Loeb's vision of Yahoo

Absrtact: Yahoo's future will follow (Tencent technology map) Yahoo announced today, Scott Thompson (Scott Thompson) will resign as Yahoo CEO position. Earlier because of falling into the academic background of the incident was the media hype, Thompson was Yahoo big shareholder Force Palace.

Yahoo's future will follow (Tencent Science and technology with map)

Yahoo announced today that Scott Thompson Scott Thompson will resign as CEO of Yahoo. Earlier because of falling into the "education gate" incident was the media hype, Thompson was Yahoo big shareholder Force Palace.

Yahoo also announced the appointment of Ross Levinson (Ross Levinsohn) as the company's interim chief executive. Levinson previously served as Yahoo Executive vice president and global media director, mainly responsible for Yahoo market strategy, technology development and content creation. Prior to joining Yahoo, Levinson served as president of News Corp's Fox Interactive Media division. In addition, Yahoo board chairman Bostock Roy Bostock agreed to immediately withdraw from the board, Director Frede Amoroso (Fred Amoroso) will serve as Chairman of the board. Amoroso, who joined Yahoo this February, is considered one of Silicon Valley's most avid patent wars. ”

Daniel Loeb, a radical investor, holds 5.8% of Yahoo's stake through Third point of its fund, Daniel Le Boux. The departure of Thompson and Bostock is considered a preliminary victory for Mr. Loeb's proxy battle against Yahoo. Mr Loeb has previously launched a proxy scramble for Yahoo's four-seat board.

What will happen to Yahoo in the coming months, with the departure of Thompson and Bostock? While Yahoo's appointment as chairman of the Board may have been aimed at launching more patent infringement lawsuits, it is clear that Mr. Loeb's proxy scramble will not end with the ouster of Thompson and Bostock.

Loeb currently runs a Web site called "Evaluating Yahoo" (value Yahoo). The site is designed to promote the idea that Loeb and three other Yahoo directors nominate candidates. The trio were restructuring experts, Mavea Group chief executive Harry Wilson Harry Wilson, a media consultant and Michael (Michael J. Wolf), who served as the chief operating officer of Viacom's MTV NX; Jeff Zucker, former chief executive of NBC Global, Jeff Zacher. The four referred to themselves as "shareholders nominated candidates." ”

Yahoo's "nominee for shareholders" is only interested in one thing: boosting Yahoo's share price to profit from it. Loeb and three other candidates talk about "adding value", but they are referring to the value of monetization. As the technology blogger Henry Bloggit Henry Blodget, Mark Zuckerberg's job at Facebook is to create "social values", something that is not the job of Mr Loeb and Wilson.

Loeb's vision of Yahoo

Frankly, Loeb and his partners ("Loeb Group") want to optimize Yahoo's assets. What they are most dissatisfied with Thompson is not doing enough to deal with Asian assets. Yahoo, in particular, holds 42% per cent of Alibaba Group. According to the Loeb Group, Alibaba Group's current valuation is $35 billion trillion, and there is still a huge room for growth. Loeb Group believes that Alibaba Group will push Yahoo's share price rise: "Alibaba Group valuation up 20%, will be able to allow Yahoo per share price increase of nearly 2 U.S. dollars." ”

The agenda of the "Evaluate Yahoo" website shows that Loeb Group stresses their desire to implement "major institutional adjustments to strategically deploy assets and human resources, highlighting Yahoo's strengths and best opportunities." "The agenda lists 9 initiatives. For example, they want Yahoo to expand in the area of video and mobile. But looking at any media company, this is also their strategic plan.

Thompson's strategic plan for the difference between Loeb

In a conference call for the first analyst to be CEO of Yahoo, Mr. Thompson talked about reducing Yahoo's size and making the company more focused on its core business. "Yahoo will quit all business that has no contribution to the company's core advertising and e-commerce business," he commented. Mr Thompson also said Yahoo would close or sell at least 50 assets not associated with its core business. Earlier, Yahoo has laid off 2000 people to cut spending and streamline business.

From Thompson's strategic deployment, he is more focused on cutting Yahoo's spending. In addition, Thompson wants to authorize Yahoo's intellectual property to find a way to get a chance. That's why Yahoo sued Facebook this March for patent infringement.

In his "Yahoo" site, Loeb did not mention the issue of patents. But Amoroso, the chairman of Yahoo's board, may push Yahoo to take legal action to get more royalties.

What are the changes that Yahoo's new interim chief executive Levinson will bring to the company? Although Levinson has a high profile in the Internet industry, it is likely that his current mission is to maintain the stability of Yahoo, while Loeb and Amoroso will determine Yahoo's new strategic direction. Loeb has been plotting for a long time to push up Yahoo's share price. From now on, he will have a chance to fulfill his wishes.

Industry insiders point out that in the long run, it is not yet possible to confirm that Loeb's motives are good or bad for Yahoo. It seems that Loeb's approach is to make Yahoo shareholders more profitable than to make Yahoo a real internet innovator.