Question

How has Yahoo corporate level strategy changed under Semel, and then under Bartz? What has Bartz done to reconfigure Yahoo, and what challenges remain? Do you think she was successful?

Answer 1

Yahoo is an American web services provider headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The company was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994.

TERRY SEMEL

He is an American corporate executive who was the chairman and CEO of Yahoo incorporated from 2001-2007. Previously, he spent 24 years in Warner Bros.

In april 2001, Semel was granted stock options with an SEC Fair Value of $110 million as a bonus to join Yahoo.

What happen during Terry Semel's Leadership?

- As CEO, Semel approved Yahoo cooperation with chinese officals to release previously Yahoo confidential information to the chinese goverment.

- Company founders Jerry Yang and David Filo suggested him to look to buy Google, whose founders looked at Yahoo inventors. Semel had dinner with Larry Page and Sergey Brin, CO-FOUNDERS OF GOOGLE, asking what was their business was with Yahoo paying only $7 million annually as its biggest liceneser of Google search technology. So, Semel proposed to buy Google. They replied that they want $1 billion and did not want to sell. After thinking of the price, Semel agreed to the $1 billion price but again Page and Brin denied by saying they want $3 billion and dont want to sell.

- Semel was given the mandate by Yahoo board to buy facebook for up to 1.2 billon dollars, Mark Zuckerberg (Founder of Facebook), having asked for $1 billion. He tried to make it for for $850 million, and Zuckerberg stopped the negotiating process.

Semel ended his 6 years tenure as CEO and handed over the resignation to co founder Jerry Yang due to part from shareholders dissatisfaction over his compensation and performance. The last offered salary to him was $1.

Methods that Semel followed during his tenure

Attracting Major Advertisers

Purchase Of Companies

Introduce Paid Services

Strengthening The Position in The Search Engines.

The Concept of Network Optimisation

Marketing Collaborations

CAROL BARTZ- He replaced Yang as CEO in january 2009. In 2011, she was removed from her position at Yahoo by the company's chairman Roy Bostock.

Carol Bartz Corporate Strategy

Carol Bartz has a long to-do list chart-

Chart the company's strategy

Weigh a potential search partnership with microsoft

Boost morale and round out her management team

Carol Bartz has long warned that reviving Yahoo will take some time. She tried to reverse a slide years in the making and one of the analysts said it caused because of slow decision making, stiff competition and a failure to capitalize on the social networking craze.

Ms Bartz strategy was, in part, to refocus the company on its strenghts like news, sports and finance. The company has invested heavily in content last year, hiring dozens of editorial employees, buying associated content, a freelance news site, to enhance local news coverage.

Email and instant messaging, Yahoo most popular products, were also a priority.

Carol Bartz had cut costs by outsourcing companies that are no longer central to Yahoo's strategy. Personal, job listings and real estate all are now largely handled by third parties.

Yahoo was adrift after a bruising takeover batlle with microsoft at the time of joining of Ms Bartz.

She was charged by regaining the trust of investors, who had attacked the company's board for failing to accept microsoft bid and she also declined to be interviewed for this article.

Under Carol Bartz

With an audience of nearly 700 million, Bartz has built Yahoo into a leading digital company with 12 first ranked properties in the US and globally

She planned to focus on the online display advertising business to grow revenues

Bartz virtuall spent no shareholder money on M&A during her tenure with an exception of buying interclick for arounf $267 million

Yahoo share price was $12.26/share at the time Bartz joined (14/01/2009) and Yahoo stock opened at $12.52/share on the day Yahoo board fired Bartz (06/09/2011)

The real problem was for the shareholders was that Yahoo's stock price was flat for her tenure at the same time that the Nasdaq was booming.

Methods Bartz during her tenure-

Refusal of Microsoft's Bid

Hand Over Search Operation to Microsoft

Cut Down Costs and Increased Profits

Creation of Job Positions

Creating Customer Advocacy Group

Compound of The Products and Technologies in a Single Unit

What Bartz Done To Reconfigure Yahoo?

- Began to refocus the firm on the strong side.

- News, sports, finance and other areas have been made.

- Signed an agreement with microsoft and this allowed the company to abandon some of costs i.e INFRSTRUCTURAL MAINTAINANCE.

- She made "clean" in the leadership ranks of the company.

- Creation of new jobs.

- Creation of customer feedback.

Yes, i thing Bartz was successful and her leadership style provide company with huge profits. She was a very smart manager. The points mentioned below can be conidered for her successful leadership.

Restructuring and Cost Cutting

Experience in consumer space

She is a fast study and surrounded herself with very smart people

She made great forecastings

She organises the company when it was at declining stage

She provide company with huge profits