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Comment by 3pt14159 | Hacker News Reader

So I don't understand one simple thing: The stock is up 120% since Mayer took over. Even adjusting for compounding interest over 3.43 years, this is like 25+% yearly growth. So the core business is crapping out? So what? Why is everyone dumping on Mayer? I don't even think I could fix the core Yahoo business. They have to pay a 50% premium for developers just because it's Yahoo and their core audience is the technically illiterate; a group that is fairly difficult to monetize.

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> The stock is up 120% since Mayer took over.

All of that is because of $BABA. If you add up the current value of $BABA and Yahoo Japan shares that Yahoo holds, it's more than the market cap of Yahoo; which means, the $4B/year revenue business that is rest of Yahoo is valued negatively by the market. SMH....

They could have literally fired everyone and left it as a shell holding company of the Alibaba stock and it would be worth more than it is now (the current value of Yahoo is less than it's stock holdings of Alibaba).

She didn't appear to add any value to Yahoo at all. I agree that I'm not sure anyone could have, but that doesn't change the fact that she didn't accomplish the job she was hired to do.

Corporate governance is a lot about perceptions. Even if you set aside the fact that most of that growth comes from Yahoo's stake in Alibaba, you still have the question about Yahoo's future and vision. If there is a perception that their future is shaky, that matters more than if things are likely to turn out badly. Should add, IANAL aka, I am no analyst

What's the beta on that stock? Look at it in comparison to other tech stocks. Most of Yahoo's recent rise is explained by the rise in all tech stocks over the last few years.

I would venture that it has something to do with Alibaba and not really a lot to do with Yahoo.

Yes, it's a good financial call, but it puts all of the control in someone else's hands.

The stock is up because overall, Yahoo as an overall business is doing great. The problem is that the best financial parts of Yahoo are its investments. If Yahoo was solely an investment company, it would have a great record. Yahoo, however, has the core business which is what most people interact with on a daily basis that loses money. I joked with my friend at the beginning of 2015 that Yahoo performs betters as a VC than as an internet company.

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