Yahoo Circles the Wagons

Mar 02 2001

Is there an epidemic of masked highwaymen roaming the streets that no one has told us about? The folks over at Yahoo are certainly acting like they're about to be under siege, what with yesterday's announcement of a plan to thwart a hostile takeover, and the news that yet another executive is riding off into the sunset.

The portal's plan to "deter coercive takeover tactics," as it worded a widely quoted statement, received limited coverage, with most outlets running 250-word-and-under pieces with no outside sources. Actually, make that no human sources at all - the statement was where most reports began and ended. Though the company claims the shareholder rights plan was "not adopted in response to any effort to acquire control of Yahoo," TheStreet.com noted rumors of interest from the black-hatted banditos News Corp., Disney and Viacom . Is it just us, or is this story worth a little more context, perhaps even - we shudder to suggest it - comment from an analyst?

Reporters got a little more mileage out of the news that Mark Rubinstein, head of Yahoo's Canadian operations, is leaving to "pursue other business opportunities," as the Wall Street Journal put it. The Financial Times came through with the most comprehensive coverage, scoring a comment from CEO Tim Koogle, who called the resignations of Rubinstein and three other honchos from the company's international divisions nothing more than "lifestyle choices by the particular individuals involved." In an interview with the Journal's Stephanie Gruner, Fabiola Arredondo, the managing director of Yahoo Europe who resigned a few weeks ago, gave credence to that theory, saying she left in order to build her own business, a media concept she says she's been mulling since she was 24.

The Financial Times, however, intimated that the execs may have bailed because of the collapse of Yahoo stock - it has tumbled 88 percent from its high last year. Then there's the theory, as reported in the Journal, that Arredondo in particular left because "U.S. leaders balked at taking Yahoo Europe public at the end of 1999 and shied away from making significant acquisitions." Arredondo wouldn't address that subject on the record, but she did look back fondly at her early days with the company. "There were no rules, which I thought was a lot of fun," she told Gruner. "It was like cowboy country." Looks like some things never change.

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