Do You Yahoo?
Topics: Customer Operations Organizational Structure Social
Jamie A. Neidig T'02, Professor Richard A. D'Aveni
Length: 24 pages
Publication date: 2001
Case#: 6-0005
Two recent changes in the competitive landscape, AOL’s merger with Time Warner and Terra’s acquisition of Lycos, were pitting Yahoo against 500-pound gorillas for both eyeballs and advertising dollars. Formidable competition was coming from small niche sites as well as large, traditional communications and media companies, including phone and cable companies.
Yahoo was not considering mergers, but did make moves into new product lines ranging from e-commerce, to movies, Internet phone services, and intranet development. Considering Yahoo’s expansion into so many new diverse product lines, Matt worried Yahoo was set to become the jack of all trades and the master of none. On the other hand, perhaps Yahoo was simply casting a wide net to become the portal with everything — the portal of choice. Matt knew that Yahoo’s historical strength was as a content aggregator, but he wondered if that model would sustain future success.
