Absolutely brutal. There are a few inferences or projections made by Eric Jackson that seem a wee bit uninformed, but generally it is a thorough shredding of Marissa's tenure. Particularly, I was amazed at how many acquisitions Yahoo's made. Trying to stimulate product lines growth through rapid-fire successive acquisitions is testament of how nebulous or illformed the mobile strategy was. I remember at some point Marissa declaring Yahoo as a 'mobile' or 'mobile-first' company, that's all well and good but you need clear signaling on what kind of mobile engagements should be fostered. Looking at the haphazard consumption, it's hard to argue a case for talent acquisition. Rather she was trying to widen Yahoo's net as quick as possible. If deliberate and engaged, her acquisitions would've matured splendidly under the Yahoo umbrella , but Yahoo chewed more than it could handle (Too much influx creates a bit of tumult and drains resources/managerial harmony. Interesting what impact on company culture these potential fiefdoms had). Looking at individual acquisitions themselves, I really am surprised Yahoo bought: Summly (an app that had no ip at all and basically licensed the core technology. Perhaps she bought it out of hype it had garnered?) or Polyvore (a startup that seemed quite dead in the water as Eric attests with no evident means of fruitful integration into Yahoo. Seems a wee bit nepotic desire influenced the acquisition). Tumblr, on the other hand, was an excellent purchase. Still I wonder, what is the long-term plan of integrating it or expanding on its success?
