Look at It This Way: Now That Yahoo’s an ‘Ecosystem,’ the EPA Can Finally Declare It a Superfund Site
by John Paczkowski
Posted on July 18, 2007 at 12:01 AM PT
“Our financial performance is not what we would like to see long-term.” This, from Blake Jorgensen, Yahoo’s chief financial officer who, just six weeks into the job, is already well versed in the company’s fiscal truisms. During Yahoo’s second-quarter earnings call yesterday–his first since being named CFO–Jorgensen trotted out all the company’s hoary earnings-call chestnuts: “slower growth than originally expected,” “weakness in display advertising,” “there is much hard work ahead,” and, of course, the hoariest of all, “we are lowering our outlook for INSERT LATEST QUARTER HERE,” which at this point in Yahoo’s history might as well be the company’s motto.
Good thing then that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang intends to dramatically improve the company’s performance and put it back on a winning path. How? A top-to-bottom, 100-day review of the company. “I intend to spend the next 100 days mapping out a game plan and working with … the team to put the right organization in place and make any necessary changes,” Yang explained. “We need to invest in areas that are most critical to our success and de-emphasize those that are underperforming or don’t match up with our priorities. There will be no sacred cows.“
There will, however, be an “ecosystem,” which Yang and Co. mentioned no less than 17 times during the course of yesterday’s earnings call. It is apparently either a euphemism for Yahoo’s business, the outfit worn by Yang in the photo above, or the self-sustaining biosphere where the company keeps Yahoo co-founder David Filo.
From Yang and Yahoo President Sue Decker:
“Yahoo is an ecosystem that involves several hundred million participants every single day.
“We plan to create value through our ecosystem.
“When I step back and think about how we can fully leverage our ecosystem, I see a world where Yahoo is a place that consumers love.
“We’re really focused on understanding how Yahoo as an ecosystem can drive value long-term.”
That’s great to hear. And it’s nice that Yahoo’s new management has a new buzzword. But, really, who cares? Crucial executives are still fleeing the Yahoo “ecosystem.” Google is still eroding it. And in the end, its most recognizable feature is still the company’s deteriorating financial performance.
