Yahoo CEO Terry Semel blasts some of the rumors out there about Yahoo, including reports (by us) of layoffs, that he was leaving and that Dan Rosensweig and Susan Decker were taking a joint role to lead the company until a replacement was found. Semel …

But seriously, they have ALL the tools they need at Yahoo to put up a great fight, it is up to management to make sure things are executed correctly. Pesonally, I am rooting for them. I think we need the competition.

Am sure that most Yahoos aren’t that dumb to believe him anyway - it’s all a show for Wall St. Time to update your CV boys…

You make it sound like an exclusive/scoop is a bad thing. Doesn’t TechCrunch pride iteself in insider information, access and a ‘you heard it hear first’ rep?

So, be pissed b/c you weren’t first on the call list. But don’t be pissy about the approach in general.

http://www.tekno-world.blogspot.com

Three years ago, Jerry Yang realised a dream, creating an Internet-based online guide called Yahoo! One year later he co-founded Yahoo! Inc. The rest, as they say, is history. Yahoo has become one of the largest online navigational guide sites in the world, and has gone line. on to become involved in numerous subsidiary ventures, ranging from guide sites to a print publication. Yang is a native of Taiwan. He goes by the title of Chief Yahoo.

Yang is almost always somewhere else these days, according to Yahoo’s public relations manager, Jennifer Hwang, “I don’t even know exactly where he is right now. He might be loafing about in the park” she said, “You better check there” Sure enough I see him playing ball. We sit and I ask him several questions

Q. How often do you travel in a year?

A. As often as my heart desires. Usually 2-3 trips per month.

Q. How do you deal with jet lag?

A. I stay really, really tired — that way I can sleep whenever, wherever. This way I avoid having to work (laughs).

Q. Do you have a favoured plane or seat?

A. The newer 777 or airbuses. I don’t care which part of the plane so much, but I always like to sit on the aisle.

Q. What places do you visit most often?

A. New York, Tokyo, L.A., Seattle.

Q. In these places, how do you get from the airport to your hotel?

A. In Tokyo: the Tsukiji Taxi.

Q. What’s your favourite hotel?

A. I’m very picky. It must pamper me with all the comforts of life just like Silicon Valley does. It has to have a fax and second phone line. It must have multi cuisine restaurants, a gymnasium, a swimming pool where I can safely masturbate. I am a Taiwanese. We have filthy habits. (laughs)

Q. What’s your favourite restaurant?

A. I prefer one that offers me a filling meal so that I can be lazy. I like to try local dives, noodle shops — the kinds of places

Q. If you have an afternoon free, where do you go?

A. What are you talking about? My afternoons are always free. I am the big chief. Usually I sit on a rocking chair like an old man and nap for a couple of hours while my company is doing fuck knows what (laughs). In the evening I sit in a cafe next to a park and read the paper. Please do not ask me what I do in the morning.

Q. What’s your single favourite place or thing in your most frequented cities?

A. Spring Beds. In Tokyo: the Tsukiji fish market for sushi. In New York: the taxi drivers. In L.A.: the freeway signs.

Q. What sort of a person are you?
A. I am a stupid man. That is the reason I became a billionaire before the age of thirty. I do not want to worry about supporting myself and standing on my feet. I like to get things for free. I am a big time freeloader. I am naïve enough to think that if I start my own company and sit then I can make millions. I want to get results and do the best for myself without working.

That is why I went to Silicon valley. I wanted easy money, fast cars, cool babes (laughs). If I want something I deserve it. There any fool can start an internet company sit with it in a lazy manner and make millions. It is a place where who you are and how hard you work is irrelevant to success. Look at Jeff Bezos. The guy is a perpetual drunk. Yet he formed Amazon and he is worth several billions. Look at Ramesh Mathur. He is an Indian of all things. He is an IIT dropout. He did not even have the brains to complete a formal education. Even he started his own internet company Junglee.com sat with it for three years like a mother sits with her child (laughs) and sold to Amazon for a couple of hundred million dollars.

Q. Have you made any memorable cultural or business faux pas?

A. When I go to Japan I make sure that people bow low and kiss the ground I walk on. I am a self made billionaire and I think no end of myself.

Q. Do you have any cultural or business secrets you could pass along?

A. Well for one you must always look for the soft option in life. That is why I went to Silicon Valley. It is softer than a marshmallow. It is the perfect excuse to be lazy. If you want to make millions you must come to Silicon Valley start your own internet company even if you do not know much about it. You just have to take it easy and go with the flow so to speak. Laugh at your problems and remember that Silicon Valley is an escapist way to live. So your problems are not rooted in reality. Look at me. I knew fuckall when I started Yahoo.

I am a simpleton from Taiwan. I know nothing nada. That is what is so great about America. Even if a person knows nothing and is not stupid he can still make something of himself. When my buddy William formed Microsoft he did not know the difference between B and C. Why did he drop out of Harvard? Because he did not have the intelligence to complete its three year course. It could be four years I am not sure. Just shows how gullible customers can be (laughs). It helps a ton when you learn people’s names and don’t butcher them when trying to pronounce them. (Unfortunately, I haven’t mastered this. This is important so that you can order them around.)

Q. How do you cope with loneliness on the road to your hotel?

A. I tell people who I am. They cannot believe how such a mild mannered simpleton has come such a long way. In New York: the taxi drivers groan and grumble about their dead end lives. I pity the poor bastards (laughs). They work ten twelve hour days. For what? I on the other hand sit on the rocking chair, do nothing and admire my billions.

Q. What travel sign makes you short tempered?

A. Any sign that has the word work on it (laughs).

Q. Do you have any essential packing tips?

A. Always pack for one more day than you expect. You might like the place so much you might want to stay and enjoy it some more. Though I must say that in Silicon Valley I get all the enjoyment a man could possibly desire.

Q. Any future plans?

A. I might take a permanent vacation like Aerosmith. Hell I do not need to do that. I have been on vacation ever since I came to Silicon Valley four years ago. (Laughs)

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117955163.html
(Has a good description of the reorg as well.)

Anyway, I think an interesting angle is Lloyd Braun is out. Doesn’t anyone remember the pseudo excitment about 1-2 years around LA and Silicon Valley finally hooking up? Pretty obvious that YouTube killed that one. Hollywood content is getting online - but not via $400 powerlunches at Dominick’s. Braun will have to go back to hawking primetime. The expensively underwritten story is again, Hollywood, big name operations online largely fail. We, the users, run the show in the end. Yeah! Yeah?

I think the story about Braun taking a big corner conference room at Y! HQ and turning it into an office (when even Jerry Yang has a cube out amongst the ‘rank and file’) is a totally rich illustration of SoCal vs NoCal, uh, charm. What’s going to happen to his new ops down in Santa Monica?

It’s also remarkable that almost everyone (except the LA Times - it was front and center under their headline earlier this week) made no note of his departure… after lauding/jabbing him for the first 18 months.

No, we are laying off 50% !

He says \”That’s not at all the case.\” regarding to the current layoff rumors.
He\’s handsome, but I cannot believe his words.

Yahoo CEO Terry Semel blasts some of the rumors out there about Yahoo, including reports (by us) of layoffs, tha…

http://www.ezecho.com

http://mediavidea.blogspot.com.....-with.html

I wonder who TechCrunch’s inside source is. I’d assume they’re leaking strategically to advance their own position, but who knows.

The company seems more and more of a mess as coverage of this story increases.