<![CDATA[What a mess - Valleywag Comments]]> <![CDATA[What a mess - Valleywag Comments]]> <![CDATA[What a mess]]> Everyone, past or present, at Yahoo! knows that Wenda was all about her own "brand" (Rob Norman at MEC calls her "The Wenda", and I think she loved that...) and at the end of the day has lead Yahoo! to be in the demise it's in now. It didn't have to be this way. As someone noted earlier, past all-stars at Yahoo are now leading MSN, Facebook, Zillow, etc.. But has anyone bothered 2ask why they all left, and countless other leaders in the trenches who were doing the real closing of all those Millions? Keep in mind too that these departures all happened in 2005 and early 2006, way before things went the direction they are today. The simple answer is that they were not respected or allowed to move up in the organization. Wenda, and her butt kissing VPs, consistently told sales all-stars that they couldn't manages teams, that they weren't sophisticated enough to lead $50-$75 Million teams. Well, what are they doing now?? Just that. No my friends, the real truth to all of Yahoo's troubles now is that Wenda and the management team let the real people who did the real work walk out the door when each and everyone of them would have stayed if given the respect they deserved. Wenda's brand somehow doesn't get tainted by this fact, but maybe someday Madison Avenue and other Media executives will come to know and understand it. There's so much more to peel back on this onion too, I could go on all day. She's a miserable, fake, back stabbing, human being.

UsedToYahoo

]]> <![CDATA[What a mess]]> I wasn't classifying Wenda in the egg-sucking department. I was just letting Nick here know, that most of these high-level execs leaving is a plus for Yahoo, not a minus.

Now, what's up with Weiner, and Coppel, and the two SVP's that run the "Media Group"? Talk about a circus of freaks runnin amok in Santa Monica...

long_gone

]]> <![CDATA[What a mess]]> @long_gone. hopefully you don't mean to classify wenda as one of those execs who "suck eggs." without wenda, there would've been no yahoo through the last few years. she is the envy of every major media company with an ad department trying to woo madison ave. she restored relationships when there were none. maybe she's not the person to lead yahoo into the future, ok, fine. but she was a classy leader who propelled yahoo and its sales team forward, and carried a big chunk of yahoo on their backs.

brandnew_yerretro

]]> <![CDATA[What a mess]]> @Yalum: If you're still checking this thread, what was the classless swipe that Coleman took at Millard? I must have missed that.

Nick Denton

]]> <![CDATA[What a mess]]> Why do you think that the departure of these execs is a bad thing for Yahoo? The problem is, the company has a lot more bad ones to lose.

From the outside, you guys are consistently flogging the folks who may have some decent PR or name recognition, but they suck eggs. Look at some of the track records for these people and their departments. Now, they're angling for jobs and trying to make it look Yahoo is fucked without them. Wrong.

There are a whole bunch of loser VP's and SVP's at Yahoo, who don't create any value. It's up to Jerry to send them packing and get some good people in place.

Don't be fooled by the spin. A lot of Yahoo businesses and properties can run on the few people who actually manage the sites and operate the businesses. The layers of "management" are the problem at Yahoo, not the solution.

long_gone

]]> <![CDATA[What a mess]]> Looking at recent history at Yahoo, it is pretty easy to know who to believe between Wenda and Yahoo on this one. In fact, it is quite surprising that nobody has questioned Yahoo's numerous inconsistent and seemingly dishonest statements to the media and its shareholders in light of actual events.

First, the company announces the departure of its CTO Farzad Nazem. The company and Zod say that the move had been contemplated for months but that Zod wanted to wait until Panama was launched before making the announcement. If the move was contemplated for months, why wasn't the company ready with a real CTO to replace him?

Then, exactly one week after saying in a shareholder meeting that he still has the "fire in his belly" to lead the company, Terry and the company announce his resignation and explain that leading up to the announcement Terry "was clear in telling the Board of [his] desire to take a step back sooner rather than later." So wait, he had the fire in his belly *and* he wanted to take a step back sooner rather than later? This makes me feel something in my belly.

But this last one takes the cake. Yahoo announces that Wenda is moving out as part of steps Yahoo "has been taking since the beginning of the year." And it makes this announcement *on a Sunday* - the day before her new role at MSLO was supposed to be announced. Let me guess, we are supposed to believe the company thought its sales restructuring was so ingenious that it couldn't wait until Monday to announce it?

As everybody that interacted with Yahoo knows, Millard was the unsung hero for a lot of Yahoo's success during the turnaround. Millard was the one that brought the big advertisers (with their big $) to Yahoo. Greg Coleman somehow clung to his job despite the regular shrinking of his day-to-day responsibilities (check out the press release announcing his arrival) in large part because he took credit for Millard's sales success.

These are new steps to consolidate search and graphic ad sales? C'mon. They were both consolidated under Coleman, to whom both Wenda and Karnstedt reported, for years. A fish smells from the head. For Coleman to point the finger at Millard is despicable. I expect better from a guy who "attended" the MBA program at NYU.

If Yahoo put the same effort into its business that it puts into spinning its failures to the media, it might be a more formidable competitor to Google. Likewise, if Yahoo treated the public and its shareholders with more respect we'd be a lot more likely to root for it to turn things around yet again.

Yahoo62

]]> <![CDATA[What a mess]]> I still can't help but wonder what the fate of Facebook will be..If got large enough, quick enough, maybe they could buy AOL before Google does? Throw i a small search engine company and they're golden.

migukin

]]> <![CDATA[What a mess]]> As a long-time observer (with fascination) of the Yahoo phenomenon, its humble beginnings, survival, growth and the entry of interesting personalities in its operations, I wish to share my insight. Finally, Yahoo has come to its senses and started its process of detoxification. The time has come for the organization to step back and re-evaluate where it is headed ...maybe even ask the basic question of "what industry are we in?". Now the organization can start cutting costs and concentrate on bottom line (which is what stakeholders really care about anyway). In its quest for growth in light of a very competitive industry, Yahoo became top-heavy which I believe led to a disarray in objectives. The present transitioning of personalities is good for Yahoo, a very positive one and I believe bringing in Jerry Yang as CEO brings back the organization to realities. Good luck Yahoo! I see no reason why you cant win.

don_nicomedes

]]> <![CDATA[What a mess]]> I think the Jerry Yang comment depends a LOT on who you're talking to in terms of "observers". I've been a cynic of Yahoo for pretty much the entire Semel era, and frankly I *do* think Jerry could be a viable long-term leader.

There's a lot of folks, inside and outside of Yahoo, who would be really happy to have Jerry in the driver's seat for a long while.

Derek Balling

]]> <![CDATA[What a mess]]> The interesting subtext is Greg Colemen's survival and that classless swipe he takes at Wenda. They simply hate each other, Greg being the exec who always survives a reorg as his incompetence makes him non-threatening.

Clearly its a fine time for Wenda to leave, she is revered on Madison Ave, her "graduates" run sales at many of the key startups & pure plays (Facebook, Zillow, MSN etc.) and she has been seeding Yahoo execs at Martha Stewart for some time (BethAnn Eason, Holly Brown etc.). The recruiters will have a field day pulling apart the dispirited Y! team.

Yalum

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