Almost as a foil to the suggestions that Google is showing some signs of weakness are those that Yahoo! is making a comeback. On Tuesday the company beat Wall Street’s expectations, leading some to see that the return of Jerry Yang, Yahoo!’s co-founder, might be bringing the light at the end of the tunnel. In a conference call on Thursday Yang laid out three priorities for the company. He wants to see Yahoo! become the starting point for Internet users, the company’s properties become must buys for advertisers, and third party developers begin to use Yahoo! as a platform. BusinessWeek commented on Yang’s goals saying, “Yang is aiming to transform the culture, making Yahoo a place that encourages innovation, faster product development, and increased collaboration with outside Web sites and developers.” However, there are also those that suggest that beating the Wall Street estimates is not the signal of any change. “Wall Street’s expectations were so low that a slight improvement from that looks pretty good,” said Jeffrey Lindsay, a financial analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.
Small Steps at Yahoo Bear Fruit: New York Times, October 17, 2007
Yahoo: Bringing Geeky Back: BusinessWeek Online, October 16, 2007
Yahoo: A Light at End of Tunnel?: Knight Ridder, October 17, 2007
Yahoo Gathers Speed in Q3: M2 Communications, October 18, 2007
Tags: Yahoo!
