Case Study #1

OLEH :
DIAN ATIKA, RAFIKA, RERY INDRA KUSUMA
MM UGM JAKARTA - KELAS EKSEKUTIF B 27 C

Case Summary
Main Issue

Problem Statement
Analysis
Recommendation

CASE SUMMARY

The Internet Consumer

Services Industry

August 25, 2012

Marissa Mayer
Become CEO of
Yahoo

Internet
advertising
revenues in
US USD 31.7
Top three
Player:
Google
[66.4%],
Microsoft
[15.3%],
Yahoo 13.8%

Yahoos Company
Background

Start on
February
1999
IPO in April
1996
Start Yahoo
Japan and
Yahoo
Europe
2001 :
already had
2,000
employers.

Corporate
Governance at
Yahoo

Yahoos Business
Operation

Carl Icahns Product and

Proxy Fight
Organization
Third Point Sales,
LLCs
Marketing,
Activism
and Product
Resumegate
Development
Human
Resources
Finance

Business Condition at Yahoo

INTERNET ADVERTISING REVENUE IN UNITED STATES IN 2011 IS 31.7 BILLION USD

Google search shares

are showing modest
gains. Meanwhile,
Yahoo continues to drop
in search share, and
Bing shows only slight
gains in search growth
year over year.

Source: Kelly Larsen, Director of Marketing at PPC Summit and Landing Page Success Summit, the Webs largest conversion
conference coming up on November 3-23, 2010.
http://www.ppcsummit.com/newsletter/google-adwords/latest-search-market-share-google-bing-and-yahoocomparisons/

SEARCH SITE MARKET SHARE

MARCH 2012

66.4%
15.3%
13.8%

FASTEST GROWING
OF INTERNET MOBILE MARKET
The fastest growing segment of
internet advertising was mobile
advertising, which totaled 1.6
million USD in 2011, increase
149% over 2010.

In 2011, the 10 leading search

and portal companies
accounted 71% of total online
advertising revenue, while the
next fifteen for 11%.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/19/the-rise-and-fall-of-yahoo-the-infographic/

History of Yahoo CEOs: Tenure vs. Stock Price

Source : History of Yahoo CEOs: Tenure vs. Stock Price

http://waxy.org/2012/05/history_of_yahoo_ceos_tenure_vs_
stock_price/

Advertising was the primary revenue drive

and Yahoo organized its sales team into 3
categories based on the type of customer
type.
Yahoo used a combination of organic and
acquisition driven paths to product
innovation. It employing a team of
software engineers and forming alliances
with universities to improve existing
product

Yahoo announced cut to its

workforce of 2,000 employees in
April 2012, it was the 6th major
round of layoffs in the last four
years. The companys headcount
in September 2012 was around
12,000 spread out in 25
countries. Depending on their
tenure and position in the
organization

MAIN ISSUE

HR and Corporate Culture

Enhance the organization efficient

Yahoo Identity as a company

Technology Firm or Media [Advertising]??

Privately Owned Alibaba Group

How to use 4.3 billion [after tax] which received
from sell half its Alibaba InvestmenT

TARGETING ASIA AND AFRICA MARKET

As both are growing market

PROBLEM STATEMENT

One of the statement from anonymous

company:

The problem at yahoo in the past couple

years has been B-players hiring C-players
who were not fired up to come to work and
were tolerated too long. I mean nobody
good wanted to come to Yahoo

While it had started out as a technology

firm, its principal revenue source was
currently advertising. However, many
Yahoo insiders still regarded themselves
as working for a technology company
that had presence in media.

In the late August 2012, Yahoo announced

that it would sell half its Alibaba investment.
The key challenge to Mayer in this area was
how to use the proceeds of the Alibaba
investment.

The internet was moving to a mobile

platform where Yahoo had only a
marginal presence. While the mobile
platform was showing tremendous
growth.

The growing markets were Asia and

Africa, regions where Yahoo had only a
weak presence. Should yahoo acquire
companies to benefit from growth in
these markets?

ANALYSIS

 One of the firs things that Mayer did at Yahoo was

to announce that she would review every hire that
the company made, a practice similar to that done
at Google.
FYI, a weekly all employee meeting every Friday
afternoon
Free food in the company Cafetaria
Replacement of employees Blackberry phones with
a choice of iPhones or android based phones
Launch of PB&J

 One of the firs things that Mayer did at Yahoo was

to announce that she would review every hire that
the company made, a practice similar to that done
at Google.
FYI, a weekly all employee meeting every Friday
afternoon
Free food in the company Cafetaria
Replacement of employees Blackberry phones with
a choice of iPhones or android based phones
Launch of PB&J

Marissa Mayer has made one of her first big strategic decisions
as Yahoo CEO, as the company announced it was not going to sell
its ad exchange Right Media. Some execs under past leadership
teams had pushed the company to sell Right Media; instead it
will increase investment in the exchange and the company's
other ad-tech assets.
Source: http://adage.com/article/digital/marissa-mayer-s-big-call-yahoo-staying-adtech/237030/

Marissa Mayer's first edict after

taking the top spot at Yahoo! in
July 2012 after 13 years at
Google: a major overhaul of
Flickr, the site's photo-sharing
service, followed by a home-page
redesign and a string of
acquisitions, including $1.1 billion
for blogging platform Tumblr and
$30 million for story-shortener
Summly. Mayer faces intense
pressure to modernize the
pioneer portal with 700 million
monthly users. 2013 SPOTLIGHT:
The new mom has taken a lot of
flak for her own "too-short"
maternity leave and for squashing
a work-from-home option for
employees. Still, she recently
announced a generous parental
leave policy: eight weeks for both
moms and dads plus $500.

Yahoo has created a new mobile ad marketplace with Mocean

Mobile, a large mobile ad network. The partnership allows
Mocean to offer its network of mobile media sellers on the Yahoo
Ad Exchange.
The move ought to be a significant step for Yahoo, which has
struggled to grow its ad business over the last few years. Yahoo
revenues slipped 2% in Q4, during a period when the online and
mobile ad business is seeing robust growth.
http://www.businessinsider.co.id/yahoo-mocean-mobile-deal-2014-2/#.UyTx2IXJSu4

1. Stamped: iPhone app that allows users to keep track of

and share the things they like with their friends, such as
restaurants, books, films and other apps. App shut down,
nine-person team moved to Yahoo's NYC mobile
engineering office. Price: Less than $6 million (Yahoo 10-K
filing).
2. OnTheAir: Live video conversation platform, like Google
Hangout. App shut down, five-person team moved to
Yahoo's San Francisco mobile office. Price: Less than $6
million (Yahoo 10-K filing).

3. Snip.it Tool lets users collect ("snip") content from the

web and share with friends like a less visual Pinterest.
Price: Less than $10 million (Yahoo 10-Q filing).
4. Alike: App helps users discover venues nearby based on
their interests. App shut down, team joined Yahoo's mobile
office in Sunnyvale, Calif. Price: Less than $10 million
(Yahoo 10-Q filing).

5. Jybe: App helps users discover things to do and places to

eat via personalized recommendations. All five (former
Yahoo) employees assigned to improve targeting and
personalization on Yahoo's products. Price: Less than $10
million (Yahoo 10-Q filing).
6. Summly: iPhone app that automatically aggregates and
shares summaries of news articles. Tech integrated into
Yahoo News, 17-year-old founder joined Yahoo's NYC
office. Estimated price: $30 million.
7. Astrid: Email management and to-do list app for iPhone,
Android and Windows 7. Staff joined Yahoo's mobile team.
Estimated price: Unknown.

8. MileWise: Lets users factor in airline miles, reward

programs, and hotel and credit card points to find the
cheapest flights. App shut down, five-person team joined
Yahoo's NYC mobile office. Price: Unknown.
9. GoPollGo: Polling tool that could be quickly deployed on
the web and even directly on Facebook and Twitter. App
shut down, three-person team joined Yahoo's Sunnyvale
mobile group. Price: Unknown.
10. Loki Studios: Mobile gaming startup that incorporated
personalized elements, like the local weather, into
gameplay. App shut down, seven person team joined
Yahoo mobile team. Price: Unknown.

11. Tumblr: Blogging network with 300 million unique

monthly visitors. Continues to operate as independent
company. Price: $1.1 billion.
12. PlayerScale: Toolset that helps developers bring games
to multiple platforms with features like leaderboards and
virtual currencies. Three-person team continues to offer
same services, with new services promised soon. Price:
Unknown.
13. GhostBird Software: Creators of mobile photography
apps KitCam and PhotoForge2. Apps discontinued, fourmember staff joined Yahoo's Flickr team. Price: Unknown.

14. Rondee: Free conference calling service. Platform shut

down, staff joined Yahoo's small business team. Price:
Unknown.
15. Bignoggins: One-man company that developed
bestselling apps for managing fantasy sports teams.
Integrated apps into Yahoo Fantasy Sports' flagship apps in
late July. Price: Unknown.
16. Qwiki: iPhone app that lets users create short movies.
App continues to operate. Estimated price: $40-$50 million.
17. Xobni: E-mail add-on that makes it easier to search and
find contacts. Product integrated into Yahoo Mail, staff
joined Yahoo Mail team in Sunnyvale. Estimated price: $30$40 million.

 18. Ztelic: One-year-old social data analysis startup. Eight

employees joined Yahoos R&D team in Beijing. Price:
Unknown.
19. Admovate: Mobile ad targeting technology firm.
Team joined Yahoo's display advertising team in
Sunnyvale. Price: Unknown.
20. Lexity: App maker for small ecommerce businesses.
Apps will continue to operate. Price: Unknown

RECOMMENDATION

 Stick on her current plan on corporate culture

and increase the quality of hired, morality, and

engagement level of the employee to company
to bust productivity.
Improve Yahoo Current Product
Acquire business which will have prospective
future in Asia and Africa Market and also mobile
interface

Thank You