A few months I threw a public hissy fit and declared on this blog that Yahoo is dead to me. And they were.
But in four months since I wrote that post, they did some good things.
1) they asked the CEO who led them down the patent troll route to leave the company
2) they invited some smart shareholder activists on the Board
3) they settled with Facebook and abandoned the patent troll route
4) and yesterday they selected Marissa Mayer as their new CEO
That's a string of good decisions culiminating in the wooing of Marissa. As Marc Andreessen said in this interview yesterday, "I didn't think they could get someone like Marissa".
The Yahoo! board went out and got Marissa to lead the company. And they kept their mouths shut in the process and the news surprised everyone. That's how you run a company, a board, and a process. Well done.
It feels like a new leaf has been turned. Marissa has a tough job turning around a company that has had failed leadership forever. I have not worked closely with Marissa but I have seen her up close. She is serious, intense, crisp, data driven, and opinionated. When I think of Marissa, I think of this Jim Barksdale quote:
"If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine."
That approach should serve her well. I wish her and Yahoo! luck and I am rooting for them.
