Yahoo! Laser Stunt Shunned
Let’s suppose you’re a major Internet player with $4 billion dollars lying around. The kids used to think you’re cool. However, after repeatingly failing to buy friendship from AOL, MySpace, and YouTube it is that charismatic jock Google that’s getting all the attention. Facebook won’t even return your calls. What do you do?
Apparently, if you’re Yahoo!, you win the popularity contest by beaming a laser into space - from the top of a rented Mexican pyramid, no less. Let’s run through the Bubble 1.0 checklist for stupid wastes of investor money:
- Exotic Locale - check
- Useless Display of Technology - check
- Clueless Self-Importance - check
But wait! It turns out Yahoo! can’t even get a break with the Mexican government! Mexico has retracted its agreement and the laser of Dr. Evil-like brilliance won’t be going anywhere. Mios Dio! Somebody’s gotta be hitting the tequila pretty hard over this one.
November 14th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
[…] We’ve been following the dirt ValleyWag has been releasing on Yahoo with keen interest. As you may remember, we gleefully blogged about Yahoo’s botched laser/pyramid bit a month ago. Then came word that several top Yahoo executives would be in the laser sites of a different sort in short order. That was followed by a cattle call of the usual suspects. […]
December 7th, 2006 at 9:49 am
[…] Apparently laser-beam time capsules were not enough signal for Brad. But where’s the peanut butter he referred to? Make with the metaphor! We lack a focused, cohesive vision for our company. We want to do everything and be everything — to everyone. We’ve known this for years, talk about it incessantly, but do nothing to fundamentally address it. We are scared to be left out. We are reactive instead of charting an unwavering course. We are separated into silos that far too frequently don’t talk to each other. And when we do talk, it isn’t to collaborate on a clearly focused strategy, but rather to argue and fight about ownership, strategies and tactics. […]