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Yahoo needs talent to succeed. Yahoo, in general, cannot compete with Google, Facebook or smaller startups for talent. They're better off now than they were pri

Yahoo needs talent to succeed. Yahoo, in general, cannot compete with Google, Facebook or smaller startups for talent. They're better off now than they were prior to Marissa but they're still a definite second best. So they are buying talent to stock the shelves with first rate devs and leaders - mostly in mobile. At some point - say in 6 - 18 more months - talent may come to work for them to work with some of these smart people they're acquiring reducing their need to acquire companies at such a frantic pace. It's a smart strategy.

nashequilibrium 13y ago
This article might disagree with you: Yahoo Keeps Buying Startups That Don't Make Their Own Apps http://readwrite.com/2013/07/03/yahoo-qwiki-lawsuit-chaotic-moon#feed=/tag/yahoo&awesm=~odoHUBW0wUgPUY http://readwrite.com/2013/07/03/yahoo-qwiki-lawsuit-chaotic-...
- hga 13y ago
  Oh my. Yahoo has lots of problems with execution, we shouldn't be surprised if due diligence is another example, especially when they think they're in the 11th hour.
  - hkmurakami 13y ago
    well considering Yahoo doesn't power their own search engine, maybe they're okay with teams who are adept at creating great UI and UX wrappers around 3rd party licensed technology.
    - jclos 13y ago
      This is actually quite sad considering Yahoo has an excellent research division in Barcelona in information retrieval. Maybe they should start funding them more instead of letting them fund themselves with huge european projects.
    - wikiburner 13y ago
      I thought they were dropping/had dropped Bing? Is that not accurate?
      - nashequilibrium 13y ago
        No, they take the links from bing and provide a more interactive experience on top of it. I just finished reading a research paper last month where they explain it. The concept made sense but their execution is really terrible. Their web page just looks too cluttered, distracting away from the users search experience.
        wikiburner 13y ago
        Interesting, thanks. Is that paper by chance publicly available?
homakov 13y ago
Why do they need talents? they need marketing strategy and profitable products, and a bunch of middle level engineer to implement it. after all, talents can simply quit their jobs after acquiring
_greim_ 13y ago
Bear with me while I ask a dumb question. Why pay $70M to acquire a startup just for their engineering and technical talent? What's the going rate for a really good engineer nowadays, $150K? Why not just offer $180K? That difference adds up to a lot less than $70M.
- nly 13y ago
  because when you're on $150K, and enjoy your work, you won't jump ship to work with a dinosaur like Yahoo just for a pay rise?
  - nandemo 13y ago
    I must be missing something. So Joe works as an employee at Somethingly earning 150k and won't jump ship to Yahoo for a pay rise. But after Yahoo acquires Somethingly -- and likely shuts down its product -- Joe will choose to keep working at Yahoo because...? Given that Joe presumably didn't have a say in the acquisition, what are the (non-monetary) merits of post-acquisition Yahoo over pre-acquisition Yahoo?
    - nostrademons 13y ago
      You're missing the effect of inertia. Most people do not continuously re-evaluate whether they would choose to be working at their employer if they were unemployed and seeking a new job. Instead, they continue the current status quo until things are blatantly wrong for them, and only then start looking around. This frees up mental energy to focus on things like actually getting their job done and having a life outside of work. Yahoo is betting that it wouldn't be able to induce someone to jump ship, but once they have jumped ship, their work environment is "good enough" to keep them. Well, most of them. It's the same reason why magazines and online services bill by subscription (it's a lot of effort to get someone to subscribe, but much easier to keep them subscribing), and why ISVs bundle a lot of crapware with major platforms (users wouldn't knowingly install their products, but if they're already installed they won't bother to remove them), and why UX designers make the default settings whatever benefits the company most (most users never change the defaults).

nashequilibrium 13y ago

This article might disagree with you: Yahoo Keeps Buying Startups That Don't Make Their Own Apps http://readwrite.com/2013/07/03/yahoo-qwiki-lawsuit-chaotic-moon#feed=/tag/yahoo&awesm=~odoHUBW0wUgPUY http://readwrite.com/2013/07/03/yahoo-qwiki-lawsuit-chaotic-...

hga 13y ago
Oh my. Yahoo has lots of problems with execution, we shouldn't be surprised if due diligence is another example, especially when they think they're in the 11th hour.
- hkmurakami 13y ago
  well considering Yahoo doesn't power their own search engine, maybe they're okay with teams who are adept at creating great UI and UX wrappers around 3rd party licensed technology.
  - jclos 13y ago
    This is actually quite sad considering Yahoo has an excellent research division in Barcelona in information retrieval. Maybe they should start funding them more instead of letting them fund themselves with huge european projects.
  - wikiburner 13y ago
    I thought they were dropping/had dropped Bing? Is that not accurate?
    - nashequilibrium 13y ago
      No, they take the links from bing and provide a more interactive experience on top of it. I just finished reading a research paper last month where they explain it. The concept made sense but their execution is really terrible. Their web page just looks too cluttered, distracting away from the users search experience.
      - wikiburner 13y ago
        Interesting, thanks. Is that paper by chance publicly available?

homakov 13y ago

Why do they need talents? they need marketing strategy and profitable products, and a bunch of middle level engineer to implement it. after all, talents can simply quit their jobs after acquiring

_greim_ 13y ago

Bear with me while I ask a dumb question. Why pay $70M to acquire a startup just for their engineering and technical talent? What's the going rate for a really good engineer nowadays, $150K? Why not just offer $180K? That difference adds up to a lot less than $70M.

nly 13y ago
because when you're on $150K, and enjoy your work, you won't jump ship to work with a dinosaur like Yahoo just for a pay rise?
- nandemo 13y ago
  I must be missing something. So Joe works as an employee at Somethingly earning 150k and won't jump ship to Yahoo for a pay rise. But after Yahoo acquires Somethingly -- and likely shuts down its product -- Joe will choose to keep working at Yahoo because...? Given that Joe presumably didn't have a say in the acquisition, what are the (non-monetary) merits of post-acquisition Yahoo over pre-acquisition Yahoo?
  - nostrademons 13y ago
    You're missing the effect of inertia. Most people do not continuously re-evaluate whether they would choose to be working at their employer if they were unemployed and seeking a new job. Instead, they continue the current status quo until things are blatantly wrong for them, and only then start looking around. This frees up mental energy to focus on things like actually getting their job done and having a life outside of work. Yahoo is betting that it wouldn't be able to induce someone to jump ship, but once they have jumped ship, their work environment is "good enough" to keep them. Well, most of them. It's the same reason why magazines and online services bill by subscription (it's a lot of effort to get someone to subscribe, but much easier to keep them subscribing), and why ISVs bundle a lot of crapware with major platforms (users wouldn't knowingly install their products, but if they're already installed they won't bother to remove them), and why UX designers make the default settings whatever benefits the company most (most users never change the defaults).