Yahoo Shareholder Pushes New Plan
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The press have been calling it “Yahoo’s Plan B.” Proposed by Eric Jackson, who posted a video to YouTube about it, the nine-point plan has been gaining some grassroots support. But does a turnaround plan promoted in such an unorthodox manner by a minority stockholder really have any hope of success?
Eric Jackson reportedly owns only 45 shares of Yahoo stock, but he’s making a huge splash with them. It’s a tribute to his ability to use community-building tools – the same kinds of tools that Yahoo has been trying to leverage with its web 2.0 acquisitions – that his campaign has been gaining steam. He says he has a group of like-minded Yahoo shareholders backing him up that together own close to a million shares of the beleaguered company.
He started in early January with an appeal to other shareholders to present ideas for a “Plan B” to save the company. His outreach tools include a blog, YouTube videos and a wiki. He seems to have received a lot of input. In late February he submitted a finalized version of “Plan B” to Yahoo’s corporate secretary with the intention of presenting the plan at the company’s annual meeting in May.
Jackson isn’t simply web savvy, if his biography can be believed. He has a PhD from Columbia University Graduate School of Business in New York, where he specialized in strategic management and organizational behavior. His thesis would seem to be right up the alley of trying to turn Yahoo around; it covered “how the composition and processes of top management teams and boards are linked to longer-term firm performance,” to quote the bio directly. He has several publications on corporate management performance to his credit, and has served as vice president of strategy and business development at VoiceGenie, which is now part of Alcatel. He is currently the CEO of his own consulting firm, Jackson Leadership Systems.
So are the nine points of Plan B going to save Yahoo, or is something a little more self-serving at work here? Let me paraphrase Star Trek's Dr. McCoy and say I’m a writer, not a business analyst. On the other hand, I’ve spent about seven years covering technology and technology-related companies. I’ve looked at my share of financial results, and for the last two years I’ve followed the search field pretty closely. So what you’re about to read is coming from a somewhat informed layman. Keeping that in mind, let’s see what Jackson’s plan offers Yahoo.
Next: The First Three Points >>
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