] HipMojo.com » It’s Official: Jerry Yang Won

It’s Official: Jerry Yang Won

Sure, at $19.80 a share, Yahoo!’s shares now find themselves below even where they were on the eve of MSFT’s unsolicited $44.6B offer.  But make no mistake about it: Jerry Yang has won.

Don’t get me wrong, the first thing you learn in finance is that the objective of the financial manager is to maximize shareholder value.  But that misses one major point: up until this year, Jerry Yang was never the CEO (or CFO) of the company.  He was Chief Yahoo and a legendary figure in web history.  From the get-go, he and co-founder David Filo hired experienced managers to run the company and worry about the share price.

As a former shareholder who bought thousands of shares in the $20-25 range and ultimately sold my entire position in the $28-30 range, I won’t lie, I was displeased with Yang (and the entire Yahoo! board, that essentially “won” too by being voted back on).

But as a fellow entrepreneur, I give Yang a lot of credit and yes, respect, for proven to be resilient, persistent, tenacious and ultimately, hard headed enough not to listen to everyone (including me) who said “it’s over, YHOO is MSFT’s”.

Yang supporters - and MSFT denigrators” will argue that MSFT would have ruined YHOO, too.  But that’s all moot now.  YHOO is in bed with Google, Yang is in control… and having hinted at seeking to bring in former AOL chief Jon Miller to replace him - only to realize Miller was unavailable for at least one more year to a non-compete he signed with AOL upon his departure - Yang is in charge for some time to come.

Don’t get me wrong, Yang might very well seek a replacement anyway… and might very well do so now that he is in control, but that is the thing - Yang won the battle that he cared about: to retain control of an independent Yahoo!

Say what you want about all of this, but while it’s great to be aware of what others are telling you, remember that they are biased and have their own agenda.  To Yang - a billionaire many times over, born in Taiwan but now sitting on the most popular global web media brand - this is all icing on the cake… and sticking it to MSFT, Carl Icahn et al. the cherry on the icing.

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Posted By: Ashkan Karbasfrooshan | Aug 2nd

4 Responses to “It’s Official: Jerry Yang Won”

  1. kip Says:
    August 2nd, 2008 at 4:22 pm

    Not sure that being captain of a sinking ship is all that much to crow about. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Yahoo! is a goner just yet, but what Yang has “won” is just a first minor skirmish in what will be a tough tough war to come. Having Microsoft as an owner may well indeed have “ruined” Yahoo, but that may prove to be a far better position than having MS as a “resilient, persistent, tenacious and ultimately, hard headed” enemy.

  2. Ashkan Karbasfrooshan Says:
    August 2nd, 2008 at 6:18 pm

    I agree Kip, but in Yang’s view - definition of success had nothing to do with share price, long term competitiveness etc, but with retaining control (figuratively. literally he owns too little stock) of the company he founded.

    In that sense, let’s face it, he’s LAUGHING.

  3. Mother Yang Says:
    August 2nd, 2008 at 8:33 pm

    Jerry won because he is smarter than Mr. Ballmer, Mr, Icahn, and all the rest of them put together. He’s just a smart kid. They’re not.

  4. Ashkan Karbasfrooshan Says:
    August 2nd, 2008 at 8:40 pm

    Hey Mother Yang - well, mom knows best ;)

    Jerry certainly ain’t dumb, he

    - was smart enough very early on to leave his PhD to pursue Yahoo

    - was smarter to get Mike Moritz on board…

    - brought in Koogle and Semel at the right times… probably could have parted ways with Semel a bit earlier…

    But the point is: in his eyes, it’s his company, not shareholders… and he would go all out to protect his company, but not look out for the investors - public company or not…

    Indeed he “out-something-ed” everyone else. Not sure if it the “something” was hustle, determination, tenacity, or simply hunger…

    Now if only he could apply that to managing Yahoo!, then maybe he can get the respect of shareholders and analysts back, too.

    As per beating Ballmer and Icahn, well,

    - Ballmer is richer than God and is driven by a desire to beat Google, not defend MSFT; whereas Yang just wanted to protect his baby… and parents would go to any length to protect their next of kin.

    and

    - Icahn was in it for a flip… so his appetite for a fight was limited, at best. When you invest, you accept that you will win some and lose others… but when you have a baby, you want it to persevere. Ultimately, that’s a big difference.

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