梅耶爾收購“新鮮血液”挽救雅虎

Chief Tries to Infuse Yahoo With a Start-Up’s Spirit

梅耶爾收購“新鮮血液”挽救雅虎

Since taking the reins at Yahoo, Marissa Mayer has been trying to convince customers and employees that there is still life in a company that Silicon Valley long ago left for dead.

自從瑪麗莎·梅耶爾(Marissa Mayer)執(zhí)掌雅虎(Yahoo)以來，她一直試圖讓消費者和員工們相信，這個硅谷很早以前就認為已經(jīng)死亡，不再關注的公司，現(xiàn)在仍有生命。

Yahoo, an Internet pioneer, missed the boat on social networks and mobile devices as the new gateways for information and, in recent years, had been losing advertisers and employees to rivals like Facebook and Google.

當社交網(wǎng)絡和移動設備成為信息流動的新路徑時，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的先驅者雅虎，卻沒能抓住機會。此外，近年來雅虎的廣告商和員工，一直在向Facebook和谷歌(Google)等競爭對手流失。

Critical to Ms. Mayer’s turnaround effort is infusing fresh blood and ideas into the company by buying creative start-ups and integrating them into the company. So since she took over last July, she has been on a splashy shopping spree, spending tens of millions of dollars to acquire six start-ups.

梅耶爾扭轉雅虎努力中，關鍵的一點是注入新鮮血液和新想法。她的手段是收購有創(chuàng)造力的創(chuàng)業(yè)公司，并將它們融入雅虎。所以，自從去年7月上任以來，她一直在高調收購，花費數(shù)千萬美元收購了六家創(chuàng)業(yè)公司。

But in many ways, it has been a tough sell.

但從很多方面看，這些收購都很難讓人樂觀。

In part, that is because of the past problems with acquisitions. Yahoo’s neglect of Flickr, a pioneering photo service that was the Instagram of its time, and Delicious, an early social bookmarking tool that predated Twitter’s rise, are prominent examples of the company’s mishandling of promising acquisitions.

部分原因在于雅虎過去的收購案例產(chǎn)生的問題。Flickr是圖片分享服務的先驅，地位曾經(jīng)相當于現(xiàn)在的Instagram，而Delicious起步很早的社會化網(wǎng)址收藏工具，當時Twitter還未流行。對于一些很有前景的收購案例，雅虎沒能妥善處理，它對這兩個網(wǎng)站的忽視就是很好的例子。

These days, too, Ms. Mayer has to compete against the deep pockets of competitors like Twitter, Google and Facebook, which are also trying to buy great technologies and hire top talent.

現(xiàn)在，梅耶爾還必須跟Twitter、谷歌及Facebook等財力雄厚的對手競爭。這些公司也在試圖收購好技術，聘請頂級的人才。

Still, there is evidence that she is making inroads.

不過，仍然有證據(jù)表明，她正在取得進展。

Increasingly, entrepreneurs say, she is getting personally involved in acquisitions, focusing particularly on mobile-minded engineers. She is also trying to reverse Yahoo’s reputation as a company that acquires talent and innovative technologies and then lets them wither.

創(chuàng)業(yè)者們透露，她越來越多地親自參與收購，尤其關注移動領域的工程師。人們認為雅虎在收購人才和創(chuàng)新的技術后，會置之不理任其枯萎。梅耶爾也在努力轉變雅虎的這種壞名聲。

Last month, Yahoo made headlines when it acquired Summly, a newsreading mobile app started by a 17-year-old in England, for an undisclosed sum. In October, it acquired Stamped, a mobile recommendation service.

上個月，雅虎收購Summly受到了媒體廣泛的報道。Summly是一款閱讀新聞的移動應用，由一名17歲的英國少年開發(fā)。收購價格并未對外披露。去年10月，雅虎收購了移動推薦服務Stamped。

Robby Stein, who sold Stamped to Yahoo, said he was willing to take a chance on the company given Ms. Mayer’s solid track record at Google, where she helped perfect Web search and was largely credited with the clean aesthetic of the Google home page.

把Stamped賣給雅虎的羅比·斯坦因(Robby Stein)稱，由于梅耶爾在谷歌做得很好，他愿意把賭注押在雅虎身上。梅耶爾在谷歌時，曾幫助完善網(wǎng)絡搜索服務。而且，谷歌主頁簡潔的美感，在很大程度上也歸功于梅耶爾。

“After conversations with Marissa and others, it became very clear that this was a unique moment in time where we could have a phenomenal impact and affect millions of people,” said Mr. Stein, a former Google employee himself, who worked alongside Ms. Mayer on Google’s mail products. “There are few opportunities like that.” (The New York Times Company was a small investor in Stamped.)

斯坦因曾在谷歌工作，還曾在谷歌的郵件產(chǎn)品上與梅耶爾合作過。他說，“跟梅耶爾和其他人談過后，我很清楚這是一個獨一無二的機會，我們可以產(chǎn)生巨大的影響，影響數(shù)以百萬計的用戶。這樣的機會可沒有多少。”紐約時報公司(The New York Times Company)也是Stamped公司的一個小投資者。

Mr. Stein said he was now concentrating on building a “major mobile development center in New York” for Yahoo. He is determined to imbue it with the ethos of an agile, lean start-up, not as an outpost of a large corporation.

斯坦因稱，他現(xiàn)在專注于為雅虎“在紐約建立一個大型的移動開發(fā)中心”。他決心要讓這個中心具備創(chuàng)業(yè)公司那種靈活、簡捷的精神，而不是像大公司的一個分支。

Stamped’s offices are covered in chalkboard paint and whiteboards, for scribbling down ideas and code, and also feature a fully stocked kitchen. They are decorated with posters of software applications the employees admire and aim to compete with. The team has also installed two large television screens for testing app prototypes and has built a game room with club chairs.

Stamped的辦公室里到處都貼著黑板墻紙、放著白板，以便于隨手寫下創(chuàng)意和代碼，還有一個食物充足的廚房。辦公室里裝飾著一些軟件應用的海報。員工們崇拜這些應用，把它們當成競爭的目標。團隊安裝了兩個大電視屏幕，用來測試應用原型，還建了一個放著舒適皮椅的游戲室。

“I feel remarkably empowered and able to get things done,” Mr. Stein said. “I’m supported to the fullest extent by Marissa and the executive team.”

斯坦因說，“我感覺被賦予了很大的權力，能夠做成事情。梅耶爾和管理團隊全力支持我的工作。”

Ms. Mayer’s other acquisitions include OnTheAir, an online video service; Snip.it, a clipping service for the Web; Propeld, a maker of location-based apps; and Jybe, a social recommendation site.

梅耶爾的收購還包括在線視頻服務OnTheAir、網(wǎng)絡剪輯服務Snip.it、制作基于地點的應用的Propeld，以及社會化推薦網(wǎng)站Jybe。

Despite the string of purchases, some say Ms. Mayer’s pitch — which could be a part of the biggest technology turnaround since Steven P. Jobs’s return to Apple in 1996 — seems as if it is still in rehearsal.

盡管梅耶爾進行了一系列收購，有人說梅耶爾的行動看起來似乎還只是彩排。梅耶爾動作或許會是雅虎東山再起歷程的一部分，而那將是1996年史蒂文·P·喬布斯(Steven P. Jobs)回到蘋果公司(Apple)以來，技術產(chǎn)業(yè)中最為重大重生案例。

Analysts say Ms. Mayer needs to make smart acquisitions to quickly obtain smart young developers who understand the mobile world to help Yahoo compete against Facebook and Google, which have stolen its onetime lead as the biggest seller of display ads.

分析人士稱，梅耶爾需要進行明智的收購，迅速獲得那些深諳移動領域的年輕開發(fā)者，來幫助雅虎與Facebook和谷歌競爭。雅虎曾經(jīng)是頁面展示廣告的最大出售者，現(xiàn)在這兩家公司已經(jīng)奪走了它的領先地位。

Ms. Mayer declined to be interviewed for this article, but she told analysts last October that the company was looking for “smaller-scale acquisitions” in the “size and scale of double-digit millions and low hundreds of millions.”

梅耶爾拒絕就本文接受采訪。但是，去年10月她曾告訴分析人士，雅虎正在尋求“較小規(guī)模的收購”，即“規(guī)模在幾千萬至低于五億美元的收購”。

She has promised some entrepreneurs that if they join Yahoo, they would have the option of working from Yahoo’s satellite offices in places like New York, San Francisco and Santa Monica, Calif., instead of the company’s corporate headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif.

她向一些創(chuàng)業(yè)者承諾，如果加入雅虎，他們可以選擇在雅虎位于紐約、舊金山和加利福尼亞州圣莫尼卡等地的衛(wèi)星辦公室工作，而不是位于加利福尼亞州森尼維爾的雅虎總部。

But she will have to do more than offer free snacks and cool gadgets to get Yahoo back on track.

但要讓雅虎重回正軌，她還需要采取更多措施，而不僅僅是提供一些小恩小惠。

“If you are a quality start-up, Yahoo is still not the place to be,” said Colin Gillis, an Internet analyst at BGC Partners. “It’s hardly your first pick.”

“如果你是一家優(yōu)質的初創(chuàng)企業(yè)，雅虎依然不是你該去的地方，”BGC Partners的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)分析師科林·吉利斯(Colin Gillis)說。“雅虎可不會是你的首選。”

Entrepreneurs say that with Ms. Mayer’s personal involvement, those on her team in charge of mergers and acquisitions are setting up meetings with as many people as possible, particularly the engineers with mobile expertise who could add muscle and fresh product ideas to Yahoo’s core strengths, which include e-mail, sports and finance.

創(chuàng)業(yè)者們透露，在梅耶爾個人的介入之下，她的團隊中負責并購的人正在安排同盡可能多的人會面，特別是那些具有移動領域專業(yè)知識的工程師，這些人能為雅虎的核心優(yōu)勢增添實力和新鮮的產(chǎn)品創(chuàng)意。雅虎的優(yōu)勢包括電子郵箱服務、體育和財經(jīng)版塊。

And she is focusing on proving that Yahoo can be a good place for entrepreneurs.

而且，她也在關注于如何證明雅虎也可以是創(chuàng)業(yè)者的好去處。

After Yahoo’s last big shopping spree — roughly 10 years ago, when it picked up some of the most promising Web properties of the time, including Flickr, Delicious and Upcoming.org, a social calendar — many of the start-ups languished, deprived of resources and guidance.

雅虎的上一次大采購是大約10年前，當時雅虎收購了當時一些最有前途的網(wǎng)站，包括Flickr、Delicious和社交活動日歷網(wǎng)站Upcoming.org。但在那以后，那些創(chuàng)業(yè)企業(yè)中的許多都沒落了，失去了資源和方向。

“When we got there, I realized we were at capacity and we needed servers,” said Joshua Schachter, the founder of Delicious, who sold his company to Yahoo in 2005. “It was a process, a big deal to get them. I ended up sidelined for a year and a half.”

“當我們發(fā)展到一定階段的時候，我意識到，我們超負荷了，需要服務器，”Delicious的創(chuàng)始人喬舒亞·沙克特(Joshua Schachter)說。他在2005年把自己的公司賣給了雅虎。“花了一些工夫，找到他們收購公司是件大事。后來我卻靠邊站了一年半。”

It was a similar story with Flickr. After Yahoo acquired the photo-sharing site in 2005, it faded somewhat while other services like Picasa, acquired by Google in 2004, and Instagram, bought last year by Facebook, quickly gained a following.

Flickr的故事也大致一樣。2005年，雅虎收購了這家照片分享網(wǎng)站后，它的光芒就黯淡了下來，而其他一些網(wǎng)站，比如2004年被谷歌(Google)收購的Picasa和去年被Facebook收購的Instagram，卻迅速贏得了追隨者。

That experience was not lost on other Valley entrepreneurs. In 2009, Yelp turned down an acquisition offer from Yahoo, that was 50 percent higher than what Google had bid, simply because the employees refused to work at Yahoo, according to one person who was involved in the acquisition talks but was not authorized to speak publicly.

這種經(jīng)歷影響了硅谷的其他創(chuàng)業(yè)者。據(jù)一位參與了收購談判，不過無權公開談論此事的人士稱，2009年，雅虎給Yelp開出的收購價比谷歌的出價高50%，但卻被Yelp拒絕了，僅僅是因為Yelp的員工拒絕在雅虎工作。

But both Mr. Schachter and Caterina Fake, a co-founder of Flickr, said Yahoo appears to be a much different company than when they left several years ago. “There was a lot of defeatism and calcification at the time,” Mr. Schachter said. “Would that happen now? I don’t know.”

但沙克特和Flickr的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人卡泰麗娜·費克(Caterina Fake)都表示，現(xiàn)在的雅虎看起來和他們幾年前離開時大不一樣了。“那時存在嚴重的失敗主義情緒和僵化的問題，”沙克特說。“那些現(xiàn)在還會發(fā)生嗎?我不知道。”

Perhaps to address that question, one of the first things Ms. Mayer did at Yahoo was overhaul Flickr’s mobile app, to the surprise and delight of its fans, who praised the new design.

或許是為了解決這個問題，梅耶爾入主雅虎后首先做的事情之一，就是對Flickr的移動應用進行了大幅升級。此舉讓喜歡這款應用的人又驚又喜，他們對新設計贊譽有加。

Ms. Fake said that gesture could be interpreted as a sign of good faith that Yahoo has “changed a great deal since we were there.”

費克說，這個舉動可以解讀為善意的信號，即雅虎“與我們在那工作時相比，已經(jīng)改變了許多”。

“They do care about the developers now, which was less true than when we were there,” she said.

她說，“他們現(xiàn)在的確很關心開發(fā)人員，而我們還在雅虎的時候，并沒有那么關心。”

It remains to be seen whether Ms. Mayer’s purchases will be enough to right Yahoo’s course.

梅耶爾的收購是否足以撥正雅虎的道路，還有待觀察。