1) SHE’S SEVEN MONTHS PREGNANT HOLY FUCKING SHIT. If that ain’t a show I’ll kiss your ass. Then again, if you’re trying to pull Yahoo out of its death spiral, popping out a kid on top of that is merely the parsley on the side of the plate.
2) I notice that the first instinct I had about her turnaround is “who can they buy?” Which obviously reflects my lack of confidence in Yahoo’s ability to deliver a new product – they haven’t had a compelling offering since Flickr and I’m pretty sure they bought that too, and ages ago at that. I don’t know what that says about my faith in Yahoo to innovate, but it says a lot about the way things have changed in the Valley – more and more, it feels like the exit strategy of choice is to get bought out and acquired by somebody bigger, whether it’s one of the Consumer Big Five that I cited earlier or by the likes of Cisco or another big player in the less-consumer-ish space.
3) I think that speaks to the extent to which the new wave of high-tech players wants to get rich instead of conquering the world. Instagram going to Facebook is the example everyone points to, but look at the meltdown at Digg – they turned down a big-ticket acquisition and now, years later, they’re selling out for a pittance compared to what they were valued at originally. That’s got to be a cautionary tale. Friendster is probably the same way – they created the modern idea of social networking, spurned the Google offer, went on to get their lunch eaten by MySpace and Facebook, got big-ish in Southeast Asia and ultimately wound up a niche social game site. At this point, if you get an offer from Apple or Microsoft or Facebook, you have to think long and hard about whether you a) think you can make it bigger on your own, b) not get swamped by some other Big Five offering, and c) live with the knowledge that you let it ride and busted out when you limp into obscurity in two years.
4) All of this makes me wonder whether Yahoo might not try to acquire somebody they want to be acquired by themselves – which sounds confusing as hell, but think Disney-Pixar. Let’s be honest, Disney’s future is wholly owned and operated by their Emeryville “subsidiary”; if Yahoo were to latch onto Foursquare or Twitter or the like, it would give them something to aim for while still having their original portal-and-information business as a value-add for their location-based/social future. I know it sounds nuts, but what else is going to turn Yahoo around?