In Focus

The Yahoo! Tribe

Although Tim Koogle certainly deserves his #2 ranking in Worth Magazine's 50 Best CEO's of 2000 (moving up from #8 last year), I can't focus on him alone. In this tribe called Yahoo!, there are at least four warriors worthy of mention. Critics might say they've done some pillaging on the warpath to success, but given Yahoo!'s current circumstances, most would agree they're smoking the peace pipe now. And nobody can argue about the amazing growth of this company and the global name recognition it has created in such a short time.

The first two men are neither Chairman, CEO, CFO, President or COO. Their title? Chief Yahoo!'s. That's right, co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo actually have that printed on their business cards! Just over 6 years ago, these two friends were bored to tears writing their dissertations for their doctorates in electrical engineering at Stanford University (I'd be in tears too!). For an amusing distraction, the two twenty-somethings decided to index their favorite online destinations of the, then infant, World Wide Web. They merged their computerized lists, and aptly called it "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web." At that time, cool destinations were sort of hard to find twice and soon friends and fellow Stanford students were requesting access to their navigational guide. Its popularity soared, and not just on campus. It seemed more and more people wanted to tame the internet shrew and before long, they were attracting a million visitors per week! The Stanford staff had become increasingly frustrated as their bandwidth was being taxed by these bored pioneers. In the wee hours of a summer night back in 1994, the two came up with the name Yahoo!. I bet ya didn't know Yahoo is actually an acronym with an exclamation point added on for good measure. That's right, it stands for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle. Hey, what do you expect at 2am? In 1995, the Ph.D candidates with a fun hobby dropped out of school and started their official business (Stanford administrators were thrilled).

Venture capitalist Mike Moritz jokes that by investing in the fledgling company, he was merely performing a public service, rescuing them from PhD land. In exchange for some minority ownership, his Silicon Valley firm, Sequoia Capitol (which provided early funding for other Chick holdings, America Online and Cisco), gave the boys one million dollars to give it a whirl. Upon Yahoo!'s IPO in April of 1996, Sequoia profited $40 million dollars! Nice gamble! The company has continued to grow meteorically, pulling out a profit of $291 million on $1.1 billion in sales for the year 2000. Despite being offered incredible sums to sell out from the very beginning, Yang and Filo have stuck with their baby vehemently, striving to maintain its independence and insure its dominance. Oh, and did I mention, they are now rich?

The third person of honorable mention is President and Chief Operating Officer, Jeffrey Mallett. Did you picture a thirty-six year old, Michael J. Fox look alike? Neither did I. Yikes, he's my age! Despite looking like the mail boy, and garnering the least amount of press, Mallett is probably more responsible for the day-to-day operations of Yahoo! than anyone. Given Yahoo!'s reliance on advertising revenue and the fact that so much of the dot-com industry is either dead or on life support, Yahoo! is in need of a makeover. Mallett calls this initiative "Yahoo 2.0". His attack is two-fold: he plans to expand their revenue base, cashing in on their audience of 50 million plus, and decrease their dependence on dot com advertising. In the process, with Yahoo!'s stock price in the tank (having shaved over 80% of its market value in the last year), he needs to re-energize his own troops. Spending 20% more time on the road, firing up employees, advertisers and potential partners, one could say Mallett is in full stride attempting to realize his bosses' dream of making Yahoo! the preeminent media company of the 21st century.

Last, but in absolutely no way the least, Chairman and CEO Tim Koogle. At 48, Tim is the resident "grown-up" on the Yahoo! playground. Among foosball and the purple workstations of Yahoo!'s Mountain View headquarters, he is the only one wearing a suit and tie. In fact, he is the one credited with helping Jeff Mallet soften his occasionally impatient personality. Tim's own has been described as "smooth as wine". Recruited by a head hunter, Koogle joined Yahoo in 1995 as President and CEO, and was named Chairman in 1999. Clearly, they've been a good fit. Divorced and living with his cat, he has plenty of time to devote to Yahoo!'s recent woes. Boundless energy and a light-hearted spirit must be pre-requisites, because Koogle's got those too. Employees say he's a fun boss to work for. he must let Mallett, the little Napoleon, do all the dirty work! His other interests include fast cars and vintage guitars. Kind of fits the Yahoo! personality, doesn't it? As laid back as Koogle sounds, he definitely has a strong management style with a firm grip on the reins of the company. He hires talented employees and leaves them to do their thing. As much as Yahoo! continues to grow their partnerships, in both retailing and content, Koogle agrees with the importance of staying independent. "What we have been building all along is a single trusted place where consumers can be connected to anything they want. Our gig is to be as large as possible." If you ask me, I think they're sending smoke signals to their number one rival AOL Time Warner!

FYI: April 27th, 2001, the Chicks Laying Nest Eggs Investment Club will be attending the Yahoo! annual shareholders meeting. This will be a first for us. We'll let ya know what other intimate details we learn about these guys!