Dodoo! Surprise: Yahoo Is A Mess

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November 20, 2006

A leaked internal memo at Yahoo from a senior vice president suggests that Yahoo is in a bit of a state. The Memo republished in the WSJ reminds us of our commentary a couple of months back where we might have suggested that Yahoo! was a bit of a frankenstein monster. Brad Garlinghouse memo states:

We lack a focused, cohesive vision for our company. We want to do everything and be everything — to everyone. We’ve known this for years, talk about it incessantly, but do nothing to fundamentally address it. We are scared to be left out. We are reactive instead of charting an unwavering course. We are separated into silos that far too frequently don’t talk to each other. And when we do talk, it isn’t to collaborate on a clearly focused strategy, but rather to argue and fight about ownership, strategies and tactics.

Brad also complains about the duplication at Yahoo!:

We end up with competing (or redundant) initiatives and synergistic opportunities living in the different silos of our company.

• YME vs. Musicmatch
• Flickr vs. Photos
• YMG video vs. Search video
• Deli.cio.us vs. myweb
• Messenger and plug-ins vs. Sidebar and widgets
• Social media vs. 360 and Groups
• Front page vs. YMG
• Global strategy from BU’ vs. Global strategy from Int’l