And the Pace Quickens

Stewart and Caterina are leaving Yahoo. I also have heard about at least one other high level departure, but I cannot report that yet. Scores of lower level folks are leaving, most too junior to merit reporting, but very significant anyway. If Yahoo's board is not in emergency session…

Stewart and Caterina are leaving Yahoo. I also have heard about at least one other high level departure, but I cannot report that yet. Scores of lower level folks are leaving, most too junior to merit reporting, but very significant anyway. If Yahoo’s board is not in emergency session right now, coming up with a plan to fix this, I’d be amazed.

6 thoughts on “And the Pace Quickens”

  1. Hey John, where are all the Y! folks going?

    You know of any ways to reach these masses? They’d be good catches for a number of firms. I’d love to scan the skill sets and try to attract a few in SF area.

    Last point, you have a sense of the recent few years at Y! in terms of work ethic, innovation, etc?

    Thanks, Jeff

  2. So Steve Ballmer may still foolishly hope to increase market share for Live Search if Yahoo! implodes, and Carl Icahn will be left with a devalued stock.

    I call that poetic justice for two very short-sighted people who don’t understand search well enough to see why the potential revenue boon for Microhoo was nothing more than an unachievable dream.

    Here’s hoping this exodus means nothing more than that Yahoo!’s employee population has matured in the normal course of career growth.

  3. What’s to fix? People leave companies. Let’s say 10% leave a year; that means that the average tenure is 10 years (minus a few depending on growth), which is ridiculously long at an internet company. 10% of Yahoo is ~1300 employees.

    In Yahoo’s case, they’ve gone five months without many employees leaving, because people that would have otherwise left wanted to see if there would be a buyout, since that would result in a significant financial windfall for them. Now that there will be no buyout, no bribes to stay from Microsoft’s deep pockets, the ~1000 employees that would have otherwise left during Feb-May 2008 are now heading out.

    Local journalists have become very lazy, relying on employee bloggers as barometers for a company’s well-being. Unfortunately the truth often lies deeper, especially among the rank and file who don’t have time to blog every day.

    Andrew (left in December)

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