4 ms·

I didn't realize Tumblr was sold to Automattic for $3 million. Yahoo bought it for $1.1 Billion just a few years prior (which made zero sense at the time). Yah

I didn't realize Tumblr was sold to Automattic for $3 million. Yahoo bought it for $1.1 Billion just a few years prior (which made zero sense at the time). Yahoo was truly a poorly run business with an incompetent executive team.

astrea 5y ago
Was? Don't they still exist?
- propogandist 5y ago
  Yahoo was sold to Verizon for $4.8 billion in 2016 [1]. VZ then merged it with their AOL acquisition under the brand Oath, which was then rebranded to Verizon Media Group. The whole thing was apparently unloaded to a private equity group for $5 Billion recently [2] and has been renamed back to Yahoo... so yes, they still exist and now "Yahoo!" includes AOL too. [1] https://mashable.com/article/yahoo-verizon-acquired-bought https://mashable.com/article/yahoo-verizon-acquired-bought [2] https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/01/apollo-completes-its-5b-acquisition-of-verizon-media-now-known-as-yahoo/ https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/01/apollo-completes-its-5b-ac...
  - e40 5y ago
    That was way more complicated than I expected. Wow, what a journey that... not sure what to call it at this point... entity has gone through.
    - dqv 5y ago
      >not sure what to call it Yaolhoo. Pronounced y’all who.
      - Kye 5y ago
        Might as well rebrand as Whomst.
melony 5y ago
Marissa Mayer excels at failing upwards.
- magicalist 5y ago
  Not sure if this was an attempt at wit or just a reflexive generic tech forum comment, but being successful at Google, becoming the CEO of a failing company that then fails, then founding a company no one has heard of isn't a good example of failing upwards.
  - melony 5y ago
    She is famous because she joined the right startup in the early days. She has never demonstrated that she can repeat her success after driving numerous companies' valuation into the ground post-google. The media loves her because she share the same qualities as Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes. I doubt the other former senior execs at Alphabet would get the same kid glove treatment. It is the same story as Meg Whitman as they both fit the same narrative favored by the media. It is easy to be a generic exec at already successful company, especially if your first job propels you to C level. Fixing a failing company or building a new company from scratch is what distinguishes the truly excellent business people. There is a reason Jobs, Bezos, Gates, and Nadella are looked up to. They either built from scratch a successfully company, brought a failing corporation to success, or both in the case of Jobs. We don't shower praise upon Ballmer precisely because he did a bad job. It would be hypocritical to advocate gender equality by not holding the likes of Mayer and Whitman to the same standards. Just being a good manager and executive is nothing exceptional, you can find plenty to fill these sort of roles from MBA programs. (I will however admit that Yahoo's APM program is a true innovation)
    - pavlov 5y ago
      There are plenty of male tech executives with equally poor track records as Mayer (David Marcus comes to mind), yet they don’t get this kind of treatment on message forums. Comparing Meyer to Holmes is like comparing David Marcus to Bernie Madoff. It just doesn’t make sense unless you’re seeing someone primarily through their gender.

astrea 5y ago

Was? Don't they still exist?

propogandist 5y ago
Yahoo was sold to Verizon for $4.8 billion in 2016 [1]. VZ then merged it with their AOL acquisition under the brand Oath, which was then rebranded to Verizon Media Group. The whole thing was apparently unloaded to a private equity group for $5 Billion recently [2] and has been renamed back to Yahoo... so yes, they still exist and now "Yahoo!" includes AOL too. [1] https://mashable.com/article/yahoo-verizon-acquired-bought https://mashable.com/article/yahoo-verizon-acquired-bought [2] https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/01/apollo-completes-its-5b-acquisition-of-verizon-media-now-known-as-yahoo/ https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/01/apollo-completes-its-5b-ac...
- e40 5y ago
  That was way more complicated than I expected. Wow, what a journey that... not sure what to call it at this point... entity has gone through.
  - dqv 5y ago
    >not sure what to call it Yaolhoo. Pronounced y’all who.
    - Kye 5y ago
      Might as well rebrand as Whomst.

melony 5y ago

Marissa Mayer excels at failing upwards.

magicalist 5y ago
Not sure if this was an attempt at wit or just a reflexive generic tech forum comment, but being successful at Google, becoming the CEO of a failing company that then fails, then founding a company no one has heard of isn't a good example of failing upwards.
- melony 5y ago
  She is famous because she joined the right startup in the early days. She has never demonstrated that she can repeat her success after driving numerous companies' valuation into the ground post-google. The media loves her because she share the same qualities as Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes. I doubt the other former senior execs at Alphabet would get the same kid glove treatment. It is the same story as Meg Whitman as they both fit the same narrative favored by the media. It is easy to be a generic exec at already successful company, especially if your first job propels you to C level. Fixing a failing company or building a new company from scratch is what distinguishes the truly excellent business people. There is a reason Jobs, Bezos, Gates, and Nadella are looked up to. They either built from scratch a successfully company, brought a failing corporation to success, or both in the case of Jobs. We don't shower praise upon Ballmer precisely because he did a bad job. It would be hypocritical to advocate gender equality by not holding the likes of Mayer and Whitman to the same standards. Just being a good manager and executive is nothing exceptional, you can find plenty to fill these sort of roles from MBA programs. (I will however admit that Yahoo's APM program is a true innovation)
  - pavlov 5y ago
    There are plenty of male tech executives with equally poor track records as Mayer (David Marcus comes to mind), yet they don’t get this kind of treatment on message forums. Comparing Meyer to Holmes is like comparing David Marcus to Bernie Madoff. It just doesn’t make sense unless you’re seeing someone primarily through their gender.