You must have heard, "Carol Bartz is fired". What?!!! Who is Carol Bartz? She is the ex-CEO of Yahoo! She was fired September 6, 2011. According to the pundits, Yahoo! is profitable however it is lagging to Google, Facebook and others. I think the fundamental problem is that Yahoo! used to compete with Google. Unfortunately it is morphing into a content provider like Slate.com, Forbes.com, WashingtonPost.com. Eventhough Yahoo! is profitable, they cannot keep up with the Google and Facebooks of the world. Here is a good example, Look at how Ms. Bartz tells the world that she is no longer the CEO of Yahoo!. She sends an email with the following:
To all,
I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board. It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward.
Carol
Sent from my iPadSee the issue? You may think it is the email. True. Shooting an email to your ex-employees that you were fired has issues but I am not going there. The issue I see is that it was sent from her iPad.
Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook are evolving to companies which develop and disseminate content; and develop the software and hardware which dissemiinate content. Facebook is not in the hardware business however they are creating waves by funding software projects which work around Apple's devices limitation on Flash. Apple is not a content generator (not yet atleast) but they are the best content deliverer. Google is not a content generator but a content aggregator, content searcher and a content deliverer. Facebook is a content generator, content aggregators, and a content deliverer. Microsoft is pretty much all over the place with Bing, MSN.com, slate.com and others.
Yahoo! used to be know for the search engine however it has evolved in a purely a content provider. Folks would agree that Yahoo! would be mentioned with companies like AOL (yes that same AOL), What Yahoo! needs to do is get back in the hardware and software side of things. Yes, Yahoo has a get great AJAX library however they need to something interesting like buy RIM and rebrand it with Yahoo! content. I don't know if this is possible but a move like that would bring Yahoo back in the business. In conclusion, I would have appreciated Ms. Bartz if her email stated the following:
To all,
I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board. It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward.
Carol
Sent from my Yahoo! Tablet
