Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

By now, you've heard the news. Yahoo is being sold to Verizon. (The transaction is a bit complicated, and misunderstood by many.)

This timeline shows the ups and downs at Yahoo, which went public in 1996. 

• In 1998, Yahoo turned own an offer to purchase Google's "page rank" system for $1 million. But then it went and purchased "Broadcast.com" for $5.7 billion in stock.
• In 2000, its market value was as high as $125 billion.
• After the tech bubble burst, its value dropped to $10 billion.

I expect many to arm-chair quarterback the moves made at Yahoo. It is easy to do, and it isn't always very productive. 

Perhaps the one lesson I'd take away is this. 

Yahoo failed.

It was almost a perfectly-timed company, coming online as the as the rest of the world tip-toed into the "internet."  

And yet it failed. 

It had seemingly unlimited resources. Access to the best people. The best technology.

And Yahoo failed. 

There are no sure things. Time marches on, technologies change, and consumers want different things. 

Perhaps that's the lesson we can take away from all of this.