Critics say Jerry Yang and David Filo blew it by getting into 11th-hour negotiations directly with Steve Ballmer. But other company founders say the dynamics of the end game are more complicated than that.
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Charles Cooper has covered technology and business for more than 25 years. A graduate of Queens College and Columbia University, Cooper received the Excellence in Journalism award from the Northern California branch of the Society for Professional Journalists for column writing.
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But your theme is valid - Yahoo blew its fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders bad. They should have sold in a heartbeat, just as Legg Mason pressed them to do. Under SEC regs, the shareholders have the ammo now to bring a class action against Yahoo and wring value out of a company which has been mismanaged since day one.
If Yang and crew think they had headaches dealing with Microsoft's offer, they ain't seen nothing yet. At least that's my forecast - a shareholder revolt lead by Bill Miller and crew, who will strip the company bare and rightly so. Just my two cents.
If they had sold out, they would be in limbo for years
More like this and the CNET future would be better.
Who is in a better position? Gee, that is a tough one.
Both MS and Yahoo would have been in a world of hurt had Yahoo sold out. The greedy investors crying now would have been really crying in 4 years.
Yahoo made the correct decision for Yahoo. That is what matters. Yahoo is considerably better off now than 6 months ago and are looking even stronger given the recent forays in partnership.
The idiots who lost money last week are idiots. They didn't have a clue what they were doing. The long term investors are happy because Yahoo's stock price is considerably higher than it was in January and is looking like it will steady increase now that it had a fire lit under it.
This is a rare example of Ballmers incompetence not destroying something. Of course, had Yahoo sold out, his track record of ruining everything would still be intact.
That Ballmer and MS wanted to buy Yahoo is just another example of how MS has lost its way and has no idea how to try to get its relevance back in a world were the desktop isn't quite as important as it once was.
The only shareholders that need to be complaining are MS shareholders.
- by christianhgross May 11, 2008 2:53 PM PDT
- >The founder will have the best interests of his/her company at heart. Shareholders are only looking for a fast buck. Who is in a better position?
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- by The_Decider May 12, 2008 6:27 AM PDT
- It is his company.
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(10 Comments)Yes shareholders might want a fast buck. BUT as the nature of the beast is, Yang has around 10% of the company. Thus while he might be a shareholder he is not the majority and hence has to do what the shareholders want. Jerry Yang acted completely wrong!
> maybe i'm wrong in my thoughts but doesn't thie company belong to the shreholders now??no matter who started it.
If Jerry Yang owned 50.1% of the company he could do what he wanted to, but he doesn't and hence its NOT HIS COMPANY...
Yahoo is in a much better position for growth without Microsoft. If MS had bought Yahoo, nothing of value would have come from it.