StanleyWong.org

There has been a lot of press about the problems at Yahoo! and their 100 day quest to reinvigorate the company. With all this bad press, one has to remember that Yahoo! has:

• Huge consumer audience – check
• Large advertising base/reach – check
• Number of branded websites – check
• Recognizable Brand Name – check

In short, Yahoo! has all the assets stacked in their favor to succeed. In the end it really boils down to:

Execution, Execution, Execution!

That’s about it. The only “sacred cow” that needs to be sacrificed by Yahoo! is the slow moving, stagnant, execution killing company culture.

Yahoo! reminds me of the classic movie Rocky 3 where Rocky Balboa has become complacent surrounded by yes men. Rocky’s trainer, Mickey, dies and can no longer protect Rocky. The fierce Clubber Lang (Google, Mr. T in the Movie) beats the living crap out of Rocky. Rocky, through the help of Apollo Creed (played by Steve Jobs), regains his confidence and the “Eye of the Tiger” to learn to fight on his own two feet.

Reinventing (or rediscovering) the company’s killer instinct (Eye of the Tiger) begins and ends with the people @ Yahoo! The way to get it back is to go back to the beginning and remember who Yahoo! really is, focus on the consumer, and (re)learn how to WIN.

Filed by SWong at 3:13 am under Yahoo!
1 Comment

              

Yahoo! just announced tonight that they acquired Blue Lithium for $300M in an all cash deal. This is an excellent move by Yahoo! to pick up one of the leading companies in the performance marketing space. Blue Lithium boasts a data driven targeting platform that is one of the best in the industry. In light of the recent multi-billion dollar acquisitions of Doubleclick ($3.1B – $300M revenue) by Google and aQuantive ($6B – $442M revenue) by Microsoft, this appears to be a excellent deal for Yahoo!

Update: It is estimated by Mashable.com that Blue Lithium’s revenue for 2006 was $100M+, further evidence that this was a good deal for Yahoo!

Coverage from around the Web:

• Mashable: AD FRENZY: Yahoo Acquires BlueLithium for $300 Million Cash – Estimated Revenues of $100M+ in 2006
• TechCrunch: Yahoo! Acquires Ad Network BlueLithium
• VentureBeat: Yahoo to acquire advertising company, BlueLithium, for $300M – Lists Blue Lithium as #5 in reach with 66%

Filed by SWong at 3:25 am under Interactive Advertising
2 Comments