梅耶尔承认雅虎遇到挑战 复兴大计前景渺茫

    就在三年多以前，玛丽莎·梅耶尔开始用破釜沉舟的策略来扭转雅虎的颓势，并为此进行了各种尝试。雅虎一口气收购了约40家中型初创企业，并且尝试使用一些高成本但引人注目的内容，比如招揽知名媒体人加盟，以及续拍美剧《废柴联盟》。

    现在，梅耶尔又祭出了专注和自律这个法宝，甚至要削减雅虎为《废柴联盟》等三部原创电视剧投入的4200万美元资金。

    但时至今日，梅耶尔重振雅虎的计划显得更前景渺茫了。雅虎剥离240亿美元阿里巴巴股份的行动在税收方面也出现了疑问（美国国税局拒绝了雅虎预先批准此项计划的请求）。更糟糕的是，由于8月份中国股市暴跌，剥离阿里巴巴股份的“钱景”已经大不如前。同时，雅虎高层的更迭频率令人担心，新广告产品的创收成本也在不断攀升。

    雅虎周二（10月20日）公布的今年第三季度业绩显示，该公司收入比上年同期减少了8.4%，原因就是上述成本的增长。在这个季度，雅虎仅实现收入10亿美元，而上年同期为10.9亿。总收入实际上是增长的，但创收成本，或者说流量获取成本，从去年第三季度的4300万美元猛增至2.23亿美元。每股净利润0.08美元，上年同期则为6.70美元（得益于阿里巴巴上市带来的收益）。雅虎对今后业绩的展望表明，第四季度的流量获取成本会更高。

    梅耶尔在周二的业绩发布会上说，这样的表现“并非我们希望看到的，我们遇到了挑战，未能实现自己的业绩目标。”

    这可不是梅耶尔在此前几个季度描述的红火场面。批评之声纷至沓来，梅耶尔也必须承认自己遇到了麻烦。说到让雅虎摆脱困境的问题，梅耶尔表示，该公司目前拥有她上任以来最强大的管理团队。

    梅耶尔还说投资者只顾眼前。她指出，一个季度的情况不能代表雅虎的长期策略。该公司的新广告平台Gemini“拖累了收入”，原因是它仍在学习怎样把最相关的广告推送给用户。

    市后交易中雅虎股价微跌，报32.40美元。

    梅耶尔说，雅虎最晚可能要到明年第一季度才能剥离阿里巴巴的股份，此举将让雅虎更集中于核心业务，并且简化结构，“2016年的雅虎将变得更加专注。”

    要在明年提高业务专注度，雅虎就得让用户更多地参与。梅耶尔表示：“雅虎有超过10亿用户，而且其中大多数每天都会浏览雅虎的网站。我们得设法提高自己与终端用户的关联度，并让他们更多地上我们的网站。”她补充说，“用户参与，是雅虎长期增长的关键。”

    对梅耶尔来说，挽救雅虎一直都需要她全力以赴。这家大型企业已经见证了多位CEO的来来往往，也实施过诸多策略。作为曾经的网络巨无霸，这些年来雅虎陷入了停滞，前景不明而且缺乏方向。

    梅耶尔正在试图重振一家互联网媒体公司，这是一项前所未有的工作。和雅虎规模相当而且成功做到这一点的企业只有两家，分别是eBay和Priceline，但它们都来自电子商务领域。为什么像MySpace和Bebo这样的大型互联网媒体公司在没落之后就再也无法翻身呢？这是因为它们都不够专注？我表示怀疑。（财富中文网）

    译者：Charlie

    校对：詹妮

    Just over three years ago, Marissa Mayer embarked on the turnaround of Yahoo with a kitchen-sink strategy of trying anything and everything. It voraciously acquired 40 or so middling startups. It tried its hand at expensive, high-profile content from Katie Couric, David Pogue, and Community.

    Now Mayer is preaching the gospel of focus and discipline—even going so far as to write down the $42 million her company spent on Community and two other original shows.

    Mayer’s Yahoo YHOO -3.19% turnaround plan is looking less promising by the day. There are question marks around the tax bill for Yahoo’s $24 billion spin-off of its Alibaba BABA -1.18% shares. (The IRS denied Yahoo’s request for prior approval of its plan.) Making matters worse, the Alibaba spin-off doesn’t look nearly as lucrative as it did before the Chinese markets got crushed in August. Meanwhile Yahoo’s executive turnover has reached concerning levels. And the cost of revenue from its new advertising products continues to increase.

    Today’s earnings report, which reflected an 8.4% drop in revenue from a year ago, reflected those increased costs. In the third quarter, Yahoo brought in just $1 billion in revenue, down from $1.09 billion a year earlier. The company’s total revenue actually increased, but its cost of revenue, or “TAC,” increased substantially from $43 million in the year-ago quarter to $223 million this quarter. The company reported a net earnings per share of $0.08, compared with $6.70 last year (the latter boosted by Alibaba proceeds) and its guidance shows TAC will rise even higher next quarter.

    The results were “not indicative of the performance we want,” Mayer said in Tuesday’s earnings call. “We have encountered challenges and not achieved the results we had hoped for.”

    This is not the rosy portrait that Mayer has painted in past quarters. Criticism is mounting, and Mayer must acknowledge her gadflies. She addressed the issue of turnover by saying that Yahoo’s executive team was the strongest it had been in her tenure.

    Mayer also acknowledged investors’ short-term mindset. Yahoo’s long-term strategy will not be defined by a single quarter, she said. The company’s new advertising platform, Gemini, has “suppressed revenue,” Mayer said, because it is still learning how to serve the most relevant ads to users.

    Investors traded Yahoo stock slightly down in after-hours trading, to $32.40.

    Mayer said the spin-off of Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba, which may happen as late as the first quarter of next year, will allow the company to focus more closely on its core operations and simplify its structure. “We will be a more focused company in 2016,” she said.

    Yahoo’s increased focus next year will require deepening the engagement it gets from its users. “With more than a one billion users, we have most people who are online coming to us throughout the month,” Mayer said. “We need to work to improve our relevance to end users and how many times they come to us.” Engagement, the chief executive said, will be key to long-term growth.

    Saving Yahoo was always a going to be a stretch for Mayer, who arrived at a large company that had cycled through numerous CEOs and strategies. Once an Internet behemoth, Yahoo stagnated under years of uncertainty and lacking direction.

    Mayer is attempting the first ever turnaround of an Internet media company. Just two companies of Yahoo’s size and scale have ever managed the feat, and both are e-commerce businesses: eBay and Priceline. It’s unclear why none of the major fallen Internet media companies—MySpace, Bebo—have managed to do the same. I doubt it’s because they lacked focus.