Palantir Co-Founder Peter Thiel discusses Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard. He speaks with Bloomberg's Emily Chang on “Studio 1.0.” (Source: Bloomberg--Sept 17)
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Showing posts with label Yahoo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yahoo. Show all posts
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Peter Thiel says HP, Yahoo, aren't Technology Companies Anymore (video)
Peter Thiel: Yahoo Isn't a Technology Company Anymore -
Palantir Co-Founder Peter Thiel discusses Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard. He speaks with Bloomberg's Emily Chang on “Studio 1.0.” (Source: Bloomberg--Sept 17)
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Palantir Co-Founder Peter Thiel discusses Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard. He speaks with Bloomberg's Emily Chang on “Studio 1.0.” (Source: Bloomberg--Sept 17)
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Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Alibaba IPO, Winners, Losers
According to the Alibaba prospectus (Sept. 5) the "Chinese online and mobile commerce colossus is offering a maximum of 368 million shares for sale through six principal underwriters: Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank. If the shares sell at the top of the pricing range, at $66, the IPO would raise more than $24 billion, putting Alibaba’s market cap at $163 billion."(source infra)
Who are the winners (besides Alibaba, Yahoo, and Jack Ma)?-- The Wall Street fable behind Alibaba's IPO: "... The investment banks are garnering around $350 million in fees, or only around 1% of the proceeds, well below the norm on most IPOs. No the cash payout to the bankers travels in a more circuitous route. These fabled Wall Street firms are handing their favorite clients $6 billion in quick profits. That’s around 10% of the total amount left on the table in the entire tech boom from 1999 to 2001. Investors, in turn, are very likely to repay the firms with big trading commissions in the days and weeks to come. The biggest such payers tend to be hedge funds, so hedge funds usually get the meatiest share allocations. Mutual funds that pay low commissions have less favored status. The rule of thumb, says Ritter, is that Wall Street recoups 30% of the total windfall in commissions. That’s $1.8 billion. So including fees, Wall Street’s potential take mounts to well over $2.1 billion...."
And the losers in allowing Alibaba shares to be underpriced? Yahoo, Jack Ma, and Alibaba. But hey, with the money flowing like champagne, leave a few billion for the bankers and their "friends."
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Who are the winners (besides Alibaba, Yahoo, and Jack Ma)?-- The Wall Street fable behind Alibaba's IPO: "... The investment banks are garnering around $350 million in fees, or only around 1% of the proceeds, well below the norm on most IPOs. No the cash payout to the bankers travels in a more circuitous route. These fabled Wall Street firms are handing their favorite clients $6 billion in quick profits. That’s around 10% of the total amount left on the table in the entire tech boom from 1999 to 2001. Investors, in turn, are very likely to repay the firms with big trading commissions in the days and weeks to come. The biggest such payers tend to be hedge funds, so hedge funds usually get the meatiest share allocations. Mutual funds that pay low commissions have less favored status. The rule of thumb, says Ritter, is that Wall Street recoups 30% of the total windfall in commissions. That’s $1.8 billion. So including fees, Wall Street’s potential take mounts to well over $2.1 billion...."
And the losers in allowing Alibaba shares to be underpriced? Yahoo, Jack Ma, and Alibaba. But hey, with the money flowing like champagne, leave a few billion for the bankers and their "friends."
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Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Yahoo Sports, Marissa, Woj
Time is running out for Marissa Mayer at Yahoo--
Why Is Yahoo Sports Hiding Its Best Asset In Woj?: "... A year ago, here, I talked about how Yahoo Sports had recently passed ESPN.com again in terms of users. According to recent reports, Yahoo Sports is still the big dog in the digital sports space, #1 with 125 million monthly uniques. Yet, how can it be that the number 1 digital sports property is not doing more to promote its number 1 asset in Woj? When I go to Yahoo Sports today, I don’t see much in terms of innovative graphics. I don’t see video. In short, it looks like the top sports website from, say, 2007...." (read more at link above)
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Why Is Yahoo Sports Hiding Its Best Asset In Woj?: "... A year ago, here, I talked about how Yahoo Sports had recently passed ESPN.com again in terms of users. According to recent reports, Yahoo Sports is still the big dog in the digital sports space, #1 with 125 million monthly uniques. Yet, how can it be that the number 1 digital sports property is not doing more to promote its number 1 asset in Woj? When I go to Yahoo Sports today, I don’t see much in terms of innovative graphics. I don’t see video. In short, it looks like the top sports website from, say, 2007...." (read more at link above)
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Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Who Will Buy Yahoo and Solve the Marissa Problem?
Alibaba, SoftBank?
How Do You Solve A Problem Like Marissa?: "... Mayer has been CEO at Yahoo for two years now. She was absolutely dealt a tough hand, which I think any other CEO, whether Ross Levinsohn or anyone else, would have been challenged to turn around. In fact, I spoke out in her defense early on after her hiring, asking several critics to give her more time to work at her turnaround. Two years after her hiring, however, I think it’s fair to point out that she has made a number of costly and largely self-inflicted errors since taking over... She hired Henrique De Castro as her top lieutenant for big money and no results... $58 million in severance... She has increased headcount since she came aboard two years ago, not decreased it, which it still desperately requires... None of the $2 billion in acquisitions Mayer has spent in M&A since arriving at Yahoo are reflected in the valuation of Yahoo’s deteriorating core business... The increase in value of Yahoo’s mobile users would have happened regardless of Mayer’s leadership, given the secular adoption of mobile devices... Excessive stock compensation in light of declining EBITDA... The only reason for the increase in value of Yahoo shares in the past two years is because Alibaba’s value has gone up from $35 billion to (by some estimates) $200 billion and Yahoo Japan’s value has doubled since the start of 2013 to $26 billion today. Yahoo’s core business has only dragged down the value of Yahoo shares from where it would otherwise be trading..." (read more at link above)
It looks bleak. Yahoo isn't Google.
How Do You Solve A Problem Like Marissa?: "... Mayer has been CEO at Yahoo for two years now. She was absolutely dealt a tough hand, which I think any other CEO, whether Ross Levinsohn or anyone else, would have been challenged to turn around. In fact, I spoke out in her defense early on after her hiring, asking several critics to give her more time to work at her turnaround. Two years after her hiring, however, I think it’s fair to point out that she has made a number of costly and largely self-inflicted errors since taking over... She hired Henrique De Castro as her top lieutenant for big money and no results... $58 million in severance... She has increased headcount since she came aboard two years ago, not decreased it, which it still desperately requires... None of the $2 billion in acquisitions Mayer has spent in M&A since arriving at Yahoo are reflected in the valuation of Yahoo’s deteriorating core business... The increase in value of Yahoo’s mobile users would have happened regardless of Mayer’s leadership, given the secular adoption of mobile devices... Excessive stock compensation in light of declining EBITDA... The only reason for the increase in value of Yahoo shares in the past two years is because Alibaba’s value has gone up from $35 billion to (by some estimates) $200 billion and Yahoo Japan’s value has doubled since the start of 2013 to $26 billion today. Yahoo’s core business has only dragged down the value of Yahoo shares from where it would otherwise be trading..." (read more at link above)
It looks bleak. Yahoo isn't Google.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Memo to Marissa: Katie Couric, Old Media will NEVER save Yahoo
Marissa Mayer has just made her first major mistake, throwing away countless millions of Yahoo's limited assets on Katie Couric --
Leaving ABC News, Couric Describes Move to Yahoo as ‘Being of the Moment’ -- Katie Couric said that her decision to join Yahoo as its “global news anchor” came after the new chief executive, Marissa Mayer, reached out to her....
This is laughable. Katie Couric, as Leo Laporte and others have noted, is a has-been. Old media will never save nor help Yahoo to get to where it needs to go. What was Marissa thinking? I am afraid she acted way outside her competence zone on this one. It was truly, a move of the moment, because whatever flash it brought will soon quickly die out. Marissa would have been wiser to spend all the money she is throwing away on Couric, on bright, talented engineers and programmers.
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Leaving ABC News, Couric Describes Move to Yahoo as ‘Being of the Moment’ -- Katie Couric said that her decision to join Yahoo as its “global news anchor” came after the new chief executive, Marissa Mayer, reached out to her....
This is laughable. Katie Couric, as Leo Laporte and others have noted, is a has-been. Old media will never save nor help Yahoo to get to where it needs to go. What was Marissa thinking? I am afraid she acted way outside her competence zone on this one. It was truly, a move of the moment, because whatever flash it brought will soon quickly die out. Marissa would have been wiser to spend all the money she is throwing away on Couric, on bright, talented engineers and programmers.
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Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Secret Courts Enable Unconstitutional Spying
In 2008, a ruling by a surveillance court said to be against Yahoo discouraged technology firms from fighting data requests from the government. (source infra)
How can you have a "Secret Court" issuing "Secret Court Orders" in a "free country?"
Secret Court Ruling Put Tech Companies in Data Bind - NYTimes.com: "In a secret court in Washington, Yahoo’s top lawyers made their case. The government had sought help in spying on certain foreign users, without a warrant, and Yahoo had refused, saying the broad requests were unconstitutional. The judges disagreed. That left Yahoo two choices: Hand over the data or break the law. So Yahoo became part of the National Security Agency’s secret Internet surveillance program, Prism, according to leaked N.S.A. documents, as did seven other Internet companies.Like almost all the actions of the secret court, which operates under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the details of its disagreement with Yahoo were never made public beyond a heavily redacted court order, one of the few public documents ever to emerge from the court. The name of the company had not been revealed until now. Yahoo’s involvement was confirmed by two people with knowledge of the proceedings. Yahoo declined to comment. . . ."
How can you have a "Secret Court" issuing "Secret Court Orders" in a "free country?"
Secret Court Ruling Put Tech Companies in Data Bind - NYTimes.com: "In a secret court in Washington, Yahoo’s top lawyers made their case. The government had sought help in spying on certain foreign users, without a warrant, and Yahoo had refused, saying the broad requests were unconstitutional. The judges disagreed. That left Yahoo two choices: Hand over the data or break the law. So Yahoo became part of the National Security Agency’s secret Internet surveillance program, Prism, according to leaked N.S.A. documents, as did seven other Internet companies.Like almost all the actions of the secret court, which operates under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the details of its disagreement with Yahoo were never made public beyond a heavily redacted court order, one of the few public documents ever to emerge from the court. The name of the company had not been revealed until now. Yahoo’s involvement was confirmed by two people with knowledge of the proceedings. Yahoo declined to comment. . . ."
Big Brother Lives! (through Secret Courts, Secret Court Orders, Dysfunctional Presidency and Executive Branch, Dysfunctional Congress).
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Monday, July 23, 2012
Marissa and Yahoo--it was meant to be
Somehow in this crazy universe, Yahoo's purple was meant to be Marissa Mayer's--here's an excerpt from a story published several years ago:
The adventures of Marissa | Modern Luxury: "She is much livelier than you might imagine, and her clothes are anything but humdrum. For better or worse, Mayer is infatuated with the color purple, and she wears a formfitting deep-purple dress by C.D. Greene with small black mirrors that catch and reflect light. Together with the bedroom’s violet walls—replicated from one of her favorite cashmere sweaters—the look announces her love of eye-poppingly bright colors and Marimekko-type patterns. At 32, the phenomenally brainy and driven Mayer—Google’s first female engineer—has already been on the cover of Newsweek, which called her “one of the most powerful women of her generation.” Among tech insiders, she is well known for her laugh—a nerdy, rapid-fire tat-tat-tat that has been made into a YouTube mashup and is available as a ringtone."
Marissa is now 37--the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company!
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The adventures of Marissa | Modern Luxury: "She is much livelier than you might imagine, and her clothes are anything but humdrum. For better or worse, Mayer is infatuated with the color purple, and she wears a formfitting deep-purple dress by C.D. Greene with small black mirrors that catch and reflect light. Together with the bedroom’s violet walls—replicated from one of her favorite cashmere sweaters—the look announces her love of eye-poppingly bright colors and Marimekko-type patterns. At 32, the phenomenally brainy and driven Mayer—Google’s first female engineer—has already been on the cover of Newsweek, which called her “one of the most powerful women of her generation.” Among tech insiders, she is well known for her laugh—a nerdy, rapid-fire tat-tat-tat that has been made into a YouTube mashup and is available as a ringtone."
Marissa is now 37--the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company!
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Yahoo Appoints Marissa Mayer CEO
Great news for Yahoo, Yahoo's stockholders, employees and users (as well as Marissa Mayer)--
expri.com - technology news: Yahoo! Appoints Marissa Mayer CEO!: Yahoo! Appoints Marissa Mayer Chief Executive Officer--July 16, 2012--SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced that it has appointed Marissa Mayer as President and Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors effective July 17, 2012. The appointment of Ms. Mayer, a leading consumer internet executive, signals a renewed focus on product innovation to drive user experience and advertising revenue for one of the world's largest consumer internet brands, whose leading properties include Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Mobile, Yahoo! Mail, and Yahoo! Search.
Mayer said, "I am honored and delighted to lead Yahoo!, one of the internet's premier destinations for more than 700 million users. I look forward to working with the Company's dedicated employees to bring innovative products, content, and personalized experiences to users and advertisers all around the world." . . . Full press release here: http://pressroom.yahoo.net/pr/ycorp/236553.aspx
Yahoo's board of directors are to be congratulated for having the vision to make this brilliant move.
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expri.com - technology news: Yahoo! Appoints Marissa Mayer CEO!: Yahoo! Appoints Marissa Mayer Chief Executive Officer--July 16, 2012--SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced that it has appointed Marissa Mayer as President and Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors effective July 17, 2012. The appointment of Ms. Mayer, a leading consumer internet executive, signals a renewed focus on product innovation to drive user experience and advertising revenue for one of the world's largest consumer internet brands, whose leading properties include Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Mobile, Yahoo! Mail, and Yahoo! Search.
Mayer said, "I am honored and delighted to lead Yahoo!, one of the internet's premier destinations for more than 700 million users. I look forward to working with the Company's dedicated employees to bring innovative products, content, and personalized experiences to users and advertisers all around the world." . . . Full press release here: http://pressroom.yahoo.net/pr/ycorp/236553.aspx
Yahoo's board of directors are to be congratulated for having the vision to make this brilliant move.
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Friday, May 4, 2012
Loeb Demands Yahoo Board Fire CEO
OK, this is getting interesting--and worth watching:
Third Point Letter to Board May 4 Release
Full screen: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/120048668/Third-Point-Letter-to-Board-May-4-Release
If you need more background on this--
Loeb Demands Yahoo Board Fire CEO by Monday Over False Resume - John Paczkowski - News - AllThingsD: "Now that activist shareholder Dan Loeb has discredited Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson’s educational credentials and credibility, he’s going full bore after the company’s directors and demanding Thompson’s head. In a new letter to Yahoo’s board today, Loeb and his shareholder firm Third Point called for the company to disclose details of Thompson’s vetting process and, more importantly, to reveal whether or not Yahoo directors knew of the holes in his academic background. They also demanded that Yahoo fire Thompson and director Patti Hart, about whose academic background questions have also been raised. . . ."
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Third Point Letter to Board May 4 Release
Full screen: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/120048668/Third-Point-Letter-to-Board-May-4-Release
If you need more background on this--
Loeb Demands Yahoo Board Fire CEO by Monday Over False Resume - John Paczkowski - News - AllThingsD: "Now that activist shareholder Dan Loeb has discredited Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson’s educational credentials and credibility, he’s going full bore after the company’s directors and demanding Thompson’s head. In a new letter to Yahoo’s board today, Loeb and his shareholder firm Third Point called for the company to disclose details of Thompson’s vetting process and, more importantly, to reveal whether or not Yahoo directors knew of the holes in his academic background. They also demanded that Yahoo fire Thompson and director Patti Hart, about whose academic background questions have also been raised. . . ."
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