Yahoo ought to be used to it by now, but the questions about its future continue, especially after it made some money from selling shares in recently-gone-public Alibaba. Not only that, investors and other bossy entities are pushing for some drastic moves.
What’s a Silicon Valley Internet giant to do?
Why, invest in a revenue-challenged startup, of course. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that of the billions Yahoo made from selling some of its stake in Alibaba, Yahoo is considering investing $20 million in Snapchat, the app that sends mobile messages that self-destruct after a few seconds. But revenue questions aside, Snapchat reportedly has a $10 billion valuation, and it’s in a hot space: mobile messaging. So the WSJ notes another gigantic company’s early investment in an unproven startup as an example of what could go right — Microsoft’s investment in Facebook.
However, as our own Pete Carey writes, Yahoo’s sales remain flat after its purchases of Tumblr (for $1.1 billion!), Flurry and other startups since CEO Marissa Mayer took the reins a couple of years ago. Sure, it takes time to see how such moves play out. But those pesky shareholders aren’t being very patient: Investment group Starboard Value is pushing for a Yahoo-AOL merger, and calling for Mayer to stop the shopping spree. And a Swiss investment advisory firm is calling for Yahoo to merge with Japan’s Softbank.
Photo from Associated Press archives
