Say goodbye to Hollywood
Photo credit: CDernbachIt is the end of the Hollywood era at Yahoo, as CEO Terry Semel leaves the company and founder
Jerry Yang picks up the reigns.
The analysts/investors call revealed quite a bit (or did it?) as Semel framed it as "a personal decision as much as a personnel decision." How typically slick of him. Hollywood to the end. Well, at least he was consistent. Here's a link to PaidContent's
full audio of the conference call (21 MB, 47 minutes).
This is long overdue, and many people like
Rafat have speculated that this would happen especially since Brad Garlinghouse's
Peanut Butter manifesto fanned the flames. In that post I wrote, "My guess is that given Yahoo!'s current situation, CEO Terry Semel and SVP Brad Garlinghouse cannot coexist at the company."
Vallywag has a couple priceless posts including
Memorial Wall, Terry Semel, 2001-2007,
Obituary: Terry Semel's reign at Yahoo,
Jerry Yang is no Steve Jobs, and, in typical Vallywag fashion,
Yahoo's Botched coup.
Over on the WSJ,
Kara Swisher speculates about who may/may not be next. I wonder if the peanut butter man will survive?
As the call went on, Staci Kramer at PaidContent
highlights this portion of Sue Decker's remarks:
Now for the drum roll -- she’s undoing a large chunk of the re-org, removing the management layer that she just moved up from, collapsing audience and advertising into her role as president. (I only wish I could see Dan Rosensweig’s face now.) She is suspending the months-long search for an audience head and will not put anyone bwteeen her and the advertising. She calls this an “integrated operating team
As I mentioned in May 2006 when
Yahoo launched their redesign, I've always been in favor of Yahoo! promoting the people behind the company. Notably Yang and Filo, the two founders:
This part of the Yahoo! brand - the faces behind the name - has been missing for a long time. Whilst Brin and Page have made themselves internet icons and helped add personality to the Google brand, Yahoo! has never really accomplished this.
I'll leave it up to you to decide if, as one pundit wrote, that this is "just re-arranging the deck chairs on the titanic".
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