Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang has taken quite a bit of stick in the business blogosphere over the mishandling of Microsoft's repeated attempts to take over the declining company. This wasn't really surprising: Yahoo was his "baby," and anyone who has talked to Yang knows he has a very hostile view of Microsoft.
Of course, if Jerry Yang actually owned Yahoo, then he could behave as childishly as he likes. The problem is, he doesn't. And New York Times writer Joe Nocera has sent him a public memo pointing this out. In Oh Jerry, It's No Longer Your Baby, about "Shafting Yahoo's Shareholders," he says:
Jerry, you're a billionaire because people all over the world bought your stock, and trusted you to do right by them. That's the compact you make when you take a company public: you get to be really rich, but in return, you have an obligation to do everything you can to ensure that shareholders get a healthy return on their investment. It doesn't matter that you would like Yahoo to remain independent, or that you can't stand Microsoft. Your feelings aren't supposed to get in the way of your fiduciary duty.
Of course, it's not a new point by any means. Coming from J Random Blogger, it wouldn't attract any notice. But a ringing condemnation in The New York Times is much harder to brush off, especially with Carl Icahn out to get Yang's head on a stick.
The problem is that while it may be possible to unravel Yang's "poison pill" takeover defences and search deal with Google -- which amounts to "we have to destroy the village in order to save it" -- there seems to be little chance of getting the Microsoft deal back.
Plenty of Microsoft staff appear to think the deal isn't good for Microsoft (and that the price is crazy), and chief executive Steve Ballmer has got that message. He might still be able to buy Yahoo at a suitably knock-down price, in defiance of staff sentiment, but that wouldn't suit either Yang or Icahn.
What makes all this really funny is that Microsoft's online efforts aren't hurting Yahoo at all. It's Google that is sucking the blood out of Yahoo, and all Jerry Yang can say is: "Here, have another quart".
