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June 18, 2007

Live Notes from Yahoo Conference Call

1:51 PM Jerry opens things up, but Terry is on the call.

1:52 PM Jerry turns to Terry. If this keeps happening I will have typos galore. Semel is saying nice things about Jerry Yang and Sue Decker. As an aside, no sign of that Filo guy.

1:53 PM Semel is saying "he's long been talking about a smooth transition" in the company's senior leadership. Claims he wanted to leave sooner rather than later. Riiiight.

1:54 PM Stock is up 4% in afterhours.

1:54 PM Semel concedes recent disappointing Yahoo financial performance, but doesn't name names. Gosh, I wonder who was in charge? He or she should leave, damnit!

1:56 PM Terry is overplaying the team aspect of Jerry and Sue. I'm guessing he is talking in part to Sue, to let her know that she's a real power, as well as talking to the Street and potential investors.

2:03 PM Web 2.0 count: 1

2:07 PM Still not clear to me what's going to be different. Better execution? What about dumping some assets? Execution, winning, and speed are nice, but specifics would be helpful.

2:08 PM The stock is not up as much, holding at 2.9%.

2:10 PM I'm a little baffled right now. We're being told by Sue how changes made by Semel have prepared the company for the future. Right. And so ... ?

2:12 PM Okay, she's canceling a particularly dubious recruitment. That's good.

2:15 PM Impression-based ads are underperforming. Guiding to lower half of sales/earnings range in second half.

2:16 PM Must. Stay. Focused. Don't. Sleep. With. Sue's. Monotone. Speech.

2:20 PM The letters to/from Semel and the board in some new SEC filings are such happy talk. Makes me think Semel is getting a gold watch after thirty years of service, not leaving under loud complaints.

2:22 PM Yahoo stock now up 5% afterhours.

2:24 PM Whoa, Terry is taking a question. Thought he'd run of to the Sparkletts truck. Says he sees himself more as a coach than a player, going forward. Over/under on how long Coach Semel stays around? I say not past Thanksgiving.

2:37 PM Whoops, drifted off there. Call just ended.

That was a fairly uncompelling call. They are going to do things better, faster, smarter, etc. They're going to be "customer-centric". Great. And they're going to stay independent. Ouch. There is no way Yang is anything but a stopgap, and this press release and teleconference treated people like irritating children.

In the interim, expect financial results to be a little worse than expected in the second half of the year, and that's before any restructuring or other costs that may yet come.

As a programming note, I'm on CNBC at 4pm talking Yahoo, so feel free to drop by.

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