Yahoo! Inc. was created in 1994 by the two students from Stanford. Yahoo! Inc. made significant growth in the 1990s, but Yahoo! Inc. faced other competitors such as Google and Microsoft. There were also extreme pressures to sell the Yahoo! Inc. Marisa Mayer is a former employee at Google and Marisa Mayer was appointed CEO in 2012. There are several issues I want to point out. There is steady decline of Yahoo! Inc. service usage. Advertising revenue decreased because of lower internet traffic and customer usage. There is also loss of market share, leading to poor financial performance and employee layoffs.
Review/Analysis of the Case
Analysis of Findings
There is mission statement of Yahoo! Inc. “Our mission is to be the most essential global Internet service for consumers and businesses. How we pursue that mission is influenced by a set of core values – the standards that guide interactions with fellow Yahoos, the principles that direct how we service our customers, the ideals that drive what we do and how we do it. Many of our values were put into practice by two guys in a trailer some time ago; others reflect ambitions as our company grows. All of them are what we strive to achieve every day.”
Value, Strengths, and Weaknesses of Yahoo! Inc
There are three values of Yahoo! Inc. such as their products, their people, and the company. Yahoo! Inc. has several strengths. They newly appointed CEO Marisa Mayer. They have strong brand, use traffic, early market penetration, mature company, financial ability, product portfolio, and Asian equity holdings. On the other hand, Yahoo! Inc. has several weaknesses such as high management turnover rate, pregnant of Marisa Mayer, search engine partnership with one of its main competitors, and sluggish financial performance.
Opportunities and Threats of Yahoo! Inc
Yahoo! Inc. has opportunities such as worldwide market penetration, advertising opportunities, and acquisitions. Yahoo! Inc. also has threats such as competition for advertising revenue, competitive industry, reliance on Microsoft, weak presence in social networking segment, and marginal presence in mobile segment.
Alternatives and Implementation Plan
Yahoo! Inc. could sell the company. Second, they could redesign the company and grow through acquisitions. Third, they could do nothing. There is also implementation plan. They could determine area that are needed to improvement and discover what the most important services are to customers. They need to focus on developing core competencies. If strategic acquisitions are found, niche markets should be entered if competitive advantage can be gained. They need to attract more revenue from advertisers. And then they should keep up positive corporate culture inspired by Myers’ dedicated work ethic.
Summary and Conclusions
Yahoo! Inc. faced with strong competition, but Marisa Mayer gave the company a new sense of direction. Skills of Marisa Mayer will give the company to develop into a competitive media company. If the Yahoo! Inc focuses on their strengths and develops an organized way to navigate the internet, Yahoo! Inc. will be able to gain competitive advantages.
