article

marissa mayer yahoo strategy

[WHAT]

1. ] Yahoo has just acquired Meh Labs, the startup behind a self-destruct messaging app called Blink and a location check-in app called Kismet. And, as with so many Yahoo acquisitions before it, the tech giant intends to shut down both apps in the coming weeks
2. ] buyout is a strong sign that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer refuses to be left behind in the heated mobile messaging war being waged by competitors like Facebook
3. ] Yahoo has been on a buying spree recently, snapping up small startups that are working on trendy new technology. But there’s a big difference between Mayer’s strategy and the one espoused by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
4. ] Zuckerberg buys and lets it grow, Mayer buys and shuts it down, nearly 30/40 Yahoo aquistions under Mayers reign have been shuttered
5. ] Mayers says 'not likely' yahoo will follow the trend of stripping out 'individual' services out of its core mobile product offerings (ala facebook, dropbox, google, .. )

[WHY]

1. ] Mayer seems to view Yahoo primarily as a place where you can find all sorts of stuff on one giant app. “Once the user’s in that app experience, the easiest thing to do is stay in that app experience,” she said. “That’s one reason we wanted to make our app a little more fully featured.”
2. ] “Last year was really the year we began to make our investment in mobile. We’re late,” she admitted on stage, noting that when she first arrived at Yahoo, mobile was “everyone’s hobby and no one’s job.”
3. ] it’s also possible that Mayer wants to buy these companies, not to grow them on their own, but to resurface their ideas at some point as part of Yahoo’s main service. According to a Yahoo spokesperson, Meh Labs’ staff will be joining Yahoo’s mobile team “where they will focus on smart communication products.”
4. ]  In recommitting to a “fully featured app,” just as the rest of the mobile web is “unbundling,” Yahoo runs the risk of seeming slightly old fashioned. That’s a reputation Mayer has been working hard to shrug off as CEO.

[WHERE]

1. ] http://www.wired.com/2014/05/yahoo-blink/

[WHEN]

1. ] 2014-05-15

[EXAMPLE]

1. ]

[HOW-TO]

1. ]

[REFERENCE]

1. ] src = hn, comments
2. ]

 

Details

ID: 3173

NAME: why-yahoo-keeps-killing-everything-it-buys

DESCRIPTION: By Issie Lapowsky @ wired.com - ANALYSIS of why Yahoo seems to shutter all of the acquisitions that it makes

AUTHOR: article.author/s

EDITOR: article.editor/s

PUBLISHER: article.publisher/s

STATUS: Write

PRIORITY: 0

OWNER ID: 75

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