Interesting interview at Web 2.0 Expo between John Battelle and Jeff Weiner, Yahoo Exec & EVP Search.
After discussing Yahoo's future strategy given Google's recent successes & acquisitions of YouTube & DoubleClick (and Yahoo's non-acquisition of Facebook), John then asked a question about Microsoft. Weiner said nothing specific about a deal or partnership, yet appeared to state a position of greater interest from Yahoo to any future Microsoft approaches.
Hmmm. That's a new attitude for Yahoo towards Microsoft, compared to previous responses.
Watch this space.
I also was shocked by the directness of his reply. It had me thinking that this was a clear case of signaling. If he had been talking about pricing, the DOJ (or whatever department is responsible for said activity) would have rapidly swooped in to blunt price collusion!
I was really impressed with Jeff -- I found myself sitting there thinking, "that guy's braining really works". I bet that he's an inspiring leader. It was also a great reminder that Yahoo!'s not the lumbering beast that we sometimes think, just as Microsoft probably isn't "dead" just yet.
Interesting times, indeed...
Posted by: daveschappell | Sunday, April 22, 2007 at 07:34 AM
there's also a clip by Cnet here.
Posted by: Dave | Friday, April 20, 2007 at 03:28 PM
Here's the best I've found so far:
http://tinyurl.com/2h5rl4
Posted by: Adam | Friday, April 20, 2007 at 02:54 PM
Can you point towards any good summaries of the talk between Jeff and John online?
Posted by: Adam | Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 03:03 PM