A discussion about the software industry and their coders

From an internet hero, overnight Jerry Yang has had to contend with becoming a near dud who turned down a lucurative offer from Microsoft (MSFT). My personal regard for Jerry Yang apart -- it is ominous to see that a Fortune 500 company that clocks $ 6 billion in annual revenues -- is struggling to find support from stakeholders. The Internet Economy that Yahoo! helped pioneer is ready to forget it and move on.

Though some comments are supportive from people happy that the Microhoo deal didn't go through; most seem upset. Most of the media articles are wondering what went through Yang's mind to say *No* to Microsoft. Here are some angry comments posted to Jerry Yang's blog on Yahoo! Anecdotal about life after Microsoft withdrew its offer to acquire Y!:

• You’ve all been “Yanged.” -- The Fly
• I have Yahoo shares for sale at $25.00 per share. if you you Mr. Yang is interested, please contact me . It is an excellent deal, as according to you it worth $37.00. -- Peter

• Very simple to sum up - you guys got lazy. Previously, you were the 2GFS (Guys from Stanford) that everyone was talking about. Unfortunately that baton has been passed on to Google -- Manish Jain

• microsoft’s offer was a distraction to you? actually you are the distraction to yahoo. all these years your leadership led the company to this position, something that needs help to survive. its too sad, you were aiming for a higher price and when you dont get it, everything else is a distraction. give it up jerry, there is nothing you can do to improve yahoo.. JV

• It is very clear Google is kicking your butt every day and Yahoo! as a company is unable to execute on any sort of a strategic strategy. Microsoft made an offer last year at $40 a share, this year at $33 a share, and a year from now we will be talking about $23 a share. Have fun dealing with all the shareholder lawsuits and congrats to the shorts because they are the only people making money on your stock. Did you forget publicly traded corporations are owned by the shareholders? Did you forget your fiduciary responsibility to your shareholders? Someone said it best in an earlier post, “You have been Yanged”. -- David

• Some questions for you to ponder.
  1) If Yahoo! Search has lost to Google over 20% market share (not ads — pure search) how is it that people in the Search BU have been getting promotions? Search Product Managers seem to run your BU like an owned business. No new Ideas…VPs who try to keep control. Why do product heads get promoted in a failed business???
  2) If no great new social platforms came from Platforms Product Managers how is that that directors became VPs or senior directors? You need to hire and promote people who have product ideas get them from facebook maybe?
  3) You talk about R&D lab in India. I keep hearing that your Indian employees have no real careers — it is all controlled from US. What crap story are you telling?
  You obviously have slept or have been cheated by your own executives who have not told you true stories. Whatever it is, however sad, you can still revive yahoo or sell to Microsoft. Fire directors and vps in product or engineering who have performed only on paper not in reality — that would be a new start. -- Thinker Guy

• This is not 1996. MSFT did offer a good price. I hope you have something up your sleeve to show everyone, otherwise, I feel this was a bad decision, based more on Ego (of which I have a lot of), than good business sense. Like Mr Schultz at Starbucks, you where in the right place at the right time with the right product, at one point in your life… one of the hardest things to do, is ‘do it again’. -- Peter Lewis

• If Yahoo has $2.5 billion, they should invest it into silver. Yes, the physical metal, but not gold. Why silver? Because there is probably not even $1 billion worth of physical silver available to buy. Thus, Yahoo’s $2.5 billion would turn into $25 billion to $100 billion in about 2-5 years, and they could buy google out. $2.5 billion / $17/oz. = 147 million oz. of silver.-- Jason Hommel

• Yahoo! take your last Chance! -- CableCom

Noticing that AOL has also downspiralled during the last few years, it seems that Yahoo! lost a golden chance. Yahoo!'s revial, if it happens, will be long, slow, and probably through a humiliating path of acknowledging Google's superiority in various areas including Search Technology and Advertising. Jerry Yang has said that he is ok to re-open discussions with Microsoft. Will Ballmer take the bait? In another ominous pointer Bill Gates said, Microsoft wont pursue other deals and would focus on its independent strategy:

Microsoft won't be pursuing tie-ups or takeovers to replace its failed Yahoo bid, Bill Gates said in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Gates, who cofounded the software maker and serves as its chairman, said Microsoft had "put a lot of effort into talking to Yahoo."

Referencing comments made by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Gates said that "now at this point, Microsoft is focused on its independent strategy."

I have doubts whether Microsoft can take Google on its own. Seems needless posturing to me. John Battelle doesnt believe them either and he rightly posits that the magic is in *harvesting* (monetizing) the online brand -- once built:

Google is the greatest harvester of brand equity built elsewhere in the history of media. And kudos to the company for figuring out a way to do it.

Now, the hard part comes. How to build brand equity, awareness, preference, and the like, on the web? It's one of the largest questions facing the web economy. And while the thesis that Microsoft is pursuing is sound, the proof, well, that's quite a bowl of messy pudding at the moment. Buying Facebook, or Yahoo, or any other major nexis of engaged consumers is only step one.  

What do you think?