Google deal gets 'big eye roll' from Yahoo employees
As spectators of the Yahoo-Microsoft-Google-AOL marital fight, the employees at Yahoo might have the worst seats in the house.
Not only are Yahoo's rank-and-file still undergoing reorganization after the company's layoffs two months ago, but they're also having to endure constant self-help messages from management whenever there's bad news in the media about Yahoo. (And that's fairly often these days.)
According to one Yahoo employee, executives regularly send internal communications restating that Yahoo is "doing the right thing" and is more valuable by remaining an independent company.
That message is generally positive, but the frequency and reactive quality of it causes some employees to wonder whether managers believe the notion themselves. And some employees lost confidence in the idea this week, after Yahoo said it would test Google's search advertisements in place of its own.
"We blinked and got in bed with one of our biggest competitors. How does that back up the idea of what a great, independent company we are?" according to one Yahoo employee, who asked to remain anonymous.
"That news got the big eye roll," the source added.
What's more, Yahoo is still trying to reorganize the deck chairs in its units, following layoffs of more than 10 percent of its staff in February. One source inside Yahoo said it's not uncommon for executives to hold planning meetings for follow-up planning meetings, Dilbert-style. That bureaucracy could cause more Yahoo talent to leave for opportunities elsewhere.
"There's a lot of pent-up creativity," the source said. "Morale is in the sh**ter."
And then, one Friday afternoon in Outlook, we were reading a reassuring email from the leadership about business as usual while in Internet Explorer we were reading F'd Company or Red Herring telling us about the layoffs that would happen Monday morning.
On Monday, golden parachutes and pink slips were handed out.
The Yahoo! thing is playing out much more slowly and I feel bad for all the employees... the writing is on the wall and I'm guessing that every smart Yahoo! employee is desperately trying to jump ship before it slips under the water pulling them down with it.
By the time Barry Diller and IAC show up to shove what's left of Yahoo! into the back of an unmarked white van at $4/share, the humble beginnings of the commercial, public internet as we long-timers know it will be relegated to the history books with alongside MapQuest, Rent.net, HomeGrocer, SixDegrees, AltaVista, and Earthlink.
All that will remain, ironically, is CNET.