To say the very least, it's been tough for Yahoo and its shrinking list of supporters over the past couple of weeks. After non-stop criticism from research analysts and shareholders, their CEO stepped down last week pushing the stock up 4% for the day. Now that the dust begins to settle word is out today that the company is losing their widely respected display ad chief, Wenda Millard, who is heading off to Martha Stewart to be their sales chief. Slick move if you care for my opinion. Unfortunately, as the news came out yesterday, Yahoo basically said she was let go rather than leaving on her own accord. Anyway, from what I hear, she certainly won't be the last sales team member to leave this summer. An old colleague of mine is running a group over there and she said that things are pretty lousy in terms of morale and what not. So, does it make a lot of sense for the troubled company to be acquiring hot start ups like sports community and information service Rivals.com? I guess business must go on regardless, right? No purchase price was released so we can't comment on whether they landed a sweetheart deal or not. If anything, the acquisition continues to validate the market drawing power of the high school/college sports vertical. There are barely any independents left at this point, and perhaps the next great concept or application doesn't even exist yet. We'll see, but if I were one the Rivals.com staffers, I'd be a little bummed about heading into the hands of a company enveloped by negativity.
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