Yahoo On Its Own: Why Isn't Anyone on Yahoo's Side?

by Glenn Kelman | 3 Comments

Everyone is dancing on Yahoo’s grave this morning, after Wall Street punished the company for rejecting Microsoft’s merger offer. But perhaps because I came of age when Yahoo! celebrated everything fun and weird about the Internet, or because it’s good to see a nerdy founder replace a bigshot media executive, or because Yahoo is an underdog, I smiled when I read the news. Already people have forgotten how perilous getting bought by Microsoft would have been for Yahoo. Yahoo has hemorrhaged talent, been rightly strung up for its cooperation with repressive governments — not that Yahoo was the only one — and its executives can’t stop selling out the company to the press, but the Silicon Valley I know should be celebrating Yahoo’s pluck. It isn’t easy competing against Google, and it’s unclear that Microsoft would have made it any easier.

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Discussion

  • http://www.brokerscience.com Trace

    I have to say I was expecting yahoo to return (at least) to its pre Microsoft bid price. Apparently more people feel like you do then I though, it’s bouncing around 24 and change, so you’re not alone in your thoughts. I’m really, really surprised by this though, we’ll have to see what happens in the coming days to see if this vote of confidence has legs.

  • anon

    It hasn’t gone all the way back down because some shareholders are hoping Microsoft will try again in a few months. Give Yang two more quarters. He’ll run the company into the ground.

  • http://www.PeterMichaelsAllen.com Peter Michaels Allen

    I couldn’t be happier Yahoo stuck to their guns on this issue. It seems that everything Microsoft touches turns to… rust. Look how well their own search engine works. The smaller MS can be kept, the better I feel because I believe that it preserves creativity and innovation in all areas of the digital industry.