Yahoo Says Marissa Mayer Has Fixed Its Biggest Problem - Quartz

3/6/2014
Yahoo says Marissa Mayer has fixed its biggest problem - Quartz
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Yahoo says Marissa Mayer has xed its biggest problem

By John McDuling @jmcduling 8 hours ago
It's all working.
Reuters/Denis Balibouse
In September 2012, shortly after Marissa Mayer took charge of Yahoo, she moved swiftly to try and rectify what was considered the search giants biggest problem: a lack of talent. The companys long-serving head of human resources departed, and a former private-equity executive, handpicked by Mayer, replaced him. Since then Yahoo has been on an acquisition spreeor more accurately an acqui-hire spree, buying some 37 companies and their staff, according to CB Insights, the biggest of which was the $1.1 billion purchase of blogging service, Tumblr. And now Yahoo thinks the problem is solved and its talent crisis is over. At least, so suggested its chief financial offer, Ken Goldman, who spoke at a Morgan Stanley investor conference in San Francisco this week. Goldman was asked whether an exodus of Yahoo veterans to places like Facebook, Google and startups could affect the quality of its services.
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Theres no question that we lost a number of folks along the way. We lost that because, in some respects, we pushed them out, he said. When we came to the company, and we talked about acquisitionsfrankly, companies did not want to be acquired by Yahooand for us to even acquire them we would have to pay a Yahoo premium because they didnt want to come here. Thats not the case any more. Competition for talent in Silicon Valley is fierce, and of course the CFO is going to talk up Yahoo as a good place to work. But Goldmans statement is backed up by the companys annual report, which claims that it received more than 340,000 job applications in 2013, double the number in 2012. According to the career site Glassdoor, Yahoo was the thirdhighest-paying company in Silicon Valley for engineers last year, behind Juniper Networks and LinkedIn.
But salary isnt everything; unlike Facebook, Google or Twitter, Yahoo did not make it into Glassdoors separate list of the 50 best places to work. Mayer has received her fair share of criticism for not letting staff work from home and for scheduling weekly meetings on Friday afternoons. But if the company is to be believed, the cultural change she has instigated is working. She deserves the credit relative to changing the attitude and morale and the desire, if you will, to attract new folks as well as to retain folks we have, Goldman said. So I think Im very confident. If you talk to anybody at Yahoo today you would find them, whether theyve been here for a year or five years, theyre very, very pleased with what they see in working at Yahoo. Im absolutely, very confident in that relative to attrition and our ability to hire all points to that.
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CH E CKMATE
The four charts Vladimir Putin should consider as he plots his next move in Ukraine
By Jason Karaian @jkaraian March 5, 2014
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Decisions, decisions. Novosti
Reuters/Alek sey Nik olsk yi/RIA
Vladimir Putin put the Russian invasion of Ukraine on pause at a press conference on Tuesday, and markets stepped back from the ledge. The rout in Russian assets was partly reversed; the ruble regained some ground, as did stocks and bonds. As long as there isnt any shootingaside from the odd warning shotthe mood seems to be one of cautious relief. But dont expect any meaningful money to pour back into Russia until the ultimate outcome of Ukraines crisis becomes clearer. Was Putins conciliatory tone a result of the markets rebuke? Perhaps, but that is probably a simplistic reading of the intrigue over the past few days, as purportedly stateless soldiers flooded into Crimea and issued mysterious ultimatums to local military units. Equally, Putin could be testing the markets and gauging whether it is worth his while to fight in the open instead of in the shadows.
Who will blink rst?

On this point, it is useful to assess Russias economic options in case its military ones are activated in Ukraine. The mere threat of Western sanctions could be enough to defuse the situation, with the turmoil at the start of the week a preview of the pain that the markets can inflict. At the same time, Russia may calculate that it can withstand the turbulence longer than the Westmore specifically that its energy users, banks, and others entities reliant on Russias physical and financial resources can hold their nerve. As it happens, the last time Russia invaded one of its neighbors, it faced a severe financial crisis. But the Russian tanks rolling into Georgia was only one of the factors that battered markets in 2008, as the global financial crisis also hit the country hard. Is it better prepared this time around? Judge for yourself, as the charts below compare the Russian economy
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this time around? Judge for yourself, as the charts below compare the Russian economy around the time of the invasion of Georgia with the situation today, starting from when protests kicked off in Kiev in November.
Foreign currency reserves

As the ruble tanked on Monday, Russias central bank hiked interest rates and spent more than $11 billion propping up the currency in the open market. It has quadrupled the amount it is authorized to spend to keep the ruble trading within its target range. If the currency comes under renewed pressure, future interventions will drain Russias foreign exchange reserves (which include some of the assets held in its two sovereign wealth funds, the Reserve Fund and the National Wealth Fund). Compared with 2008, Russia is starting from a somewhat smaller base of reserves to draw on, meaning it has less firepower with which to defend the ruble. In the tumultuous 12 months from June 2008, Russias reserves fell by $165 billion, which would be worth nearly 40% of todays reserves.
Currency values
Even before the latest bout of ruble turmoil, the Russian currency had been drifting downward for months, losing 10% of its value against the dollar since November. Thus far, it is following a similar path to mid-2008, although to see a depreciation on the same scale it would need to shed another 20% of its value in the coming months, which will depend on how aggressively the central bank deploys its reserves in defense the currency.
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Stock markets
Compared with 2008, investors have been much kinder to Russian stocks, even considering the double-digit percentage plunge at the start of the week. Unlike the ruble, the benchmark RTS equity index has not regained as much ground as it lost on that day, but stocks arent yet under nearly as much pressure as they were during late 2008 and early 2009. Some think the declines are overdone and now is the time to buy.
Energy markets
Another factor working in Russias favor is energy prices. The price of oil has been much more stable in recent months than it was during the turmoil of 2008; few expect it to plunge like it did back then, thanks to firmer demand from a global economy on the mend instead
of one in the throes of the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Russia links its gas
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of one in the throes of the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Russia links its gas prices to oil, so this should support the energy exports on which its budget depends.
Much has been written about Europes reliance on the gas Russia pipes through Ukraine, not least how a mild winter has bolstered the continents gas inventories, making the threat of a disruption in supply less immediately dauntingand thus a less attractive weapon for Russia to deploy. European gas prices remain above last weeks levels, but for the most part countries that rely on Russian gas arent as exposed as they were when Putin last turned off the taps, in January 2009. For Russia, its economic experience around that time is also something it would probably not want to repeatin 2009 GDP sank by nearly 8%, unemployment spiked, and inflation ran in the double digits. And even as its economy has recovered, Russia is having trouble attracting investment and convincing its citizens to keep their money within the country. Provoking a return to recessionspurred by a currency collapse, sanctions, or some other Crimea-related shockseems an unwise move.
Your move, Moscow

Of course, all wisdom is relative when geopolitics are involved. Some saw Putins press conference not as the performance of a cagey chess player but as a dangerous, out-of-touch rogue who was nervous, angry, cornered, and paranoid, periodically illuminated by flashes of his own righteousness, as one Russia watcher put it. As the above shows, Russia is in some ways in better shape than it was in the run-up to its last financial crisis, but in others it looks like it may have already started retracing its
previous path down into the doldrums. To the extent that things like foreign currency
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previous path down into the doldrums. To the extent that things like foreign currency reserves and stock valuations play into the decision to invade a neighboring country, there is plenty for Putin to consider.
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Yahoo Says Marissa Mayer Has Fixed Its Biggest Problem - Quartz

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3/6/2014

Yahoo says Marissa Mayer has xed its biggest problem

It's all working.

Read This Next: Why major creative breakthroughs happen in

Decisions, decisions. Novosti

Reuters/Alek sey Nik olsk yi/RIA

Who will blink rst?

Foreign currency reserves

Your move, Moscow

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