Yahoo’s Semel Says No Layoffs, Sort Of

I think he has: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog.....4ZyrJn0PCu

uhm - michael - i think you need to listen to that again, he does not say NO LAYOFFS - what he says is that the 15-20% number is incorrect.

in corporate america, those words clearly mean there will be some layoffs/firings.

but my guess is that your current title will get you dugg.

Morha - yeah, I know. It’s spin. I hate spin. He doesn’t really exactly say anything.

George - I have no idea when Yahoo’ers decided I was a Yahoo basher. I think we’ve been pretty excited about what Yahoo’s done over the last year of so (http://www.techcrunch.com/tag/yahoo). We’re not the enemy.

I agree, that’s what they are taught in CEO school. Say nothing, if you must say something, say whatever the F you want, because you can just “change course” in a month. I have seen it for 10 yrs now.

But I am not sure I would have went with your title unless there is something in addition to the YT video you posted.

See that title would make a Yahoo employee feel comfortable, when they may need to be a bit worried.

Here’s a transcript of the conversation:

TS:”…we obviously have users, we have advertisers, and we have publishers. And this really allows us to focus on our customers and and go for the most valuable customers, give them the best value of service and create more value for each of our cutomers down the road.

So we’re very exited about it. We think it’s a great way to organize it ourselves.

uh, no that manifesto came from one of our employees. I always encourage our employees to speak out if they have an opinion. It also had a fact that everyone’s also taking as a fact and it is not a fact.

They talk about laying off 15-20% of our workforce. That’s not at all the case. This is about reorganizing for more future growth. uh We’re hiring people as we talk. It had nothing to do with the executive management team of our company and yet to some degree it sort of became fact, or a fact that many people are gravitating towards.”

MB: “Well it was on the internet so it must be true ha ha.. Just kidding”

TS: “Well, I would imagine so, it was in a blog, what could it be…”

Sorry Nick, I must disagree. Almost any large company is always hiring and firing. He says we are hiring to try to push away any thoughts about firings. In addition, usually the firings take a short bit (1-3 months) from the time of the reorg, so what he says is accurate for now.

He is a slick CEO, like most large corporate CEOs. Plain and simple. But you can run it anyway you like to get TC the best media coverage.

Yahoo must survive. I actually like Yahoo and Google has done a good job waking these guys up.
These days it almost seems like a trend to have “beta” this and “beta” that.
Yahoo seems like on the right track.

I mail with Yahoo and I search with Google.
It will be interesting to see how they defend their turf and gain converts.

Is he really a slick CEO? He just seems to me like someone without a clear idea of where his company is going. I loved that first paragraph Nick quoted. I counted customers 3 times, and value 3 times (in various forms). Isn’t every company’s goal to maximize the value of their product to customers?

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

I like the fire-in-the-belly Terry much more than cool-hand-luke Terry.

He says not 15-20%. It could be 20-30%, or 10-15%.

yes, technically they could do layoffs of up to 14.9% and he couldn’t be called a liar.

and if he lays off even 1% then your inaccurate “spin” headline is totally wrong and credibility declines.

and now this is on techmeme….

Yahoo still seems to be in an employee growth trend — They have 577 open reqs on careers.yahoo.com — and I doubt that will change much with this reorg. They’ll probably eliminate redundant positions, and people will interview for jobs elsewhere in the company for a few months. If they can’t get another position they’ll be laid off. People unfamiliar with corporate procedures often get confused about the differences between staff reduction and corporate reorganization (and some companies try to confuse the issue for the best spin). My bet is that they honestly don’t know what the staffing needs of the new org will be.

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

Thanks Jonathan for a little reality check. This whole story is over covered. Companies all over planet earth evolve regularly. People come and people go, that is just the way it is. I would say that one should never get too attached….it is just a job.

rather than laying off people, Yahoo must put more people in project panama, if it helps.

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

Spin…the high level management members always like that….this is the real world, they have to protect theirself…although they are the decision maker..

http://www.ezecho.com

15-20% layoffs is not at *ALL* the case.

No, we are laying off 50% !

Where’s the dirt? This is no fun. (From one who complains most about the dirt getting in the way of the news.)

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.

Hmmm … maybe they didn’t include him on the layoff memo

Looks like he resigned - loss of face in the reorg. Again that Hollywood powertrip thing versus buckling-up to the challenge.

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

Q & A With Jerry Yang

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)

Good news for employees, Globalisation i stoug going on Ordinary Souls.

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

“It seems that the only publication that was pre-notified of the announcements was the Wall Street Journal. The rest of the world was left scrambling, and talking to their internal contacts, to try to figure out what was going on.”

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.

I was a former Yahoo! employee and I like what is happening over there. It is true that at Yahoo! the saying “that ideas can come from anywhere” is put into practice and there are a number of social media systems that exist internally to collect and share information, ideas and suggestions. Every company I have worked for has claimed to “listen” to their employees but at Yahoo! they actually do listen and it isn’t just a drop in the suggestions box. When you say above: “Semel also says he welcomed the Garlinghouse memo - something we find hard to believe.” - I disagree with you because I know the culture there and of course they may not like what they hear but in truth anyone who is willing to speak up in any group should be rewarded and any smart CEO is going to listen to “the people” to ensure that his reality is checked and that he is touch with how people really feel.

Am sure Semel already planned lay-offs for early 2007. He would be stupid to announce them now, since he wouldn’t be able to execute them before the holiday period anyway - which would have destroyed employee morale and force a lot of capable folks would spend their vacation posting CVs around.

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…

God if they lay people off it will be a stupid move and a real FU to the yahoos that do all the work. NO company should lay people off when they are making the kind of profits yahoo is posting. By any measure (other than comparing them to google) yahoo is a very profitable company. Lay offs to make the stock go up a few points would be total crap. Further, in engineering it is basically impossible to fill open req’s…not enough qualified people. So if yahoo lay’s people off it will just accelerate a downward spiral.

up to 14.9%… or more than 20%?!!??!? Either one makes him not a liar.

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.

I heard that Yahoo gave some nice severance packages to some of their employees this week. I guess they are really trying to be hush hush about it.