw itself for one specific reason: Microsoft had offered its war chest to buy them, and yahoo turned them down. It had a good chance of bringing down Microsoft in the long run, and yahoo would have done a solid for the world. But they turned them down. The ONE TIME I want a goddamn company executive leadership to take the money and run, and they didn't.

jpswade 10y ago

Yahoo should focus on discussion.

akvadrako 10y ago

I wish Yahoo would make more great series like... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other_Space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other_Space

mdekkers 10y ago

Altaba? Because a rebrand is certainly going to rescue the company. I can see the meetings now. "we need to do something" "....." "Let's do a rebrand! It will all give us the feeling we are doing something"

wbsun 10y ago

Probably shouldn't laugh at the new name, but "altaba" really sounds like "ali(baba)'s father" in Chinese...