1994 20081995 2007

"Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web"

Tim Koogle, from 1995 till 2001Yahoo! Inc.

Missions

20162011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Jerry Yang, from 2007 till 2009NO to Microsoft bid, too low!

Microsoft unsolicited $44.6

billion bid for Yahoo

$31/share

… What’s next?

Feb. 1

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

CEOMarch

Yahoo! "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle"

Terry Semel, from 2001 till 2007

10 11 12

IPOApril

CEO

20102009

Missions

[Ross Levinsohn], from 2009 till 2012

Carol Bartz, [Tim Morse], Scott Thompson & Marissa Mayer, from 2012 till now

13 14 15

July 16

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

1 72 3 4 5 6 8 9

Jul 07, 2015, last but not last, 23rd mission:Yahoo is a guide focused on informing,connecting, and entertaining our users.

www.jmleray.com / 2015

Aabaco spin-offJuly

21 years, 23 missions

20 08

All-time high price share 125,03 $ Gen 04, 2000

All-time low price share 3,88 $ Sep 28, 2001

post-Microsoft bid low price share 8,94 $ Nov 20, 2008

post-Microsoft bid high price share 52,62 $ Nov 18, 2014

Average price share June-July 2015, ÷ $40

David Filo

Right off the bat, we see four major periods emerge, each corresponding to a specific era in Yahoo’s governance:

1996-2001, CEO Tim Koogle, 6 missions, a new one each year 2002-2009, CEOs Terry Semel + Jerry Yang, 6 missions

2009-2012, 4 CEOs: Carol Bartz, Tim Morse [interim], Scott Thompson & Ross Levinsohn [interim], 6 missions

2012-present, CEO Marissa Mayer, 5 missions

The first six missions come to a total of 504

words, or 84 per statement.

INTERNET 14

WEB 13

SERVICES 11

GUIDE 11

BRAND(ED)/S 10

ONLINE 9

COMPANY 9

BUSINESS 8

MEDIA 7

NAVIGATIONAL 6

GLOBAL 6

USER 5

TRAFFIC 5

NETWORK 5

LEADING 5

Here is the list of the 15 most frequently

used terms

The key message isYahoo! Inc.

(NASDAQ:YHOO) is a global Internet media

company, a global Internet communications,

commerce and media company, and if you still

don’t get it, a leadingglobal Internet

communications, commerce and media

company.

The next six missions add up to 211 words, or 35 per statement. INTERNET 11

WORLDWIDE 8

LEADING 6

GLOBAL(LY) 6

BRAND 6

TRAFFICKED 4

SERVICES 4

PRODUCTS 4

ONLINE 4

BUSINESSES 4

PROVIDER 3

DESTINATIONS 3

CONSUMERS 3

COMPREHENSIVE 3

USERS 3

Here is the list of the 15 most frequently

used terms

Yahoo! Inc. becomes a leading provider,

then a leading global Internet brand, and

for the first time (the one and only)

officially formalized his “mission” (mission 11):

“Yahoo!'s mission is to connect people to their passions, their communities, and

the world's knowledge”.

The six missions in the third period average 53 words per mission (total 320)

INTERNET 7

ONLINE 6

MEDIA 5

COMPANY 5

WORLD 4

TRAFFICKED 4

TECHNOLOGY 4

MILLIONS 4

INNOVATIVE 4

EXPERIENCES 4

DESTINATIONS 4

CONTENT 4

VISION 3

USERS 3

SERVICES 3

Here is the list of the 15 most frequently

used terms

It was during this period that the

company officially formalized his

“vision” (missions 14, 15 and 16):

“Yahoo!'s vision is to be the center of

people's online lives by delivering

personally relevant, meaningful Internet

experiences”.

The last five missions come to a total of 256 words, or 51 per statement.

PEOPLE 5

EXPERIENCES 5

DEVICES 5

CONNECTED 5

BUSINESSES 5

BUILD 5

ADVERTISERS 5

USERS 4

FOCUSED 4

CONNECTING 4

VALUE 3

PERSONALIZED 3

GLOBE 3

ENTERTAINING 3

AUDIENCES 3

The key message of Marissa Mayer is

Yahoo! is a technology-powered

media company…, Yahoo! is focused on…, Yahoo! is a

guide focused on…

and the list of the 15 most frequently

used terms change slightly from the

previous three lists

Except Yahoo, apparently: the statistical analysis of the 23 missions total 1291 words, averaging 56 words per statement.

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft

And all the terms that appear most often within each of the four periods (aside from “Yahoo” and its variations) form a semantic cloud revealing the 40 most frequently used words:

Yahoo is a guide focused on informing, connecting, and entertaining our users. By creating highly personalized experiences for our users, we keep people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the world. In turn, we create value for advertisers by connecting them with the audiences that build their businesses.

Because having too many missions & visions just means you have no mission, no vision at all!

Changing mission statements is no small thing, especially when it’s a company as bigas Yahoo! It’s a strategic decision, which you’d imagine would be backed by mature thoughts, and not done on the fly…

But after 21 years of reflection and 23 unsuccessful attempts to create a compellingstatement for users as well as shareholders and investors, the time may have come for Yahoo and its executives to solve this problem.

As we can see with just a glance at the cloud, the “vision” is completely lost in the whole, which is more a cacophony offering little hope of any coherence. Maybe that’s also why, in the last two missions, Yahoo has lost its exclamation point. Last but not last, the current mission is:

CONCLUSION