5 ms·

Yahoo Stabs Facebook In The Back

34 points by shivkapoor 15y ago

RichardPrice 15y ago
I am amazed that Yahoo is resorting to patent trolling tactics. Almost everyone in the Valley hates software patents, and only builds patent portfolios defensively, but they don't expect to have to defend themselves against each other. It seems very un-Silicon Valley of Yahoo to do this. I think their brand will take a hit in the Valley. It's not the freshest and shiniest brand anyway, but still there is a long way down for it to go, and I think this will send it down some notches.
shingen 15y ago
Yahoo's new management in action. They must be really desperate. Yahoo refuses to innovate their way out of ten years of stagnation, despite the opportunities. So they're going for the fast profits. In reality, this kind of thing will destroy whatever relationships Yahoo has, isolate them, and make their situation worse. Facebook was no threat to Yahoo, and they could have benefited eachother long term. Instead, Yahoo just got unfriended.
- true_religion 15y ago
  New management? They did the same thing to Google pre-IPO. As far as I'm concerned this Yahoo's modus operandi.
tessr 15y ago
TechCrunch? Backstabbing? Sorry, what?
meow 15y ago
At least die decently Yahoo. No need to have patent troll written all over your headstone.
- pagekalisedown 15y ago
  Like SCO. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO_Group http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO_Group
sriramk 15y ago
This is very sad. I worked at Yahoo until a few weeks ago; I have great respect for what Yahoo can build, the company and it's people. This is such a sad turn of events. It's also very weird given how much Yahoo has been talking up the success of the partnership with Facebook around the open graph.
- RexRollman 15y ago
  Really? Yahoo ruins just about everything it touches, with the possible exception of Flickr, and then they actually had the nerve to refuse Microsoft purchase offer? Their company logo should be next to the word "mismanagement" in the dictionary.
dutchbrit 15y ago
Well, Facebook is a patent troll too right? Still, very sad. When will software patents finally go away?!
toyg 15y ago
When a technology company starts suing on patents, you know it's stopped doing something else: innovating and competing. It's really sad to see Yahoo! becoming the SCO of social networking.
- hrktb 15y ago
  > When a technology company starts suing on patents Except when it's apple. Or microsoft. or anytime there is big profit to be done, or negociations breaks on contending points. it's just business as usual. If true, one interesting point in the article is that yahoo has 2,661 pending patents in the pipe. Regardless of if these are "good" patents or not, it sounds like a non neglictable number for a company that doesn't get the spotlight so much these days.
atarian 15y ago
This is a sensationalist article that reeks of pre-meditated biases. Yes the Facebook open-graph protocol has helped bring more traffic to Yahoo, but that wasn't an exclusive alliance. In fact nowhere in the Facebook press release does Facebook "congratulate" Yahoo. If you read the NYT article, Yahoo merely warned Facebook about potential patent violations. There is no back-stabbing, this is business as usual. I wish Techcrunch would quit with the drama already.
RexRollman 15y ago
If corporations are indeed people, I believe that they would have to be classified as sociopaths.

34 points by shivkapoor 15y ago

I am amazed that Yahoo is resorting to patent trolling tactics. Almost everyone in the Valley hates software patents, and only builds patent portfolios defensively, but they don't expect to have to defend themselves against each other. It seems very un-Silicon Valley of Yahoo to do this. I think their brand will take a hit in the Valley. It's not the freshest and shiniest brand anyway, but still there is a long way down for it to go, and I think this will send it down some notches.

shingen 15y ago

Yahoo's new management in action. They must be really desperate. Yahoo refuses to innovate their way out of ten years of stagnation, despite the opportunities. So they're going for the fast profits. In reality, this kind of thing will destroy whatever relationships Yahoo has, isolate them, and make their situation worse. Facebook was no threat to Yahoo, and they could have benefited eachother long term. Instead, Yahoo just got unfriended.

true_religion 15y ago
New management? They did the same thing to Google pre-IPO. As far as I'm concerned this Yahoo's modus operandi.

tessr 15y ago

TechCrunch? Backstabbing? Sorry, what?

meow 15y ago

At least die decently Yahoo. No need to have patent troll written all over your headstone.

pagekalisedown 15y ago
Like SCO. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO_Group http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO_Group

sriramk 15y ago

This is very sad. I worked at Yahoo until a few weeks ago; I have great respect for what Yahoo can build, the company and it's people. This is such a sad turn of events. It's also very weird given how much Yahoo has been talking up the success of the partnership with Facebook around the open graph.

RexRollman 15y ago
Really? Yahoo ruins just about everything it touches, with the possible exception of Flickr, and then they actually had the nerve to refuse Microsoft purchase offer? Their company logo should be next to the word "mismanagement" in the dictionary.

dutchbrit 15y ago

Well, Facebook is a patent troll too right? Still, very sad. When will software patents finally go away?!

toyg 15y ago

When a technology company starts suing on patents, you know it's stopped doing something else: innovating and competing. It's really sad to see Yahoo! becoming the SCO of social networking.

hrktb 15y ago
> When a technology company starts suing on patents Except when it's apple. Or microsoft. or anytime there is big profit to be done, or negociations breaks on contending points. it's just business as usual. If true, one interesting point in the article is that yahoo has 2,661 pending patents in the pipe. Regardless of if these are "good" patents or not, it sounds like a non neglictable number for a company that doesn't get the spotlight so much these days.

atarian 15y ago

This is a sensationalist article that reeks of pre-meditated biases. Yes the Facebook open-graph protocol has helped bring more traffic to Yahoo, but that wasn't an exclusive alliance. In fact nowhere in the Facebook press release does Facebook "congratulate" Yahoo. If you read the NYT article, Yahoo merely warned Facebook about potential patent violations. There is no back-stabbing, this is business as usual. I wish Techcrunch would quit with the drama already.

RexRollman 15y ago

If corporations are indeed people, I believe that they would have to be classified as sociopaths.