曾经是互联网世界(Internet world)精英的一部分，雅虎(Yahoo)正在成为历史书上的一员。今年年初，雅虎宣布准备将其在阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的大量股份分拆给一家独立的公司后，雅虎(Yahoo)现在改变了方向，转而计划分拆其核心业务(core business)。雅虎(Yahoo)发生了什么，为什么这家公司似乎一切都出错了？让我们(Let)一起探讨一下，在这篇新闻文章中(news article)：
万维网指南
雅虎(Yahoo)于 1994 年作为Jerry Young 和 David Filo(Jerry Young and David Filo)的一个项目开始，这两位斯坦福大学的研究生在(Stanford University graduate)Internet上建立了网站目录。现在这可能看起来很疯狂，但在搜索引擎不存在的时候，这是一次成功的尝试。作为互联网泡沫的一部分，该项目成为建立雅虎名称的企业，筹集了第一笔资金并在 2000 年达到最高估值，超过 1000 亿美元。(Yahoo name)泡沫破灭的余震使雅虎股价(Yahoo)从(stock price)2000 年的 118.75 美元跌至 2001 年的 8.11 美元的历史低点。
琐事是，当 Young 和 Filo(time Young and Filo)开始注册Yahoo时，简单的Yahoo 名称(Yahoo name)已经被其他几个业务部门所采用。为了解决这个问题，最后添加了一个感叹号(exclamation mark)。雅虎(Yahoo)！允许Young 和 Filo(Young and Filo)控制商标。
全球互联网(Internet)门户网站的核心业务得到了以(core business)雅虎名称(Yahoo name)重新命名的积极收购的补充。这就是我们得到Yahoo的方式！邮件(Mail)，雅虎(Yahoo)！组(Groups)，雅虎(Yahoo)！信使等(Messenger and others)。虽然其中一些增加成功，但雅虎(Yahoo)输掉了最大的战斗：第一(number one)搜索引擎(search engine)之战。与谷歌(Google)竞争后，再使用其搜索引擎(search engine) 服务了几年，然后再次竞争，最终这家想成为“互联网(Internet)之家”的公司输掉了比赛，并进行了一系列裁员和改头换面，始终没有为他们指明摆脱困境的出路。
值得一提的是，微软(Microsoft)在 2008 年试图接管雅虎，但(Yahoo)雅虎(Yahoo)拒绝并设法阻止了这一企图。一年后，雅虎与(Yahoo)微软(Microsoft)签署了使用其搜索引擎(search engine)Bing的协议。当时，雅虎(Yahoo)的股价(stock price)比微软(Microsoft)的报价低了 60%。
Marissa Mayer和“移动优先”公司
雅虎(Yahoo)的传奇故事继续着一系列的CEO们，这些 CEO 的任期有时不到一年。现任首席执行官(CEO)玛丽莎·梅耶尔于 2012 年(Marissa Mayer)7 月(July 2012)获得这份工作，并以在雅虎(Yahoo)的死对头谷歌(Google)担任高管而享有盛誉。梅耶尔(Mayer)从谷歌(Google)的第20 号员工(employee number 20)和第一位女工程师开始，到谷歌产品搜索(Google Product Search)的副总裁(vice president)。
Mayer对员工关系进行了一系列根本性的改变，包括取消远程工作并迫使所有员工回到办公室。她为雅虎(Yahoo)制定的战略是创建一家移动优先公司和一家媒体内容创作者(content creator)。第一年雅虎(Yahoo)股价上涨，梅耶尔(stock price and Mayer)的领导似乎产生了成果。
到 2014 年，对她的决定的批评有所增加。2015年，雅虎(Yahoo)的复苏出现了逆转。今年主要讨论如何处理雅虎对(Yahoo)阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的投资。出人意料的是，新人在互联网上的成功封杀(Internet block)，让雅虎(Yahoo)陷入了困境。梅耶尔(Mayer)在年初宣布分拆对阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的投资。雅虎(Yahoo)的问题是雅虎减去这笔非常成功的投资后的价值非常(Yahoo)小。雅虎董事会(Yahoo board)决定保留阿里巴巴股份(Alibaba)并剥离雅虎(Yahoo)的核心业务(core business)，就其优先事项发出了明确的信息。
留住阿里巴巴(Keep Alibaba)，卖掉其他一切
公平地说，雅虎(Yahoo)的 10 亿用户和 50 亿美元的收入远非微不足道。似乎投资者对雅虎(Yahoo)以及他们从长远来看会做什么缺乏信任。Verizon的首席财务官(CFO)Fran Shammo在(Fran Shammo)本周(interview this week)的一次采访中提到，如果“有意义” ，这家无线运营商(wireless carrier)将考虑收购雅虎(Yahoo)的互联网业务。(Internet business)今年早些时候， Verizon(Verizon)已经吞并了美国在线(AOL)，这是互联网泡沫的另一个前任巨头。
作为雅虎(Yahoo)服务的用户，这对您意味着什么？短期内，没有变化的预期。雅虎(Yahoo)董事会主席梅纳德·韦伯(Maynard Webb)周三(Wednesday)发出支持梅耶尔(Mayer)的信息，“董事会完全有信心”。她还有一年可以提高雅虎(Yahoo)对潜在买家的价值。这意味着我们至少可以从雅虎(Yahoo)获得至少一年的持续服务。
你(Are)在用雅虎(Yahoo)吗？你现在在雅虎(Yahoo)更欣赏的是什么：它的内容业务(content business)，比如雅虎(Yahoo)！金融(Finance)，雅虎(Yahoo)！体育(Sports)，雅虎(Yahoo)！新闻(News)或其服务，如Yahoo! 邮件和雅虎(Mail and Yahoo)！使者(Messenger)？在下面的评论中告诉我。
Yahoo is waving goodbye to Internet users
Once part of the elite of the Internеt world, Yahoo is on the path to become an entry in the history books. After announcing, at the beginning of the year, that they are preparing to spin off their big stake in Alibaba in a separate company, Yahoo has now changed course and they plan instead, to sрin off their core buѕiness. What haѕ happened with Yahоo and why does everything seem to go wrong with this companу? Let's explorе this together, in this news article:
The guide to the World Wide Web
Yahoo started in 1994 as a project by Jerry Young and David Filo, two Stanford University graduate students who built a directory of the websites on the Internet. This may seem crazy right now, but at a time when search engines did not exist, this was a successful endeavour. The project became a business that established its Yahoo name, raised its first capital and got to its highest valuation in 2000 at more than $100 billion, as part of the dot-com bubble. The aftershocks of the bubble burst knocked Yahoo's stock price from US$118.75 in 2000 to an all-time low of US$8.11 in 2001.
As trivia, by the time Young and Filo got to register Yahoo, the simple Yahoo name was already taken for several other lines of business. To work around that an exclamation mark was added at the end. Yahoo! allowed Young and Filo to control the trademark.
The core business of a global portal to the Internet has been complemented with aggressive acquisitions that were rebranded under Yahoo name. This is how we got Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Messenger and others. While some of these additions managed to be successful, Yahoo lost its biggest battle: the battle for the number one search engine. After competing with Google, then using its search engine services for a few years and then competing again, in the end the company that wanted to be the "home on the Internet" lost the race and entered in a series of layoffs and makeovers that never showed them the way out of trouble.
One episode worth mentioning is the attempt from Microsoft to take over Yahoo in 2008 which Yahoo rejected and managed to thwart. One year later, Yahoo signed a deal with Microsoft to use Bing, its search engine. At that time, Yahoo's stock price was 60% lower than Microsoft's offer.
Marissa Mayer and the "mobile first" company
Yahoo's saga continued with a series with CEO's who sometimes lasted less than a year in the job. The current CEO, Marissa Mayer, got the job in July 2012 and came with the reputation of being a top executive with Google, Yahoo's nemesis. Mayer started from the position of being Google's employee number 20 and its first female engineer and got up to the vice president of Google Product Search.
Mayer went ahead with a series of radical changes in employee relations that included the elimination of remote work and forcing all employees back in the office. Her strategy for Yahoo was to create a mobile first company and a media content creator. The first year brought an increase in Yahoo's stock price and Mayer's leadership seemed to produce results.
By 2014, there was an increase of criticism of her decisions. In 2015, Yahoo's recovery went in reverse. This year has been dominated by the discussion of what to do with Yahoo's investment in Alibaba. Surprisingly, the success of the new kid on the Internet block, put Yahoo in a difficult position. Mayer announced at the beginning of the year the spin off of the investment in Alibaba. The problem for Yahoo has been that the value of Yahoo minus this very successful investment was very little. Yahoo board's decision to retain the stake in Alibaba and spin off Yahoo's core business, sends a clear message about its priorities.
Keep Alibaba and sell everything else
To be fair, Yahoo's one billion users and $5 billion revenue are far from negligible. It just seems that the investors have little trust in Yahoo and what they will do in the long run. Verizon's CFO, Fran Shammo, mentioned in an interview this week that the wireless carrier would consider buying Yahoo's Internet business if it "makes sense". Verizon has already gobbled up AOL earlier this year, another former giant of the dot-com bubble.
What does this mean for you as a user of Yahoo's services? In the short term, there is no expectation of changes. Yahoo's chairman of the board, Maynard Webb, sent on Wednesday a message of support for Mayer in which "the board has complete confidence". She has another year in which to increase Yahoo's value for a prospective buyer. This means that we have at least a year of continued services from Yahoo.
Are you using Yahoo? What do you appreciate more at Yahoo nowadays: its content business like Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! News or its services like Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger? Let me know in comments below.
