Terry Semel Time To Go

Posted by: Grayson Brulte

It’s 2007 and Yahoo’s stock price is still down. Terry took over in 2001 when Yahoo had a stock price of $15.62, today (2007) the stock price is $27.34.
Yahoo 10 Year Chart
Source: CNBC

The numbers show growth, but this is not acceptable! Google offered an IPO (initial public offering) in 2004 which Google had a market value of $23 billion compared with $39 billion for Yahoo at the time. Now fast forward 3 years and Google’s stock price is $515.83 compared to Yahoo’s $27.34.

Yahoo lost MySpace, YouTube and Double Click. What are they going to lose next? Terry has been a conservative executive for years dating back to his days at Warner Brothers. It’s time for the Yahoo Investors to step up and demand that he resign. His 2006 salary was $230.55 million. While I do not believe that executive pay should be limited, this is ridiculous.

Yahoo suffers from the branding problem, and it’s time they took a page out of Barry Diller’s play book and brand each company differently. IAC’s (InterActiveCorp) stock is $34.04 with a great outlook on the future with the re-launch of Ask.com. IAC buys properties and keeps the brand in tact while merging the technologies.

Barry Diller got it right! Yahoo got it wrong! Yahoo should sell off it’s properties and focus on it’s core business; Search. While focusing on search integrate tools that the company bought while keeping their brands in tact.

It’s 2007 and it’s time for change at Yahoo!