Subhash Bhatia, exits, george john, layoffs, yahoo

Yahoo boots hated manager

A tipster tells us Yahoo senior directors George John and Subhhash Bhatia didn't finish the day employed yesterday. John, our tipster writes, wasn't a particularly harmful presence. Bhatia, however, ran his "division completely into the ground, forcing managers and engineers to flee to other parts of Yahoo — anywhere but under him. It's a pity that it took layoffs to let him go." Psst, Subhash. If you have a guess as to who the tipster is, this means you shouldn't ask him for a reference.

11:40 AM on Wed Feb 13 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
5,065 views
21 comments

Comments

whataday at 12:57 PM on 02/13/08
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So Usama gets rid of his smart right hand man, George John, and keeps his ineffective sister employed instead. I guess family always come first!
mtalinm at 01:25 PM on 02/13/08
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tasteless, make it stop

can't wait for your first slander lawsuit
mandarin at 01:38 PM on 02/13/08
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He kinda looks like Billy Bob Thornton.
kairos at 02:09 PM on 02/13/08
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Hey... Why do you say "hated manager" about one guy, and put that over the picture of the good guy? George John is a great guy, and putting his picture under that headline is just wrong. Why not put a picture of the Subhhash Bhatia guy? Or just don't put a picture at all, since you can't seem to get the right picture to match your headline.
ex_yahoo111 at 02:58 PM on 02/13/08
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Maybe there's hope in the company yet. Hopefully they'll cleanup in Messenger and Mail as well.
fetish at 02:59 PM on 02/13/08
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I have no idea about Subhash Bhatia, but George John was one of the smartest people at Yahoo! The man had his failings but being mean to his underlings was not one of them. If anything, he was ahead of his time, and his company, being both visionary and utopian at the same time.

Do change the picture or move the comment about George John to a different post.
abmw at 02:59 PM on 02/13/08
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The feelings are running high at Yahoo, but there is introspection:

[bizcast.typepad.com]
Snarkotron at 03:29 PM on 02/13/08
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I'm with Kairos... George is cool. If you really need a picture of this Subhash guy so you can slander him properly, a mole can probly get it for ya.
Nicholas Carlson at 07:15 PM on 02/13/08
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Connectedness Index: 221
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@Snarkotron: Somebody hook me up and I'll make the switch.
ex_yahoo111 at 09:58 PM on 02/13/08
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I don't have a picture of this guy but his y! im id is: sbhatia
smatterchoo at 10:58 PM on 02/13/08
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Hey this is George John here. My wife and I are having a good chuckle over this, but for god's sake man...
mvguy at 11:24 PM on 02/13/08
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@@Nicholas Carlson: Until you find other guys' image, you will keep the good guy's image? This is low even by valleywag's standards. Please remove the picture by that headline if you have some decency. Or change the headline.
Edinburgh at 12:47 AM on 02/14/08
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I am with SNARKOTRON and KAIROS, George is cool. Subhash needs to be deported!
xhooter at 02:12 AM on 02/14/08
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There are a lot of people in SDS. And my sense is that the big issues are at the very, very top of that org. I knew George, but I didn't work closely with him. I was always favorably impressed with his professionalism to the point that I have a hard time believing that he could be hated by anyone. He always seemed like a very smart, decent, well respected human being.
Nicholas Carlson at 04:49 AM on 02/14/08
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@Nicholas Carlson: There. No we have a picture of the right guy. Not the lovely and loved George John.
vik99 at 06:03 AM on 02/14/08
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He was my manager at Oracle in the late 90's and I hated him. Total asshole. The Indian mafia at Oracle supported him. Anyone know what happened to TS ??
vik99 at 06:14 AM on 02/14/08
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crazy nut thats what Subaash is
kairos at 07:47 AM on 02/14/08
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Thank you. Laying off George was an injustice, but at least we don't have to heap insult on injury. Thanks for fixing that.
sdstipster at 06:51 PM on 02/16/08
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"harmful" is a relative measure. At least without George, priorities will no longer continuously shift each day.
techguy_03 at 08:58 AM on 02/18/08
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This guy needs to be sent off somewhere....where he is not required to deal with people.
I am sure another prick will replace him and continue to cut people down..
techman100 at 09:51 PM on 03/17/08
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Here's another view you posters need to know about. I've known Subhash several
years--worked for him for two of them.

In my experience in this valley, few senior managers come close to building
teams with higher morale and loyalty than I've seen Subhash build. I know
engineers that would leave their jobs readily to work for Subhash.

This guy turned around a company that was on the VC chopping block and saved
the jobs of over 130 people--and by the way, his changes shrank the monthly
loss rate from $1,000,000+ per month to $60,000 per month--headed toward a
break-even run rate--in less than a year.

Subhash dramatically raised the quality of software releases and instilled a
level of engineering development discipline that transformed the company's
ability to produce and deliver full featured, revenue-generating software
within planned dates.

Subhash is a unique, strongly technical talent that has unquestionably done
a lot of good for teams he has managed.

I really question the reliability of your "tipster" and some of the other
posters on this (looks like you flubbed it with George John and had to pull
back on that, for example). This kind of post uses the same tactics McCarthy
pioneered in the 1950s in this country and will add about the same value to this valley in the end.