Business | Technology
Yahoo staffers have little to cheer about
A week after Microsoft announced its $42.2 billion bid to take over Yahoo, the mood inside the struggling internet group remains a mixture of hope and fear.
- By Kevin Allison, Financial Times
- Published: 01:04 February 9, 2008
A week after Microsoft announced its $42.2 billion bid to take over Yahoo, the mood inside the struggling internet group remains a mixture of hope and fear.
With morale near rock bottom after several years of failed attempts to catch up with Google, employees appear to be torn between their desire for change and dismay at the thought of Yahoo falling into the hands of long-time rival Microsoft.
"People are all over the place," says one insider. "No one knows what is going to happen."
While there is a clear desire for change, many inside Yahoo loathe the thought of going to work for Microsoft.
"I think I'd have trouble working for [Microsoft] because of what they stand for," says one Yahoo executive. "They're not bad or evil, but it's kind of like working for General Electric. There's not a whole lot of excitement about changing the world."
Still, he says a Microsoft deal may provide the kind of shake-up Yahoo needs to get its business back on track. "If Microsoft is good at anything, it's at picking a priority and hammering at it as hard as they can.
"Personally, I'm kind of excited," says another Yahoo engineer. "Something needs to happen strategically and [Microsoft] is certainly one potential option."
Several Yahoo insiders who spoke to the FT said they were frustrated by the apparent lack of leadership on the part of Jerry Yang, the Yahoo founder who replaced Terry Semel as chief executive in June. "He hasn't been hugely inspiring," says one employee.
"He hasn't provided a vision. The problem is that everybody at the company knows there is more potential and the fact that we can't tap into that potential is just excruciating."
Another employee says: "The motivation is supposed to be that someone in the press says something nice about Yahoo or there's been a nominal uptick in share price, as opposed to the belief that you're doing something awesome."
Yahoo alumni say it is painful to consider the prospect of their old company falling into the arms of Microsoft. "For those of us who bled purple and yellow for so long, most of the scuttlebutt has been that this is the end of an era," says one early employee.
"The culture that made Yahoo great still had glimmerings of life as Yahoo. As Microsoft it's just dead."
Several employees say friends and colleagues are dusting off their resumes.
"Everyone I've spoken to who is still there is like 'it's time to pull the rip-cord'," says a former employee.
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