RISE & RUIN
Empire File No. 9

How Yahoo Introduced the World to Google

Yahoo2017: Sold to VerizonMissed the shift6 min watch
How Yahoo Introduced the World to Google
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The story

In February 2008, Microsoft offered $44.6 billion for Yahoo. Yahoo said no. Eight years later, it agreed to sell its core internet business to Verizon for less than $5 billion.

This is the story of the company that was once the front door to the internet: how it put Google's name next to its own search box, offered $1 billion for Facebook and was turned down, rejected Microsoft, and then lost data from all three billion of its accounts.

Three lessons

  1. 1

    Never introduce your customers to your replacement. Yahoo put Google's name next to its own search box.

  2. 2

    Value what doesn't exist yet. Yahoo judged Facebook by what it was in 2006, not by what it could become.

  3. 3

    Know what you will say yes to, before the offer arrives. Yahoo said no to forty four billion dollars, without a better plan of its own.

Chapters

  1. 0:00Intro
  2. 0:38Jerry and Dave's guide
  3. 1:19The front door
  4. 2:01The billion dollar no
  5. 2:35Forty four billion
  6. 3:14The turnaround that wasn't
  7. 4:00Three billion accounts
  8. 4:48Three lessons

Sources

Every fact in this file is checked against published sources before release. See our standards.

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