And Semel into three parts his kingdom divided - Valleywag Comments

And Semel into three parts his kingdom divided

web_too_dot_oh — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 21:46:01 PST

It's probably obvious that there has been some overstaffing, redundancy. I mean, when you see a bunch of people playing Mine Sweeper, it usually means, there's some pork that can be trimmed.

Problem is that the management's pitch has left the impression of no major cuts (whether they meant that or not). At this point, if cuts are made, what will that do in terms of employee trust? The second issue is if (when?) such cuts take place, will the right ones be made? Are the ones left going to be the true talent? Or will the real talent jump ship before that, leaving the otherwise unemployable and cushy old timers at their posts??? Frankly, I think Yahoo needs new talent, because several of the old ones seem to be a bit rusty and/or are living too cushy of a lifestyle.

web_too_dot_oh

And Semel into three parts his kingdom divided

ray_schaefer — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 18:21:47 PST

First things first, I think you meant Jeff Weiner, not Mallett (Mallett, Koogle-era president, is now at Snocap).

The most interesting sentence in the whole release was this nugget buried in the announcement of Zod's new "technology group":

"Yahoo! will concentrate key engineering talent and shift investment ... to help capture the most significant long-term growth opportunities."

If there will be concentrate, will there be precipitate?

Even in the dark times of the 2001 layoffs, engineering had always been sacrosanct. Simply put, if getting fired is rare at Yahoo, it is virtually unheard of in engineering, despite its being the largest cost center (by employee function). Sounds like the tide is turning and Yahoo is betting on doing more with less.

ray_schaefer