An Insider’s Account of the Yahoo-Alibaba Deal

Good to have an insider's viewpoint that credits learning and failing fast. Could benefit from more details on the cultural fit, or operational decisions made by the local unit which were privately questioned by Yahoo, but later turned out to be correct.

".. Charlie Munger, a legendary business leader with an abundance of wisdom. He says he has constantly seen people rise who are not the smartest but who are “learning machines.” “They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up,” he says. He also has a broader view, which I really love: “If civilization can progress only with an advanced method of invention, you can progress only when you learn the method of learning. Nothing has served me better in my long life than continuous learning.”

... Yahoo is the only example of meaningful value creation by a U.S. internet company in China.

Yahoo had failed at first too, of course. The difference was that it kept going back, building on knowledge from prior attempts. In the early days, we invested a lot of energy in analyzing which businesses would fit best with Yahoo. But I can see in hindsight that what mattered most was finding the right team, including a leader who was a good cultural fit with the company and whom we trusted, and structuring the deal so that the local unit was free to make operational decisions."

>We insisted that the local team follow Yahoo reporting, systems, and governance requirements.

they could have just shoot them, it would be more merciful.

Yahoo and Alibaba aren't a good fit. Yahoo is a bottom-feeder online entertainment company (nobody still uses their search, do they?) and Alibaba is a global marketplace for manufacturers. This union doesn't make sense from a brand identity standpoint.