Yahoo Had a Party | Hacker News Reader

Yahoo Had a Party

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27 pointsjackgavigan10 comments

There was a great article in the NYT talking about the troubles at Yahoo. On Mayer's tenure:

> She paid about $3 billion for acquisitions of companies you’ve mostly never heard of, like Aviate, Polyvore and Distill (and one company you may have heard of, Tumblr). She spent $9.4 billion on stock buybacks; over the last two years, when the stock was trading higher, the buybacks have been a $2.5 billion money-losing trade. About $365 million of compensation went to Ms. Mayer herself, assuming she stays for an additional year and a half. And $109 million to an executive she hired to be her chief operating officer, who was then summarily fired 15 months later. An estimated $450 million on free food for the staff. And, depending on whom you believe, double-digit millions of dollars on parties and events, including a “Great Gatsby”-themed holiday party several weeks ago that was held with no apparent irony.

[0] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/business/dealbook/diagnosi...

Just to give those numbers some context, the stock market currently values Yahoo's core business at around $1.7B:

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-02/yahoo-is-lo...

It appears the author doesn't really know enough about the neighborhoods to call the Dogpatch "no-man's land". Tales of being potentially stranded at Pier 70 are nonsense. There's a thriving food/bar/climbing scene a block away on 3rd not to mention the Muni T-rail runs down 3rd all the way into Downtown and 22nd St. Caltrain Station is a few blocks west of the pier.

Dogwatch is like a newly-gentrified expensive hotspot. I question the author's knowledge of SF, as well.

to be honest, if the guy lives in russian hill, the dogpatch with its handful of wannabee hipster places is a no man's land.

and the T line -> haha

If I were a Yahoo shareholder, I would throw a hissy fit.

Total lack of judgement on M. Mayer's part - whether it is lavishly spending money or the Queen-like outfit/pose/setting. I am sure it made Yahoo's employees day to have a picture with her </s>.

BTW, I am not saying companies should not have holiday parties - just exercise better judgement, in particular when they are in dire straits as Yahoo is.

The core business generates about a billion dollars in cash. They aren't in that dire straights.They might not be growing, but they aren't dying.

It's more about the "optics" as they say. A celebration of this sort is warranted when you're at the top of your game, not when you're a well-known mediocrity.

And frankly speaking, a billion in cash is a lot less than one would expect from a top Internet brand.

Relatively speaking, they are in dire straights.

Holiday parties are often seen as good for morale.

Best of all, I found this article on....Yahoo.

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