They blogged it: Yahoo says farewell Terry Semel

When news broke that Terry Semel had resigned as CEO of Yahoo to be replaced by a returning co-founder Jerry Yang and Sue Decker who was promoted to president of the search firm, the blogs ran hot with theories about Semel's departure. Marketing picks up on some of the buzz circulating out there.

 

Blog: Rob Frankel - Branding Expert

URL: http://robfrankel.blogspot.com/2007/06/dumping-semel-yang-and-yahoo.html

Blogger: Rob Frankel

The blog: Frankel is self proclaimed branding guru and professional book writer who is happy to tell you he has been called "the best branding expert on the planet".

Blog post: Dumping Semel, Yang and Yahoo

What he says: Rob Frankel reckons Yahoo is mistaken to believe that the firm's problem lies in the lack of talent capable of running the business.

He said: "Like Wal-Mart, Yahoo has an identity but no brand strategy. So it doesn't matter who's at the helm. It doesn't matter what kind of talent you bring: If people can't articulate why Yahoo is "the only solution to their problem", they have no reason to choose, use and evangelize that brand".

 

Blog: Valleywag

URL: http://valleywag.com/tech/obituary/terry-semels-reign-at-yahoo-269939.php

Blogger: Nick Denton

The blog: Very popular cheeky gossip and news blog about hi-jinks in Silicon Valley

Blog post: Obituary: Terry Semel's reign at Yahoo

What he says: Valleywag, Silicon Valley's tech gossip rag's interim editor Nick Denton even posted an "obituary" on Terry Semel. He said the ‘prepared' obituary came in handy as Semel's departure has long been inevitable although the precise timing of his decision to leave came as a surprise.

The tech rag described Semel as the "Hollywood power politician, schooled in Time Warner power games" and pointed out that internet executives have also called him "the Forrest Gump of the industry, someone with a charmed life, but a limited understanding of the new medium to which he'd come, late in his career".

 

Blog: Where start ups start

URL: http://startupguy.wordpress.com/2007/06/19/why-yahoo-fired-terry-semel/

Blogger: Mayer Reich

The blog: Start-up advice from a young start-up entrepreneur

Blog post: Why Yahoo fired Terry Semel

What he says: In "Why Yahoo fired Terry Semel", Chris Pearson compares the company to Google's success in positioning itself as the search leader while Yahoo failed in two ways, namely "search market share and figuring out how to generate revenue".

He suggests if Yahoo had positioned itself as a "great portal" and "charged for some of their services a bit more or were more creative when it comes to generating revenue, our buddy Terry would not have been canned". Taking a gripe on Semel's paycheck, Pearson continues, "Maybe if Terry also took a pay cut from his $78 million annual salary the shareholders would not have lynched him".

 

Blog: Media Post's Online Media Daily

URL: http://blogs.mediapost.com/omd_commentary/?p=535

Blogger: The Riff

The blog: Commentary on global media issues of the day

Blog post: The Tao of digital media

What they say: Semel's Hollywood" background is again under attack in Media Post's blog, which takes a "Taoist" perspective based on the principles of balancing "Yin" and "Yang" (pun intended) to analyse Semel's departure.

Blogger The Riff explores the antagonism between hiring a ‘marketer'- Semel- "who appears to have gone a little too Hollywood" accusing him of focusing too much on content rather than "exploiting superior technology to connect people to the stuff they want: information, content, and other people", as opposed to having co-founder Yang, a ‘techie' to lead Yahoo.

While Yahoo is still leading as one of the big three, the other being Google and MSN, "Yahoo's dominance appears to be eroding". This phenomenon as the author notices in traditional media players ABC, CBS and NBC - "But just like the traditional media are being forced to adapt by their initial innovations, now the innovators are being forced to adapt".

The Riff notes at a recent American Association of Advertising Agencies Digital Conference in New York sees "both the pure play digitals, as well as older school traditionals - were remaking themselves as digital marketing services agencies". He concludes it seems "It's cool to be a geek again".