三张图说清楚雅虎的坠落之谜

难道雅虎就这样走向终结吗？几周前，雅虎曾计划剥离其持有的320亿美元阿里巴巴股份，但如今，承受重压的雅虎高层决定放弃这项计划，转而寻求卖掉公司。

如果雅虎的维权投资者斯塔博德价值基金(Starboard Value)占据上风（到目前为止，它已经取得了两次胜利），雅虎就将出售其核心业务。届时，雅虎的资产就只剩下它对阿里巴巴和雅虎日本的持股，以及50亿美元现金。这是一种极端措施。

三年前，CEO梅丽莎•梅耶大张旗鼓、信心满满地加入公司。尽管收入缩水、员工造反，但雅虎依旧是全球第五大网络公司，坐拥数十亿美元收入和数亿美元利润。

而出售核心业务，则意味着梅耶任期的结束，或许意味着雅虎的发展将走到尽头。雅虎为何会陷入这样的困境？下面三幅图或许可以解释背后的原因。

This could be the end for Yahoo. After weeks of pressure to cancel the spin-off of its $32 billion stake in Alibaba, Yahoo is planning to give in, calling off the sale, and instead, exploring a sale of the company.

If Yahoo’s activist investor, Starboard Value, gets its way (and so far it has, twice), Yahoo will sell its operating business, and Yahoo stock will consist of shares of Alibaba, Yahoo Japan, and $5 billion in cash. It’s a desperate measure.

CEO Marissa Mayer joined the company three years ago with great fanfare and hope, and despite shrinking revenue and a revolting staff, Yahoo remains the fifth-largest Web property in the world, with billions of dollars in revenue and hundreds of millions in profits.

But a sale would likely mean the end of Mayer’s tenure and possibly the end of Yahoo. How did it come to this point? Here are three charts that illustrate the company’s struggles.

增长陷入停滞。梅耶在昂贵的内容方面投入巨资，尤其是视频，以及社交媒体收购和手机应用等方面。但新产生的收入没能抵销雅虎主营业务桌面显示广告业务的收入缩水。

Growth has stalled. Mayer has invested in expensive content, especially video, as well as social media acquisitions and mobile apps. The new income hasn’t offset shrinking revenue from Yahoo’s main business, desktop display ads.

在梅耶的领导下，雅虎的股票价格不断上涨，但大多数投资者均将其归因于阿里巴巴。2014年，阿里巴巴上市之后，投资者就不再需要购买雅虎的股票，以获得阿里巴巴增长带来的收益。

Yahoo’s stock price has increased under Mayer, but most investors attribute that to Alibaba. Once the company went public in 2014, investors no longer need to buy Yahoo shares to get exposure to its growth.

实际上，相比雅虎所持有的雅虎日本和阿里巴巴股份，投资者正在以较低的价值交易雅虎股份，从而无法给雅虎的核心业务带来任何价值。

雅虎董事会可以决定继续执行梅耶的战略。但这是不可能的：到目前为止，雅虎董事会一直都是对维权投资者们言听计从。这一次，出售主营业务的决定，也不例外。（财富中文网）

译者：刘进龙/汪皓

审校：任文科

Investors are trading Yahoo’s shares below the value of its holdings in Yahoo Japan and Alibaba, therefore assigning no value to Yahoo’s operating business.

Yahoo’s board could decide to continue executing Mayer’s strategy. But that’s not likely: So far the board has shown it does what activist investors tell it to do. This time, with the decision to explore a sale, has proven no different.