One Article Review
| Source |  Errata Security |
|---|---|
| Identifiant | 288599 |
| Date de publication | 2017-01-09 23:13:24 (vue: 2017-01-09 23:13:24) |
| Titre | No, Yahoo! isn\'t changing its name |
| Texte | Trending on social media is how Yahoo is changing it's name to "Altaba" and CEO Marissa Mayer is stepping down. This is false.What is happening instead is that everything we know of as "Yahoo" (including the brand name) is being sold to Verizon. The bits that are left are a skeleton company that holds stock in Alibaba and a few other companies. Since the brand was sold to Verizon, that investment company could no longer use it, so chose "Altaba". Since 83% of its investment is in Alibabi, "Altaba" makes sense. It's not like this new brand name means anything -- the skeleton investment company will be wound down in the next year, either as a special dividend to investors, sold off to Alibaba, or both.Marissa Mayer is an operations CEO. Verizon didn't want her to run their newly acquired operations, since the entire point of buying them was to take the web operations in a new direction (though apparently she'll still work a bit with them through the transition). And of course she's not an appropriate CEO for an investment company. So she had no job left -- she made her own job disappear.What happened today is an obvious consequence of Alibaba going IPO in September 2014. It meant that Yahoo's stake of 16% in Alibaba was now liquid. All told, the investment arm of Yahoo was worth $36-billion while the web operations (Mail, Fantasy, Tumblr, etc.) was worth only $5-billion.In other words, Yahoo became a Wall Street mutual fund who inexplicably also offered web mail and cat videos.Such a thing cannot exist. If Yahoo didn't act, shareholders would start suing the company to get their money back.That $36-billion in investments doesn't belong to Yahoo, it belongs to its shareholders. Thus, the moment the Alibaba IPO closed, Yahoo started planning on how to separate the investment arm from the web operations.Yahoo had basically three choices.The first choice is simply give the Alibaba (and other investment) shares as a one time dividend to Yahoo shareholders. A second choice is simply split the company in two, one of which has the investments, and the other the web operations. The third choice is to sell off the web operations to some chump like Verizon.Obviously, Marissa Mayer took the third choice. Without a slushfund (the investment arm) to keep it solvent, Yahoo didn't feel it could run its operations profitably without integration with some other company. That meant it either had to buy a large company to integrate with Yahoo, or sell the Yahoo portion to some other large company.Every company, especially Internet ones, have a legacy value. It's the amount of money you'll get from firing everyone, stop investing in the future, and just raking in year after year a stream of declining revenue. It's the fate of early Internet companies like Earthlink and Slashdot. It's like how I documented with Earthlink [*], which continues to offer email to subscribers, but spends only enough to keep the lights on, not even upgrading to the simplest of things like SSL.Presumably, Verizon will try to make something of a few of the properties. Apparently, Yahoo's Fantasy sports stuff is popular, and will probably be rebranded as some new Verizon thing. Tumblr is already it's own brand name, independent of Yahoo, and thus will probably continue to exist as its own business unit.One of the weird things is Yahoo Mail. It permanently bound to the "yahoo.com" domain, so you can't do much with the "Yahoo" brand without bringing Mail along with it. Though at this point, the "Yahoo" brand is pretty tarnished. There's not much new you can put under that brand anyway. I can't see how Verizon would want to invest in that brand at all -- just milk it for what it can over the coming years.The investment company cannot long exist on its own. Investors want their |
| Envoyé | Oui |
| Condensat | $36 $50 a the 2005 2012 2014 about abused acquired act after against alibaba alibabi all along already also altaba altbaba amazon amount anything anyway apparently appropriate are arm around attempting away back basically became because being believed belong belongs better billion bit bits board bonus both bound brand bringing business but buy buying can cannot cat ceo changing chinese choice choices choose chose chump closed com coming commerce companies company compete consequence consider continue continues could couldn course create decisions declining did didn direction disappear dividend documented doesn doing domain don down early earthlink ebay efficient either email enough entire entry especially etc even every everyone everything exchanges excuse executives exist failure false fantasy fate feel firing first flailing fritter from fund funds future get give going good had happened happening has have her holds how including independent inexplicably initial instead integrate integration internet invest investing investment investments investors ipo isn its job just keep keeping key know large left legacy lights like liquid long longer lost made mail make makes making marissa market materialized mayer means meant media milk milks moment money most much mutual name netting never new newly next not now obvious obviously off offer offered one ones only operations opportunity other over own particular partnership permanently planning play playing point points:altaba popular portion position presumably pretty probably problem: profitably properties providing purpose put raking rebranded remaining representing return revenue run second see sell selling sense separate september shareholder shareholders shares she simplest simply since skeleton skimming slashdot slowly slush slushfund social sold solvent some something sort special spends spin split sports ssl stake start started stepping stick stock stop strategic stream street stuff subscribers such sucks suing suspect take tarnished tax taxes than them then there thing things think third though three through thus time today told took transition trending trust try tumblr two under unit upgrading use value verizon videos view wall want way web weird what when which who whole will without words work worth would wound yahoo year years you |
| Tags | |
| Stories | Yahoo |
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