Bronte Media

C’mon, who are we deluding? Yahoo is the loser in all of this takeover battle and Microsoft has tipped it in a death-spiral? No fucking way.

Yahoo induced itself into its own death spiral. More specifically, Yahoo’s management.

Microsoft’s offer for the company temporarily juiced the share price but it is now right back where it started. In fact, it wont be long until other private equity or competitors launch competing bids (and they wont be at $30+ a share).

And so when people write of the ‘exodus’ at the company and how they are losing rockstars like the Flickr and Delicious founders, I scoff. Why? Those are entrepreneurs waiting to vest. Watching Flickr’s growth explode was probably really exciting but watching the paint dry on new releases (Flickr video anyone?) was painful. As a Flickr pro user I don’t really care about how many people use the site, but I do care about a kick ass photo site. On the ownership side of the table the founders are probably in a similar situation.

Yahoo needs new leadership. Yahoo needs a mass exodus of all the people who can’t get passionate about building Yahoo. All of this is necessary for it to regain its footing. As bad as it sounds, nearly every one of those senior management people should have left because they presided over the failure in the past few years.

Is it going to be easy to turn around? Is it going to be easy to find the right people to turn it around? No and no, but nothing is easy and I have 100% confidence they will turn it around. But they need new blood.

When all is said and done and the music has stopped the one without a chair isn’t Yahoo but Microsoft. We are nearly there. It is jaw dropping to see the media swarm around Yahoo and proclaim death and yet the limp Microsoft on life support is portrayed as a savvy market player.

This wont last for long. A few quarters of financials and the truth will no doubt bubble to the top.