The news is now official - Yahoo’s EVP Jeff Weiner has officially bailed. President Sue Decker addresses the troops in an all hands email, below. These types of emails leak regularly, of course (I actually think companies would be disappointed if they didn’t), so they tend to read like a press release.
Nevertheless, it is amazing how she can talk about the “amazing progress” at Yahoo as though she doesn’t have a care in the world. And why is this letter about such a high-level departure coming from Decker instead of CEO Jerry Yang? Oh yeah, he has other things to worry about.
The full email is below.
As some of you may know, Jeff Weiner and his wife Lisette celebrated the birth of their new baby girl, Sophia, four weeks ago and Jeff has been on a scheduled paternity leave. Over the course of his time away, Jeff and I spoke a few times as he reflected on his priorities. After careful consideration, he has decided to leave Yahoo! to spend more time at home with his new family before beginning a new chapter in his career. On an interim basis, Jeff’s team will report to me as we consider how to best move the organization forward.
Over the past seven years, Jeff has played a key role in Yahoo!’s expansion and transformation, holding a variety of senior management positions. His leadership of YND has been invaluable in building a strong foundation for the growth of our consumer products. Jeff has put his heart and soul into Yahoo!, and we sincerely appreciate and value all of his hard work and many contributions.
In addition to acknowledging Jeff, I want to recognize all of you for the unbelievable commitment and energy that you have demonstrated over the last several months as we continue to fulfill our strategic objective to be the leading starting point on the Web. This hard work translates into our numbers. According to the just-released May ComScore metrics, Yahoo! continues to have the most engaged audience in the US with 37 billion total minutes in time spent, and is the most visited site in the US with 3.7 billion visits and an average of 26 visits per user. Yahoo!’s starting points each maintained the #1 (Homepage, My Yahoo!, Mail) or #2 (Search) positions in their categories, and our key content properties (Yahoo! News, Sports Finance and Entertainment) are each #1 in their categories.
We’re making amazing progress on our product initiatives, as evidenced by a number of key launches in the last few months including Search Monkey, SearchScan, Flickr video, Messenger 9.0, COKE, Glue, Shine and continued updates to Buzz and our key anchor properties. Additionally, we have an exciting product line-up in the coming months to continue to make progress on our Open and Social initiatives.
This progress is particularly impressive considering all the distractions and uncertainty we’ve all been feeling over the past several months. I know it’s been challenging but the YND team has done an amazing job staying focused on our roadmap and delivering new products to move the business forward.
In the upcoming weeks, I’ll be working closely with your leadership team to determine the best next steps for the YND strategy and organization, and I will keep you updated on our progress and decisions as they are made for the Network Division. In the meantime, thank you for your support.
I look forward to more great things ahead, and please congratulate Jeff and wish him well on his new adventures. He will be returning to the office this week and remain with Yahoo! through the end of June to facilitate the transition.
Sue
Can you say “out of touch with reality”?
“COKE, Glue, Shine” sounds like a party to me!
Ya-who??
and then she can write jerry yang’s departure email:
As some of you may know, Jerry Yang just celebrated the birth of the worst idea ever….
what school did jeff attend? how did he land the job at yahoo?
lol @ yahoo
does anyone know how Jeff feels about Yahoo and Jerry?
Hey Mike,
All this is at an executive level, and basically about “money,” and shareholders. However, what are your thoughts on the situation regarding the lower level employees or future employees. Do you think it’s time for them to bail?
Or what about an individual out of college, or even people looking for jobs in this market, do you think Yahoo is an opportunity to try & get into for employment?
Regardless of all this, the company is still going to be there. The question is, will it be the “chiefs” running things, or the Indians. If anyone else have any opinions on this, Id be very interested in the responses.
‘Reflecting on priorities’ and teh consequent ‘leaving to spend time with one’s family’ reminds me of the exit message of every Bush administration official’s departure. It just struck me as hollow, that’s all.
Michael,
Be fair. She is only thanking the staff for hard work despite, as she states, “. . .all the distractions and uncertainty we’ve all been feeling over the past several months.”
What do you expect her to write?
“Pack it up folks and try to land a job at Google!!” ; )
This should read true for most web2.0 companies. We are the #1 … Money is the only problem.
My only question is what would these plastic executives use as an excuse if the departing had no family.
Would they lead with the line, “XYZ has decided to spend more time at home watching the morning soap operas”? Or perhaps, “XYZ has decided to spend more quality time with his/her goldfish.”
Just in case I meet him someday, can someone tell me how to pronounce his last name please? (Weiner)
And then, can anyone confirm his uncle’s name is Richard?
You can only put some much lipstick on a pig…and in the end it’s still a pig.
Y! Frontpage is about to be overtaken by Google.com, mail isn’t hitting any balls out of the park, and COKE, Glue, Shine…sounds like more things without a lot of traction spreading more resources to thin. Sue’s email is like a drug addicts repeated promises to get clean.
Does anybody know where Jeff Wiener is headed now? I heard a rumor he was in talks with GOOGLE… can anybody confirm that? From what I’ve read he sounds like a real wizard…There are a few crucial ideas and concepts people can consider and act upon to hit any goal you set for yourself in business. The Law of Attraction is one of them. Neural research shows that when you think positively towards a certain idea or object, every time you think of it in the future, positive neural chemicals are released in your brain, influencing you to take a positive stance on whatever it is you are thinking about… http://www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?rta=blog
jeff will follow a long line of former execs who have faded into mediocrity and obscurity….like countless mediocore properties linked-to from the yahoo top page for their life support and moment in the sun, their temporary fame came more from their proximity to (former) greatness than greatness itself
corporate announcements are always a big bowl of ice cream - until someone accidentally RE:’s their scathing forward to allcorp.
Wow. I can’t believe Decker was able to send this note out with a straight face. “…we continue to fulfill our strategic objective to be the leading starting point on the Web” ?! Did I miss something as I was watching the stock plummet?
These sugar-coated emails are a huge insult to their employees and clear evidence that their internal HR and PR teams are just as out of touch as their execs. Scary.
looks like Corky of Life Goes On fame.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt5sQBjEj1c
As some of you may know, Jeff Weiner and his wife Lisette celebrated the birth of their new baby girl, Sophia, four weeks ago
and Jeff has been on a scheduled paternity leave.
–> Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids, but the hormonal wife and family support will start to send you insane. Which meansi if you are a man, by the end of two weeks you are DYING to get back to work!
Over the course of his time away, Jeff and I spoke a few times as he reflected on his priorities.
–> Sorry, but priorities are magnified at this time of your life and they are to provide for your new family at the expense of murder. You are now ready to do anything to keep them safe and looked after.
Of course , you might just decide to blow out your entire career, make it look like you are really weak and stay at home without a plan if you were paid off.
After careful consideration, he has decided to leave Yahoo!
He was told what the best way out was or else.
To spend more time at home with his new family before beginning a new chapter in his career.
And searching non stop on monster.com praying he can pay the bills before the savings run out.
On an interim basis, Jeff’s team will report to me as we consider how to best move the organization forward.
They are mine , they are mine, I own them all, on an interim basis before they all bail out of the company too.
I look forward to more great things ahead, and please congratulate Jeff and wish him well on his new adventures.
Yeah, I won you lost, now give me the keys to your office :p !
He will be returning to the office this week and remain with Yahoo! through the end of June to facilitate the transition.
Whilst shadowed by security and his phone recorded so he doesnt try to steal anything and I can rub his nose in it for another two weeks, even though he decided to stay at home with his family, but still come back into the office for June. Ooops
Good for Jeff as Yahoo! is not the right place for him to waste his time. Work at the place where you’re respected and management listen but Yahoo! nowadays is just revolving around few folks.
@ Darrin - you didn’t ask me, but…
Yahoo! should be a pretty miserable place for the next year or so, but if you can tough it out in an area that is either part of their ‘family jewels’ (mail, portal, finance, etc.) or in a newer area where they must succeed (mobile, user-generated content/relationships) there should be potential there.
Problems:
* Their culture is a problem, with too many lackluster products (look up “Peanut Butter Manifesto”, think of every client app, mobile and desktop, they’ve ever shipped), and a generally slack attitude that pervades even their core products (e.g., transition to the new portal)
* They have too many people. Getting rid of some will lose morale, and some senior people (plenty of them incompetent) will clog up the opportunities for advancement and continue to mismanage departments (see culture, above). Collapsing search revenue will only put pressure on to drop more people, but there is no clear signal yet that Yahoo! knows how to do this effectively. Since they seem unable to judge talent or even their business opportunities, new staffers will be in particular danger.
* Google is gunning for their family jewel products. Google Finance is getting better fast. iGoogle has become a viable portal, while Yahoo! is ruining MyYahoo!. Google mobile is pretty well-done.
Even if the place winds down, a Yahoo! job in the right areas (partnerships, product planning/development) will get you access to lots of other companies and people (including some smart people internally) to help you choose and get into a great next gig. But only if you seek out the contributors and show them good work - make sure you don’t hang out with the parasites and other losers who are just there for a paycheck.
Were I graduating from college now I might aim to work the Internet departments of the presidential candidates. Serious money at stake, fast-turn product development and connections galore. But I’d keep my resume out at Google, Facebook, MySpace and Yahoo!, use the experience to negotiate a better position (and have better water cooler stories).
Google would be a fool to listen to or even hire this clown…send him to the cage along with joe from excite@home
wiener was a “nice guy”, made slick presnetations, seemed to know his stuff. BUT, he was the one resposnible for yhoo not buying goog in 2002 when yhoo had the chance (goog offered themselves for 1B), wiener followed semel blindly (wiener was semel’s right hand man at the hollywood studio before they both came to yhoo). wiener is no big loss.
Dear Sue,
You are completely delusional. Your company is a mess. Your marriage is a mess. And yet, you still have the gull to write such a silly email.
You should have some dignity and resign.Wake up! Taking a limo ride everyday from Tiburon to Santa Clara is just a waste of shareholder money.
Enough said, resign!!!!
One of the problems with Yahoo! is reflected in how they would treat a similar story from someone else on their front page:
Image: Avatar - only a shadow of person
Title: I’m Outta Here
Short Description: A top exec at an important internet company just resigned, but is only the latest in a long string of recent departures. WHO WAS IT?
Other Links: A timeline of exec departures at Yahoo!
Video Link: TechCrunch’s view on Yahoo/Google partnership
They are doing a very good job at translating the style of local TV news to the web. Too bad this style sucks in all media.
i think it’s perfectly clear that Jeff formulated his evil plan ten months ago. his departure is just too exquisitely-timed.
developing…
LOL
She actually used the old “leaving to spend more time with his family” line???? Wow. As if the whole world doesn’t know what that is actually code for.
Yeah, her talk looks like just corporate bulls….. that’s why Yahoo is like it is now…too many people like this one…