Friday, March 27, 2009
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Yahoo Investors Want CEO Search to Review Outsiders (Update3)
Yahoo! Inc. investors say the search to replace Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang should focus on a turnaround expert from outside the Internet company who can draw Microsoft Corp. back into takeover talks.
Yahoo announced plans this week to replace Yang, fueling speculation the board will seek to woo Microsoft back. Hiring an insider such as President Susan Decker may signal Yahoo is planning “more of the same,” limiting the likelihood of new talks, said Darren Bagwell, director of equity research at Thrivent Asset Management Inc.
“Who’s kidding who? We all know what the endgame is,” said Bagwell, whose Appleton, Wisconsin-based firm had about $73 billion in assets under management, including Yahoo shares, as of September. “The board finally recognizes that there’s frustration and change is required.”
Possible candidates include former Yahoo executives Ellen Siminoff and Dan Rosensweig, he said. Whoever takes the job will be charged with rejuvenating a stock that has plunged by more than half since Yang took over and shoring up Internet advertising sales that are increasingly falling behind those of Google Inc.
UBS AG analyst Ben Schachter identified News Corp. President Peter Chernin and former EBay Inc. chief Meg Whitman as potential choices. Either may balk at joining a company that’s only being prepared for a sale, according to Bagwell.
“Why would Chernin, Whitman or somebody like that really want to sign up for Yahoo?” Bagwell said. “If I were a betting man, I’d be leaning more toward a pick that’s less high profile, probably somebody more operationally focused.”
Siminoff’s Side
Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, California, dropped $2.41, or 21 percent, to $9.14 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reiterated that the company isn’t interested in buying Yahoo. The decline, the biggest in more than two years, took the shares to their lowest point in more than five.
The stock rose 8.7 percent yesterday after Yang said he would step down once a successor is found. Microsoft dropped $1.33, or 6.8 percent, to $18.29 today.
Siminoff, a Yahoo senior vice president until 2002 and now chairman of Efficient Frontier Inc., declined to say whether Yahoo had contacted her.
“Yahoo’s been down before but not out,” she said in a phone interview yesterday. “Jerry truly wants what is best for the company. If he stepped down, it meant that he thought it was time for a change.”
Time for Change
Chernin and Rosensweig, a former Yahoo chief operating officer, didn’t return phone messages. EBay’s Whitman couldn’t be reached. Yahoo spokeswoman Kim Rubey declined to comment. The company confirmed yesterday that Decker, 46, is a candidate. Yahoo has hired Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. to help find a new leader.
Chernin is a 2-to-1 favorite to succeed Yang, Irish bookmaker Paddy Power Plc said today in an e-mailed statement. Yahoo board member John Chapple’s odds are 4-to-1, and Rosensweig has a 9-to-2 chance, said the firm, the largest bookmaker in Ireland.
Microsoft backed away from a $47.5 billion takeover bid for Yahoo this year. Frank Shaw, a spokesman for the Redmond, Washington-based software maker, declined to comment.
“There’s no guarantee that Microsoft comes back,” said Clay Moran, an analyst at Stanford Group Co. in Boca Raton, Florida. “You’ve got to create a strategy based on the expectation of being a stand-alone company.”
Chief Yahoo
Yang, 40, will return to his role as Chief Yahoo, overseeing strategy, partnerships and recruiting with co-founder David Filo. His successor will face a deteriorating market for online advertising, thanks to the global economic crisis and a U.S. recession. Clients in the finance, travel, retail and automotive industries are cutting spending, Yang said last month.
Yahoo’s profit has declined in 10 of the past 11 quarters, with net sales growth slowing to 3 percent last quarter from 14 percent a year earlier. About one-third of investors withheld their votes from Yang’s re-election to the board in August in a show of disapproval.
Google fielded about 63 percent of U.S. Internet searches in September, more than three times that of Yahoo, according to research firm ComScore Inc. of Reston, Virginia. Microsoft had about 8.5 percent. U.S. online advertising spending may grow 20 percent this year to $25.5 billion, according to Collins Stewart Plc.
Yang planned to expand Yahoo’s share of the online ad market by spending on technology to make the ad-buying process faster. His replacement will have to do more to help Yahoo catch Google, said Mark May, an analyst at Needham & Co. in New York.
“Where they’ve fallen behind the most is probably in terms of technological innovation and engineering,” said May, who advises holding on to Yahoo shares. “A media-centric CEO is probably not the right fit right now.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Crayton Harrison in Dallas at tharrison5@bloomberg.net.
Yahoo announced plans this week to replace Yang, fueling speculation the board will seek to woo Microsoft back. Hiring an insider such as President Susan Decker may signal Yahoo is planning “more of the same,” limiting the likelihood of new talks, said Darren Bagwell, director of equity research at Thrivent Asset Management Inc.
“Who’s kidding who? We all know what the endgame is,” said Bagwell, whose Appleton, Wisconsin-based firm had about $73 billion in assets under management, including Yahoo shares, as of September. “The board finally recognizes that there’s frustration and change is required.”
Possible candidates include former Yahoo executives Ellen Siminoff and Dan Rosensweig, he said. Whoever takes the job will be charged with rejuvenating a stock that has plunged by more than half since Yang took over and shoring up Internet advertising sales that are increasingly falling behind those of Google Inc.
UBS AG analyst Ben Schachter identified News Corp. President Peter Chernin and former EBay Inc. chief Meg Whitman as potential choices. Either may balk at joining a company that’s only being prepared for a sale, according to Bagwell.
“Why would Chernin, Whitman or somebody like that really want to sign up for Yahoo?” Bagwell said. “If I were a betting man, I’d be leaning more toward a pick that’s less high profile, probably somebody more operationally focused.”
Siminoff’s Side
Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, California, dropped $2.41, or 21 percent, to $9.14 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reiterated that the company isn’t interested in buying Yahoo. The decline, the biggest in more than two years, took the shares to their lowest point in more than five.
The stock rose 8.7 percent yesterday after Yang said he would step down once a successor is found. Microsoft dropped $1.33, or 6.8 percent, to $18.29 today.
Siminoff, a Yahoo senior vice president until 2002 and now chairman of Efficient Frontier Inc., declined to say whether Yahoo had contacted her.
“Yahoo’s been down before but not out,” she said in a phone interview yesterday. “Jerry truly wants what is best for the company. If he stepped down, it meant that he thought it was time for a change.”
Time for Change
Chernin and Rosensweig, a former Yahoo chief operating officer, didn’t return phone messages. EBay’s Whitman couldn’t be reached. Yahoo spokeswoman Kim Rubey declined to comment. The company confirmed yesterday that Decker, 46, is a candidate. Yahoo has hired Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. to help find a new leader.
Chernin is a 2-to-1 favorite to succeed Yang, Irish bookmaker Paddy Power Plc said today in an e-mailed statement. Yahoo board member John Chapple’s odds are 4-to-1, and Rosensweig has a 9-to-2 chance, said the firm, the largest bookmaker in Ireland.
Microsoft backed away from a $47.5 billion takeover bid for Yahoo this year. Frank Shaw, a spokesman for the Redmond, Washington-based software maker, declined to comment.
“There’s no guarantee that Microsoft comes back,” said Clay Moran, an analyst at Stanford Group Co. in Boca Raton, Florida. “You’ve got to create a strategy based on the expectation of being a stand-alone company.”
Chief Yahoo
Yang, 40, will return to his role as Chief Yahoo, overseeing strategy, partnerships and recruiting with co-founder David Filo. His successor will face a deteriorating market for online advertising, thanks to the global economic crisis and a U.S. recession. Clients in the finance, travel, retail and automotive industries are cutting spending, Yang said last month.
Yahoo’s profit has declined in 10 of the past 11 quarters, with net sales growth slowing to 3 percent last quarter from 14 percent a year earlier. About one-third of investors withheld their votes from Yang’s re-election to the board in August in a show of disapproval.
Google fielded about 63 percent of U.S. Internet searches in September, more than three times that of Yahoo, according to research firm ComScore Inc. of Reston, Virginia. Microsoft had about 8.5 percent. U.S. online advertising spending may grow 20 percent this year to $25.5 billion, according to Collins Stewart Plc.
Yang planned to expand Yahoo’s share of the online ad market by spending on technology to make the ad-buying process faster. His replacement will have to do more to help Yahoo catch Google, said Mark May, an analyst at Needham & Co. in New York.
“Where they’ve fallen behind the most is probably in terms of technological innovation and engineering,” said May, who advises holding on to Yahoo shares. “A media-centric CEO is probably not the right fit right now.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Crayton Harrison in Dallas at tharrison5@bloomberg.net.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Major press association against Google-Yahoo deal
A major world press association asked European and North American regulators on Monday to block a Google-Yahoo deal on antitrust grounds.
The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) wants an advertising agreement between the two leading search engines blocked, saying the deal would hamper revenues provided to newspapers and other websites, RIA Novosti announced.
The association “believes that the competition that currently exists between Google and Yahoo is absolutely essential to ensuring that our member titles receive competitive returns for online advertising on their sites, and for obtaining competitive prices when they purchase paid search advertising,” said Gavin O’Reilly, president of the Paris-based WAN.
He also said that “the proposed deal will fatally weaken Yahoo as a competitor” and “give Google unwarranted market power over important segments of online advertising.”
Under the agreement between the companies, Yahoo would be able to run ads supplied by Google alongside its own search results, while Google “has refused to allow Yahoo to show Google ads on the websites of new publishing partners it acquires” and “has imposed a condition that impedes one of Yahoo’s last remaining opportunities to compete with Google,” WAN said.
The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) wants an advertising agreement between the two leading search engines blocked, saying the deal would hamper revenues provided to newspapers and other websites, RIA Novosti announced.
The association “believes that the competition that currently exists between Google and Yahoo is absolutely essential to ensuring that our member titles receive competitive returns for online advertising on their sites, and for obtaining competitive prices when they purchase paid search advertising,” said Gavin O’Reilly, president of the Paris-based WAN.
He also said that “the proposed deal will fatally weaken Yahoo as a competitor” and “give Google unwarranted market power over important segments of online advertising.”
Under the agreement between the companies, Yahoo would be able to run ads supplied by Google alongside its own search results, while Google “has refused to allow Yahoo to show Google ads on the websites of new publishing partners it acquires” and “has imposed a condition that impedes one of Yahoo’s last remaining opportunities to compete with Google,” WAN said.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
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