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Comment by shingen | Hacker News Reader

Yahoo sued Google over GoTo / Overture in 2004, picking up a cool billion dollars in the process.

This guy wasn't already seriously skeptical about their intentions by 2005 when he joined Yahoo? Yeah OK.

And this: "I thought I was giving them a shield, but turns out I gave them a missile with my name permanently engraved on it."

Uhm. What? They had just sued Google for a billion dollars. On what planet does that sound like a shield that you're giving them?

This entire article is a lame attempt by the guy to wash off some guilt he's apparently feeling. It's ridiculous.

Own it big boy, you sold, enough with the excuses.

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Well, hello! First off, Yahoo's never initiated a lawsuit with Google. It was Overture that sued Google in 2002, when they refused to license their patent for search ads. Yahoo acquired Overture a year later, and it settled out of court.

Sure, Yahoo could've just dropped the case, but I think that's different from initiating a lawsuit against a competitor.

Up until this week, Yahoo was never known for using their patent portfolio as a weapon. They'd built up defensive assets to protect against other competitors, but didn't use it offensively. They even worked with Google, Facebook, and others to defeat patent trolls like Eolas.

You can say what you like, but you weren't there. Ask other people who were, and they'll tell you the same thing: in 2005, Yahoo had bright prospects, they were making solid progress, and everyone was optimistic. Some of the most intelligent, creative people I know have their names on Yahoo patents, and they signed the contract for many of the same reasons I did -- the patent system is deeply broken, but the only sane strategy for a company Yahoo's size is to build a defensive portfolio. And we regret it.

Andy is a good guy. He was young an naive. He was wrong and he fessed up to it, and he said he won't do it again. Cut him some slack.

It's the "won't do it again" part that really gets me.

As much as I am against it, if the acquisition of my company hinged upon my agreeing to sign off on some patents to Big Co., I'd do it.

Andy was 28 years old or so when he sold out to Yahoo.

I don't think he was all that young or naive when he sold. It would not have been difficult at his age to understand the nature of Yahoo in the context of what they had just done to Google.

I appreciate that he might be a good guy, it's the excuses that he's making now for his choices then, that isn't deserving of slack.

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