Yahoo should do the following:

1. Open source -- not Out Source - Search.

2. Spin off the Ad Business Unit - the former display/graphical ads group, the former search/overture (AKA Panama) search ads group and the new acquistions - Right Media, Blue Lithium etc. Keep majority ownership of the spun off unit and put it on a track to IPO.

3. Pare down the Yahoo Network to properties that matter -- Front Page, News, Sports, Finance, Mail, Messenger etc. Monetize these properties with the best monetization mechanism available (not necessarily the spin-off in #2 above).

4. Create a bigger business focused unit comprising of the Mail/Calendaring (Zimbra), Messenger (Enterprise grade), Storage, Hosting (current Small Business). Acquire Zoho to complete the portfolio of offerings.

Doing #1, will fend off competition from Google and Microsoft, make search better and more transparent.

Doing #2, will improve employee morale, free the valuable/under-monetized Yahoo properties from the constraints of its own ad systems + bring in more cash from the IPO

Doing #3, will improve focus

Doing #4, will reduce the risk from being dependant on ad $, leverage existing resources to attack a multi-billion dollar market.

Doing all 4 things will double or triple the share price.

ylover

Owen, you got it. Always a "win" if a person planning to go gets on the list. AOL managers would "head hunt, bait and switch, rope-dee-dope," and a few I'd never seen before like the "douche bag dongle" to congregate the unwilling.

After years of pain though, getting on the lay-off list, which people oh-so desired, was like getting season tickets to Redskins games--demand exceeded capacity.

In some ways it is good that Yahoo! is so "inexperienced" in the art.

stupindus

jams

Alaska Miller