Yahoo’s presentation at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference today covered a lot of ground as chairman and CEO Terry Semel and still-CFO Sue Decker tried to prove to investors and analysts that major problems are in the past.
Panama: Reuters: Semel: “We spent a lot of our time last year building our plumbing. I think you will really see these things come alive over the next year or two.” Decker said Panama is on track for 2Q expansion into Japan.
Newspaper consortium: MKTW: Decker: “We are in discussions for more content.” Eventually expanding the HotJobs deal to additional content and services was mentioned during the intitial announcements.
Yahoo Idol: too bad they didn’t try this as a reality show. Yahoo still needs a head for its audience business and a CFO to replace Decker, now juggling that and advertising. MKTW: Semel: “We’ve been meeting with some extremely good candidates ... In the short term, we’ll make decisions and choose a terrific person on both. The choices are quite good.”
MyYahoo: IDG: A “significant” upgrade is on the way. Semel: “In the next few weeks, you’ll see My Yahoo take on a new form and a new shape.” (I wonder how it will fit in with Yahoo’s mobile services.)
