Yang sends another virtual group hug to employees

Yahoo co-founder and Chief Executive Jerry Yang issued another rally call to troops on Wednesday, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company-wide e-mail was Yang's second in three days. It includes not only encouragement to employees, but touts recent activities by the company that have been overshadowed by Microsoft's unsolicited $44.6 billion buyout bid.

Here's the text of Yang's Wednesday e-mail on Microsoft's merger proposal, which undoubtedly won't be his last.

Subject: Building on our strengths

yahoos --

first off, I want to thank you for the great job you're doing staying focused on executing our priorities. there's obviously been a lot of talk about yahoo! in recent days and we won't let it distract us from pursuing our transformation strategy.

roy and I have communicated about the thorough review process our board is going through right now. the board is focused on maximizing the value of yahoo!'s tremendous assets for our shareholders. and it is going to take the time it needs to do it right.

as we've said, no decisions have been made about microsoft's proposal. our board is thoughtfully evaluating a wide range of potential strategic alternatives in what is a complex and evolving landscape. and we've hired top advisors to assist through the process.

what's become clear in the past few days is how much people care about this company. we've seen a strong show of support from our users, advertisers, and publishers, reminding us how much they love our products and services. and i've heard from many of you -- and from other friends and colleagues from around silicon valley and across the globe -- that we need to do what's best for yahoo! and our shareholders. i promise you that the board is going to do that.

the microsoft interest highlights the tremendous strength of the yahoo! brand and assets: our half billion users around the world, our leading products and services, our open ad network, our technology, and most of all, our amazingly talented people.

we have a lot to be excited about and there's more good news to come. yesterday we announced a digital music partnership with rhapsody and our acquisition of foxytunes, maker of the popular music toolbar plugin. today we launched zimbra 5.0, a next generation e-mail and collaboration suite that's a great milestone in our open platform and starting point strategies. and stay tuned for exciting announcements next week at the mobile world congress.

as we look to build on the progress we've been making, i want to make sure you all realize how essential you are to yahoo!'s success. as this process moves forward, we're going to keep you informed. your hard work and strong commitment are more important now than ever before.

jerry

[edmundh]

What, Yahoo! doesn't allow use of the Shift key?

Is this typical of tech cos culture, to send out company wide emails that will be seen by millions without the use of one capital letter? I realize that in casual online chats and texts, the use of capitals is seen as optional, but in this context, shouldn't we expect proper form? Or maybe I'm just a middle aged fuddy duddy.

[Lee in San Diego]

It seems to be a young geek thing

Is another middle-aged guy, coming up on being an old fart, I
am with you on this. From my observations the phenomenon
seems to be prevalent among the young geeks, particularly tech
types. If you can learn syntax for writing code you can learn
syntax for written communication.

If you are OSX user, Windows may also have something similar,
open Dictionary.

1. From the "Go" menu chose "Front/Back Matter."

2. Scroll down to "Guide to Capitalization and Punctuation."

[MNNice]

I agree

They say people are more likely to "hear" HOW you say something rather then WHAT you say. The same goes for writing. The lack of professionalism was all that I could draw from this memo. I am officially old.

[AstyReally]

Jerry wrote that without caps?

And I thought, why is CNet printing it in all-small!!! lol

[freeyourmind]

Punctuation is next....

the next avant-garde thing will be to remove all punctuation from a memo in this way you appear really cool and edgy which is often more important that being comprehensible

i am going to google that let the words be the message

[worthknowing]

we techs realized the msg gets communicated

techies have outdone the 'old school' by innovating. part of that process is the relentless pursuit of doing more with less. in written language we realize the message still gets communicated without capitals. further it seems the only punctuation needed is '?', ',', and '.'.