Yahoo is one of the most successful companies in the history of the Internet. But if someone asked you what happened to Yahoo today, you’d probably Google it.
Once one of the most visited websites in the world, the spectacular failure of Yahoo is a cautionary tale of missed opportunities, poor strategic decisions, and fierce competition.
In this article, we’ll delve deep into why Yahoo failed, exploring the mismanagement, strategic errors, technological shifts, and competition that led to the search giant’s demise.
The Rise of Yahoo
Founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994, Yahoo began as a modest project called "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web." Little did they know that their small endeavour would grow into a global tech giant.
Yahoo's initial mission was to catalogue and categorise the rapidly expanding World Wide Web. At a time when search engines were virtually nonexistent, this directory of websites made it easier for users to navigate the rapidly expanding depths of the internet.
Yahoo was essentially organising the internet's chaos. The company's directory-based approach allowed users to explore the web by topic, creating a structured and intuitive way to find information. This approach made Yahoo the go-to starting point for countless internet users, helping it gain rapid popularity.
As the 1990s progressed, Yahoo evolved into more than just a directory. It ventured into providing a wide range of services, including email (Yahoo Mail), news (Yahoo News), and instant messaging (Yahoo Messenger). These services were integrated into the Yahoo portal, creating an all-in-one destination for Internet users.
By the early 2000s, Yahoo had become one of the most visited websites globally, with its market capitalisation soaring. It was not just a tech company – it had become an integral part of Internet culture.
Why Yahoo Failed
After its meteoric rise during the late 1990s and early 2000s, Yahoo began to face a series of challenges and strategic missteps that ultimately led to its failure.
One pivotal moment was its decision to pass on the opportunity to acquire Google in its infancy for a mere $5 billion. This decision allowed Google to take the throne of online search and advertising and become the go-to search engine for decades to come.
But it wasn’t just Google that Yahoo had to worry about. The emergence of social media giants like Facebook and Twitter further diverted user attention and advertising revenue away from Yahoo's properties. As user engagement gradually declined and consumers migrated to other platforms, it failed to take action.
The icing on the cake would be the string of controversies that would damage Yahoo’s status as a tech giant and ultimately lead to its downfall.
A revolving door of CEOs
From the late 1990s through the 2000s and into the 2010s, Yahoo experienced a constant churn of chief executives, each ushering in their vision and strategy.
The cycle of changing CEOs began in the early 2000s when Yahoo co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo handed over leadership to a series of external hires. The lack of continuity in leadership meant that the company lacked a clear, long-term vision and strategic direction. Each new CEO came with their own ideas and priorities, resulting in shifts in corporate strategy that confused employees and scared off investors.
In 2007, Jerry Yang returned as CEO. A move that was met with optimism but ultimately proved short-lived. Under his leadership, Yahoo missed opportunities, including the failure to acquire Google.
Following Yang's departure, a string of CEOs took the helm, including Carol Bartz, Scott Thompson, and Ross Levinsohn. None were able to halt Yahoo's decline, and the company struggled to compete with Google in search and advertising.
Marissa Mayer's appointment in 2012 was perhaps the most high-profile attempt to revive Yahoo's fortunes. Mayer, a former Google executive, was expected to bring fresh ideas and innovation to the company - but ultimately failed to deliver.
While Mayer was able to embark on multiple major initiatives, such as the acquisition of Tumblr, her tenure was marked by slow progress and a failure to reverse Yahoo's downward spiral.
The 2013 and 2014 Yahoo breaches
One of Yahoo’s biggest controversies was in the early 2010s when it was hit by a series of high-profile data breaches just as it was losing its lustre.
The first breach, which took place in 2013 but was not disclosed until 2016, affected over 3 billion user accounts, exposing sensitive data such as names, email addresses, phone numbers, and hashed passwords. The breach made international headlines, shocking the tech community and Yahoo users alike.
To make matters worse, in 2014 Yahoo experienced another substantial data breach, affecting at least 500 million user accounts. This made it among the most notorious cyber attacks in history.
While this breach was attributed to a state-sponsored actor, it put Yahoo’s security under scrutiny once again, leaving its reputation in tatters.
Yahoo’s messy acquisitions
Even before the tech giant began spiralling, it had already made a series of failed acquisitions that would come to haunt it as times got tough.
In the 90s, Yahoo was on a relentless quest for growth, driven by the belief that buying more companies would equate to enhanced competitiveness. However, this high-volume, low-value strategy used up all of the company's resources and distracted the company from its core business. Acquisitions like Broadcast.com in 1999, for instance, quickly became irrelevant as technology evolved, representing major financial missteps by Yahoo.
Yahoo's most infamous acquisition would come with its takeover of Tumblr for a hefty $1.1 billion. The company wanted to leverage Tumblr's youthful user base but struggled to monetise the platform effectively and failed to retain its user community. Tumblr's user base and value quickly plummeted.
Alibaba: Yahoo’s failed investment
Of course, not all of Yahoo’s investments proved fruitless. In 2005, the tech giant made a prescient move by investing $1 billion in the Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, a decision that would ultimately prove to be both a boon and a missed opportunity.
At the time of the investment, Alibaba was still a relatively young company, and Yahoo's capital infusion helped fuel its rapid growth. However, as Alibaba expanded and diversified its business, it became clear that this investment could have yielded much more significant returns.
The turning point came in 2014 when Alibaba went public with a record-breaking IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. This IPO valued Alibaba at a staggering $168 billion, making it one of the most valuable tech companies globally. Yahoo's 24% stake in Alibaba should have translated into a windfall of approximately $40 billion.
However, Marissa Mayer, the company's CEO at the time, was unable to extract the full value of this investment. In a precarious position with regard to taxes on the potential sale of its stake, Mayer made the fateful decision to sell a significant portion of its Alibaba shares, effectively leaving billions of dollars on the table.
What happened to Yahoo? Where is it today?
After a series of crippling mistakes, Yahoo underwent a turbulent transformation that saw the once-mighty internet pioneer fade from its dot-com-era glory.
The former tech giant's core internet business was acquired by Verizon Communications in 2017 for approximately $4.48 billion. The deal included Yahoo's email, search, and advertising technology, and it was seen as Verizon's attempt to bolster its digital advertising and media portfolio.
Yahoo's remaining assets, primarily its substantial stake in Alibaba Group and a few other investments, were rebranded as Altaba Inc., a company focused on monetising these holdings.
However, Yahoo's woes did not end there. As for the internet business that Verizon acquired, it was merged with AOL to form Oath Inc. in 2017, a subsidiary intended to compete in the digital media and advertising space. Oath was rebranded as Verizon Media Group, but it struggled to gain a solid footing in an industry dominated by tech giants like Google and Facebook.
The final chapter unfolded in 2021 when Apollo Global Management acquired Verizon Media Group for $5 billion. The move signalled another transition and rebranding effort, with the company reverting to the iconic Yahoo name.
Today, Yahoo is undergoing a transformation under its new owner. The company has slashed 20% of its workforce and is focusing on its core businesses, such as Yahoo Mail, Finance, and Sports. It is also exploring new growth opportunities, such as the acquisition of the peer-to-peer sports betting app Wagr.
