WEBVTT - The Story of Yahoo: Part 2 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.880 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:17.560 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello, everybody, 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:20.040 welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:22.160 I am an editor at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:25.919 Sitting across from me, as usual, is senior writer and 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:33.760 Yahoo Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, so funny story. Yeah, we 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:37.040 recorded an episode it's actually a week after we recorded 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:42.240 it about Yahoo. Yes, and it was an epic episode, 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:45.000 the longest we had ever recorded up to that point, 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:47.559 which is saying something because I think our longest one 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:50.800 before that was an hour and seven minutes long. Yeah, 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:54.440 So we decided maybe we shouldn't inflict a gigantic episode 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:56.360 on everyone, you know. We thought that maybe we should 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:59.200 spare people and split that into two episodes and make 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:01.959 it a little easier to digest. So we have done that. 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:05.400 And uh, in our previous episode, if you if you're 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.440 just joining us for the very first time, the episode 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:13.320 immediately preceding this one, we've talked about the founding of Yahoo, 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:16.760 how it started as a company, very much like a 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:20.959 couple of other notable companies, in the search engine world, 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:27.119 and how it went from a tiny to man operation 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:32.680 to quickly escalate into a force to be reckoned with 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:36.120 on the web, especially in the advertising world, which is 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:39.119 exactly where we were as we were letting off at 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:41.160 the very end of that episode, and we're gonna pick 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.959 up in two thousand three and Yahoo's pioneering work in 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:50.800 online advertising. So in two thousand three, Yahoo begins to 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:54.480 work at proving that the online advertising model does in 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:58.240 fact work and actually shows that there are real world 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.200 effects from online advertising. And they also launched some new 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:05.760 products like Yahoo Maps launch it launched in that year, 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:09.480 as well as some chat rooms. And that's when Yaho 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:14.600 began to go beyond curating content and went to content generation. 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:18.120 They began to hire bloggers and journalists to write content 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:22.960 exclusively for Yahoo. So Yahoo again continuing to be a 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:27.239 portal to the web, but now not just finding cool 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:32.280 information out there and cool stories to share, but generating them. Yeah. 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:34.920 At the time too, they also started reaching out to 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:39.280 the uh meat space, if you will, in addition to 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:44.120 cyberspace for advertising purposes too, because they started working with 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:50.560 the um major advertising companies that weren't advertising online, so 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:54.079 they were you know, basically sort of doing partnerships with 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:58.120 with people in the real world, so not just online. Um. 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:02.040 And then you know who has always been, as we 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:06.440 said earlier, at the forefront of advertising online and they 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:11.119 started in two thousand four to look at behavioral targeting. Yes, 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:13.919 so basically this is when we start talking about things 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:17.799 like cookies that track what you do. Well, hey, he 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:22.959 went to a website from a car manufacturer. Maybe he's 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:26.800 shopping for a car car ad, Let's deliver an AD 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:29.679 that's for a car. Yeah. This is a the very 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:32.640 early days of targeted advertising, which has become something of 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:35.760 a science today, but at the at that moment, was 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.520 really a new idea. And again yeah, who was a 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:41.520 pioneer in this space, you know, just as they were 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:46.520 with web advertising in general, and um, it was you know, 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:50.560 it was a powerful tool, you know, saying that, well, 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:54.960 not only can we deliver your ad to X number 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:57.920 of people, but we can deliver it to x number 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:00.640 of people who are specifically interested in what you have 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:04.040 to offer, Like these are people who are actively shopping 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:07.680 for a product that you happen to make. So if 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:09.920 you want them to go to your site, why don't 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:12.680 you advertise with us. Yeah. I got even creepier a 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.040 couple of years later too, and they started getting into 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:19.080 the the the location base exactly, and that was when 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:21.800 we all started going, wait, how did you know? I'm 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.320 in Dallas? So now it's now now it's not just 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:26.440 what I do, but where I live. So now you 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:30.200 can actually advertise a local business as opposed to just 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:32.960 some national chain that happens to offer whatever it is 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:36.080 I'm looking for. And that doesn't sound like much to 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:38.880 you the end user, or maybe not as much because 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:42.160 you're going, oh, hey, that's kind of cool. They advertised 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:44.640 for the business just down the street, but for the 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:48.880 business just down the street, especially small businesses, um the 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:54.680 money and and advertising small businesses to local people um 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:59.160 rivals that of sending ads out nationwide. In fact, probably 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:01.840 just I don't know the numbers, but I would guess 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:04.719 that it may even dwarf that amount because you have 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:07.960 people willing to spend locally and if they can reach 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:12.640 their local customers online, that's really cool, and people are 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:15.360 willing to pay for that. Yep. And in two thousand four, 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:18.320 that's when they created some you know that they had 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:20.560 hired the bloggers and journalists. Well, in two thousand and four, 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:25.600 they started launching news and sports and entertainment UH sections 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:28.480 on their page where that had stories written by these 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:32.440 bloggers and journalists. It's also when their deal with Google 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:34.960 was up in two thousand four that that four year 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:38.919 deal was had expired and instead of renewing the license, 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:44.760 Yahoo chose to employ a company called ink Tony to 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:48.839 create a new search algorithm. So they had been behind 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:52.159 one of the other UH major search engines online, but 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:56.159 it you know, hadn't been as successful as say Google. Yeah, 0:05:56.320 --> 0:06:00.240 so Yahoo decides to cut ties with Google get tell 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:04.920 Me to to provide the the horsepower for their search algorithm. 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:10.800 And they also hired ABC executive named Lloyd Brown or 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:14.320 Lloyd Braun if you prefer to uh to head the 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:17.680 media operations arm of Yahoo because at this point they're 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:22.560 still looking at getting into producing media outside the web, 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:26.719 like they were looking at potentially doing you know, media 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.760 production in the form of movies or perhaps television. Because again, 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:33.520 you know, they're their CEO came from that world. He 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:37.640 was a Hollywood executive, and there didn't seem to be 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:40.880 any reason why they couldn't get into that. But that 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:45.200 particular arm of Yahoo's business. Let's say it failed to 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:49.479 get traction. You could also say it flopped miserably but 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:51.760 failed to get traction. Is is probably the nicer way 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:54.080 of saying it. One of the nice things about being 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:56.920 accompany the size of Yahoo back at that time was 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:59.719 that you had lots of people and lots of money 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:02.120 and you try. Yes, you had the you had the 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:05.839 luxury of failure. You could you could afford to fail 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:08.280 at something, but you know, you know, you could take 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:10.440 big chances and if they paid off, that's awesome, and 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:14.400 if they didn't, you could absorb it um to a point. 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:20.480 So in two thousand five, that's when the first major scandal, 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:27.200 UH that involved Yah whose presence in China starts to unravel. 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:30.640 And this would actually take place over the next few years. 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:36.280 And the story is pretty grim. Um. The story is that, Okay, 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:40.080 so the government in China is let's say it can 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:45.360 be a little invasive, okay, and that the government of 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:50.880 China wanted to be able to monitor what citizens were 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:56.080 using the internet to to do, like what they were 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:59.320 what they were accessing online. And yeah, who had a 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:01.960 presence in China, know, So the government said, we want 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.120 to be able to access your information to find out 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:08.360 what people in China are searching for and what they're 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:15.320 looking at on Yahoo. And Yahoo apparently complied with that request, 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:21.560 which would lead organizations like the World Organization for Human 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:27.320 Rights to protest and ultimately sue Yahoo, stating that essentially 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:31.000 what Yahoo had managed to do was be complicit in 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:36.120 human rights violations of Chinese citizens by giving the Chinese 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:42.600 government private information. Yahoo's response was that it was a 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:46.120 global company and that it would have to comply with 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:51.160 whatever local laws were in place in whichever regions Yahoo operated. 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:55.040 So it's a it's a complicated issue. On the one hand, 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.040 you've got a company that's trying to do business in 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:01.560 another country, and in to do business, it has to 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:05.280 follow the laws of that country. On the other hand, 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:09.480 you have human rights issues, which many people would argue 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:13.000 transcend the law. And what do you do when you 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:16.720 are a business? Yeah, yeah, and it's uh, you know, 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:19.160 it was done in the in the name of doing 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:23.280 business in China, and which is an enormous market, and 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:27.040 it's it's impossible to ignore because there's so many people 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:33.120 who live there m and they're also enormous competitors there 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:38.600 as well. Um Ali Baba for one, which has a 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:43.240 relationship with Yahoo. Um, so yeah, I mean Google. I 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:46.560 mean well, I mean Google too, as I also had 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:50.720 conflicts with the Chinese government and publicized ways and and 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:56.320 that the two companies have had to endure. Um, questions 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:59.840 from shareholders and questions from the public. A lot of scrutiny. 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:01.720 You've got. On the one Hey, you've got the business 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:05.000 side where people are saying, hey, I'm investing in you, 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:07.040 and I want to return on my investment. On the 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:09.840 other side, you've got people saying, hey, do the right thing, 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:14.360 don't don't perform actions that are going to lead to suffering. 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:17.840 And uh and Google and Yah who had two different 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:21.880 approaches to this this problem. Not not that either of 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:28.760 them were necessarily uh perfectly ethical or unethical. You know, 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:31.880 they were different approaches, and there was there's a spectrum there. 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:35.360 And and frankly, I can tell you I would hate 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:38.520 to be an executive having to make these decisions because 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:41.640 you know, you have responsibilities as a human being and 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.439 you have responsibilities as a business owner. And sometimes those 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:49.079 responsibilities don't overlap in a nice vind diagram. That's that's true. Um. 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:52.679 And one of the arguments I've heard for doing business 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:56.360 in China for these companies is that, um, it does 0:10:56.600 --> 0:11:00.400 open people's world up to a lot of information that 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:04.720 they may not have had otherwise, can stretch people's minds 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:07.120 and maybe make them more open. If the problem is 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:10.920 that access to that information also leads to their imprisonment 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:16.000 or otherwise harassment from the Chinese government, then there's uh 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:18.920 that issue as well. Yeah. Now, frankly, if I have 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:21.640 to come down on a side, I would say that 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:26.280 I don't like what Yah who did. I mean, I personally, 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:30.480 as a just my own personal opinion, I value human 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:33.520 rights over that. But I was not in that position, 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:37.120 and I cannot honestly say how I would have acted 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:41.440 had I been in that position. And thank I'm thankful 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:44.480 I've never been in that position because I can't imagine 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:47.120 what that stress would be like. Also, in that year 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:52.440 less controversial, Yeah who bought a photo sharing site called Flicker. 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:55.719 Hm hmm, I seem to remember them. That's one of 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.280 the one of the stories where Yahoo actually I think 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:03.600 I saw a more success than Schmoogle did. No Google 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:08.960 had had photos Google and Picasa just doesn't have have 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:14.160 the same same presence as Flicker. Now Granted today even 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:17.360 Flicker isn't necessarily as big a name when you have 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:21.640 photos sharing services out there like Instagram or even stuff 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:25.679 like Facebook or Google Plus, which Google Plus is built 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:29.760 on top of other services like Picasa. But that's you know, 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:32.640 it's an evolution. Uh So, Yeah, that was That was 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:35.840 two thousand fives, big year for y'all. Who tough year 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:39.440 with the whole China story starting to unravel. Now, granted 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:41.080 that would continue, like I said, for a couple of 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:44.280 years with the lawsuit really coming to a head in 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:48.760 two thousand seven. Um in two thousan two thousand six, 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:54.800 Yahoo and uh and Schmoogle got into a little big war. Yeah, 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:57.920 that's that's true. And and this is I don't know 0:12:57.920 --> 0:12:59.800 why I keep saying Smoogle other than that I just 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:03.720 like saying it. Okay, but Google obviously, if you think back, 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:05.959 I mean, this is six years ago now. As as 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:09.040 of the time we're recording this, Yahoo was still very 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:11.760 much an Internet giant. They were still one of the 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.200 big big players, and then they kind of still are now. 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:17.280 But I don't think people think of them that way 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:19.560 like they did in two thousand six. To get a 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:24.439 lot of visitors, but man, the drama behind the website 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:29.000 has has sort of eclipsed the site itself, and I 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:30.800 think I would argue that the stuff, some of the 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:33.920 things that happened in two thousand six are especially painful 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:36.480 in the light of what's happened to all of the 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:40.320 players since then. So yes, uh, Yahoo and Schmoogle go 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:44.800 to war over a video sharing website, yes, uh you 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:46.880 may have heard of it, a fairly young one at 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:51.640 the time, Yes, YouTube. Yeah. So Yahoo was a potential 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:56.720 owner of YouTube. They they tried to purchase the company, 0:13:56.720 --> 0:14:00.640 and Google ended up outbidding them essentially yea. And so 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:02.520 you think of how different the world would be if 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:07.000 that had happened. Well, um, you know it a way 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:09.800 you think about it, you sort of take take the 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:12.360 your current feelings about all the companies out. It's sort 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:17.480 of fit more with Yahoo's uh package of services more 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:20.400 so than Google, yah, because who was already in the 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:24.560 They were the content people, yeah, content curation and creation um, 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:27.360 and Google was more I mean they hadn't released a 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:29.880 lot of their other products, so they were still very 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:33.480 search engine. They were all web advertising and search engine 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:36.040 that was their business. But you know, the world was 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:39.000 turning social that's that's why you had sites like Flicker 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:43.520 and and YouTube, and there were all these new social 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:47.880 websites like this, this other company that that. Yeah, who 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:52.040 tried to purchase You may have heard of it. It 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:54.360 sort of decided to go it alone, but at the 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:56.480 time they looked like they might be a takeover time. 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:02.000 Um no, but it does start with an oh uh flick. No, 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:07.760 they bought Flicker Facebook, that's the one. Wow. Yeah. And 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:09.280 then it's one of those things where I went back 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:12.880 over it and I remembered that this had happened and went, Wow, 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:17.480 what if that had happened that two thousand six big year. Yeah, 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:20.480 I remembered that happening. I didn't have the year for it. 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:22.920 So ye, getting the traffic that they might have gotten 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:27.920 from Facebook and or YouTube would have well, yeah, because 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.720 their their market share for search at that point had 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:34.440 hit a pretty low point. They had fallen to the 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:39.760 market and Google was at so you know, this is 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:42.480 just six years after Google had come to Yahoo asking 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:45.120 for money, and now they were, you know, really just 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.600 thrashing them in the in the search engine space. And 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.840 at that point Semuel decided to kind of clean house 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:57.440 and he sort of he re organized a lot of 0:15:57.480 --> 0:16:01.120 the top level executives at Yahoo, which UH was sort 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:03.840 of a stop gap measure. As it turns out, one 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:06.520 of those people who left was Lloyd Brown, the guy 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:08.920 who was in charge of that media group. He left 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:13.400 in in two thousand and six, so you know ultimately 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:19.600 that that media operations UH initiative never went anywhere. It 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:24.360 was only two years running before he had left. UM. 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:27.080 But that leads us into two thousand seven, which is 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:31.680 when the CEO resigns, and that was partly due to 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:35.480 pressure being put on him by shareholders who were not 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:39.880 happy with how much he was making versus how slowly 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:44.720 the company was growing. And UM, actually we should point 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:47.760 that out. He was his salary was not that big. 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:51.120 Um it was a dollar a year. Now when he 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:54.640 at its height, he was making six hundreds thousand dollars 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.280 a year on his salary, but by the time of 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.120 two thousand seven, it was officially one dollar per year. Now, 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.920 granted he had a had a few stock options, yeah, 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:07.920 like seventy million dollars worth. UM, So don't feel too 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:10.320 sorry for Yeah, it's not like he wasn't being compensated. 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:12.760 It's just that his official salary was just a dollar, 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:18.360 so he steps down, and Young ends up. Jerry Young 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:21.879 steps in and becomes the CEO, and UM and they 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:26.800 hire Susan Decker to become the president of Yahoo. And UH. Also, 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:30.960 Yahoo entered a bidding war with Google this you know, 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:34.400 this happens every couple of years, apparently, UH this time 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:39.359 to purchase an ad firm called Double Click, which you 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:43.720 will probably recognize as one of the biggest advertising firms online. 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:45.639 All right, so now you get the guests. Who wins 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:48.080 the bidding war And here's a hint, it wasn't Yahoo. 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:54.240 So once again, at this point, Yahoo's playing the part 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.560 of Indiana Jones and Google is playing the part of 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:01.480 Bellach who every time Indiana Jones gets something in his grasp, 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:05.200 Belloc swoops in and steals it. There's nothing you can 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:10.239 possess that I cannot take away. He's left except that 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:13.919 Bellock actually, you know, does much better in this than 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:16.600 in this, in this scenario than he did and raised 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:18.200 the lust art. As far as I know, he doesn't 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:23.200 melt in this scenario. Google seems to be pretty solid still, yep, yep. Well, 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:28.280 people thought Yahoo was starting to fail and not be 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:32.000 so not not be so solid itself, having a CEO, 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:38.119 having a CEO resign because of shareholder pressure, and then 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:41.560 be replaced by someone who is not a business guy. 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:46.240 You know. Young wasn't Again, he was not known as 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:51.560 a business leader. He was known as a techno technology expert. 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:56.040 So there was a confidence in Yeah, who was beginning 0:18:56.040 --> 0:18:59.240 to wane, well, not beginning, it was continuing to wane, 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:03.400 probably in an accelerated rate. Yeah, and so somebody decided 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.160 now might be a really good time to UH make 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:09.400 an offer. Now granted a company behind the scenes, there 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:13.359 had been offers made already between this company and Yahoo, 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:16.120 but in uh in two thousand and eight, that's when 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:21.159 I publicized a well publicized offer was extended to Yahoo 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:27.880 but ultimately not accepted. And that offer came from Microsoft. Yes, 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:31.040 Microsoft got down on one knee in front of everybody 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:33.480 at a sport sporting match and got on the big 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:37.159 JumboTron and said, will you accept my bid? This is 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:40.440 two thousand and eight, we're talking Steve Bomber Bomber strode 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.600 in and eight three Yahoo employees and then said I 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:46.399 will give you forty five million dollars for this joint 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:50.080 that's billion with a B. Yeah, it was a billion billion, 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:55.879 but Yahoo said, no, yeah, that was that was you 0:19:56.080 --> 0:20:01.320 undervalue us. Go back and try again. I don't Yeah, 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:04.040 it was that's wait, no, we'd like to partner with 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:07.760 you for search, because Microsoft was coming up with the 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:10.879 new type of search to replace their old type of search. 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:16.160 Except you know, I think at first it wasn't being right, 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:18.560 but it became being It wasn't long after that. And 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:21.760 I imagine I think live search originally right, originally, yeah, 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:23.879 but I think I think, uh, well, put it this way. 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:26.199 If you're in on those talks, they say, hey, you 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:28.760 know we got this bing thing coming up. Yeah. Well 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:33.120 in two thousand nine, uh yeah, so so yeah, they enter, 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:36.199 they enter into a business relationship in the sense that 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.520 Microsoft ends up partnering with Yahoo. Yeah, a long term 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:45.159 business partnership, right, um, which we'll get into that. Uh. 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:49.480 But in two thousand nine, another another tough year. Uh yeah, 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:52.800 who ends up shutting down geo cities. Yeah, so geo 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:57.120 cities no longer a thing, millions of people lose their 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:04.320 animated gifts and and yeah looping minis Oh man, I 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:09.000 do not miss those days. Um and Young steps down 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:13.320 as CEO because again, shareholder pressure was growing. I mean, 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:17.280 he I remember those days too. There was a lot 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:21.239 of criticism directed at Yahoo, and some of it was 0:21:21.320 --> 0:21:26.800 directed at not giving young a chance. But I mean, 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:28.840 there's there are a lot there was a lot of 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:32.040 stress on both sides. And so, yeah, who ends up 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:38.040 hiring Carol Bart's former head of former head of Autodesk. 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:42.000 She did very well over there. She was known as 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:47.359 a sort of a you know, a very ambitious, no nonsense, 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:53.240 very savvy businesswoman, and that she might be the leader 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:55.920 that they need. And she was willing to make some 0:21:56.040 --> 0:22:00.520 pretty big changes, some pretty drastic changes, uh the name 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:03.600 of saving the company. And not all of the decisions 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:08.160 were popular ones which would end up becoming coming back 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:10.320 to haunt her later. And you can argue whether or 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:15.800 not her decisions were good ones or not, but they 0:22:15.960 --> 0:22:23.359 certainly weren't popular among the board. Um. And and also 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:26.000 I think there was there's an argument to be made 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:31.040 of short term versus long term results, and that a 0:22:31.040 --> 0:22:33.720 lot of the changes she was making were changes that 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:37.000 if they were successful, we're going to take some time 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:42.760 to pay off. And there's a problem in the world 0:22:42.760 --> 0:22:48.120 of business that if you don't get short term returns quickly, 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:55.320 you run the risk of alienating your supporters and foreshadow. Yeah. 0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:58.000 So in two thousand and ten, the company, a lot 0:22:58.000 --> 0:22:59.760 of people would say that, yeah, who was in decline. 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:02.560 It is raking in a billion dollars of revenue a year, 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:06.120 and somehow that's still in decline. I mean it's not 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:08.600 it's not growing assass as it needs to essentially, it's 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:10.600 what that boils down to. Yeah, but they still had 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:13.959 hundreds of millions of visitors. There's still one of the 0:23:14.000 --> 0:23:17.480 top visited websites on the entire web, which is even 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:19.560 now you know, you think about that like it's it's 0:23:19.600 --> 0:23:22.639 gendering revenue, it's getting lots of eyeballs on the site, 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:25.919 and yet it's still being considered a failure, which is 0:23:26.240 --> 0:23:28.480 you know, if you're comparing it with itself, right, it's 0:23:28.480 --> 0:23:30.240 more to do with the Yeah, it's more to do 0:23:30.280 --> 0:23:32.080 with what's going on behind the scenes that any of 0:23:32.240 --> 0:23:35.480 its actual performance in the market. Although you could still say, well, yeah, 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:40.800 but look it's it's search shares dismal compared to Google. Well, people, 0:23:40.960 --> 0:23:43.760 I think the thing is too for for public companies. 0:23:43.800 --> 0:23:48.640 People have a certain expectation to shareholders say Okay, you've 0:23:48.640 --> 0:23:51.879 made million dollars a year for the last ten years. 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:55.520 When are you getting into six hundred million? You know 0:23:55.560 --> 0:23:58.159 that it staying the same is not good enough. That 0:23:58.240 --> 0:24:02.080 people expect innovation, new to rules, new services, new growth, 0:24:02.640 --> 0:24:06.919 and even when you're doing great, you know, hey by 0:24:06.960 --> 0:24:10.800 by a lot of companies, UH standards, that would have 0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:15.159 been plenty of money. But for for Yahoo, people expected 0:24:15.160 --> 0:24:19.080 it to continue to grow, and so that was the problem. 0:24:19.160 --> 0:24:22.040 Two thousand eleven, things come to a head and the 0:24:22.080 --> 0:24:26.679 board of directors decides to fire Carol Barts. So she 0:24:26.760 --> 0:24:29.160 had some choice words for them. Yeah, some some ones 0:24:29.200 --> 0:24:31.359 that we can't repeat on this podcast. This is a 0:24:31.400 --> 0:24:37.600 family friendly show. Um, Carol Bart's outspoken woman, very very blunt, 0:24:37.880 --> 0:24:41.080 and she was She was actually quite blunt about the 0:24:41.800 --> 0:24:45.199 what happened with her being fired. She said it was 0:24:45.359 --> 0:24:47.880 she was fired over the phone, as I recall, right, 0:24:48.200 --> 0:24:50.520 I think it wasn't even in an in an in 0:24:50.640 --> 0:24:53.919 person meeting, and that she was very critical of the 0:24:54.000 --> 0:25:00.800 board of directors for Yahoo and was Um, she definitely 0:25:00.800 --> 0:25:02.600 had some choice words to say, most of them not 0:25:02.720 --> 0:25:08.040 repeatable on this podcast about her experience and uh, the 0:25:08.040 --> 0:25:11.600 critical problems as far as the board was concerned. Include 0:25:11.640 --> 0:25:14.720 the fact that the sales growth had stagnated, that add 0:25:14.800 --> 0:25:19.120