This year, as the Microsoft drama unfolded, Yahoo has seen a steady exodus of high-profile staffers, as these formerly loyal and committed business and technology leaders give up on the company and morale drops.
Google and Yahoo signed a deal in June to let Yahoo run search ads provided by Google. Google and Yahoo had expected to turn on the deal's switch early this month, but have delayed the implementation, while they wait for the U.S. Department of Justice to examine the antitrust implications of the agreement. Yang said the companies continue their conversations with the DOJ.
Yahoo has said that the Google deal represents an annual revenue opportunity of about USUS$800 million and that, in its first 12 months after implementation, the deal could give Yahoo between US$250 million and US$450 million in incremental operating cash flow. Yahoo has a number of ambitious technology initiatives that its executives believe will put the company back on track. However, those projects, such as the Yahoo Open Strategy (Y OS) project, have a long term scope.
Y OS, announced in April, is a complex project to open Yahoo services up more broadly to outside developers and to create for end users a single dashboard to manage their Yahoo services and on-line activities in general.
Y OS is still in its early stages, and its initial components haven't all been particularly impressive, like last week's revamp of the Yahoo user profiles, which has been blasted by many people who don't like the changes.
Recent rumors have floated about a possible Yahoo-AOL merger. While that deal would give Yahoo a quick market share and revenue boost, industry experts are generally skeptical about whether it would fix Yahoo's problems.