Did LinkedIn’s CEO Jeff Weiner Learn from Yahoo’s Mistakes?

In 1999, the popular television program Who Wants to be a Millionaire? made its debut and coincidentally, that same year, Google’s founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page decided they “want[ed] to be millionaire” and offered to sell Google to Yahoo! for $1 million. Yahoo! turned the young company down. Yahoo! wanted Internet users to spend more time on their website checking emails, viewing ads, and playing games, while Google was designed to give its users a fast experience by directing them to the most relevant websites according to their searches.

In 2002, singer Ashanti’s single “Foolish,” blasted through the airwaves and climbed its way to the #2 spot on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Chart. Realizing they had been “foolish,” Yahoo! approached Google in 2002 and offered them a $3 billion buyout. Google declined and counter offered with $5 billion, which Yahoo! deemed too steep.

In 2008, the New York Giants faced the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. The Giants were winning 21-17 in the fourth quarter and able to hang on to their lead despite Tom Brady’s Hail Mary pass into the end zone to try to win the game. That same year, Yahoo! decided to “hang on” to their company even though the technological giant, Microsoft offered to purchase it for $40 billion.             

In 2016, the Olympics were hosted in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and this is where Michael Phelps made his final Olympics appearance, marking the end of an era. It was in this same year that Yahoo! ended its era. It was treading water for far too long and sold for $4.8 billion to Verizon. Google’s worth is now nearing $500 billion.       

While many people can look back and learn lessons from Yahoo!’s debacle, LinkedIn’s CEO Jeff Weiner experienced the fall of Yahoo! firsthand. Weiner worked for Warner Bros. and the company’s CEO Terry Semel was his mentor. Semel left Warner Bros. to be Yahoo!’s CEO in 2001 and Weiner joined him the same year as a top executive. Terry Semel ultimately made the call not to purchase Google when given the chance in 2002.  Over the next few years, Weiner watched Yahoo!’s downfall from within and while there were talks he might become the company’s next CEO, he was left behind in 2008. Weiner was not out of work for long and landed a job as LinkedIn’s interim president in 2009 and was named the CEO within the year.

Just as Yahoo!’s numbers eventually turned south, LinkedIn’s started to as well: In 2016, LinkedIn’s stocks were down more than 43 percent compared to the previous year, their ad business only grew 20 percent for the quarter year compared to the previous quarter year where they grew 56 percent, and the number of unique visitors was not impressive. One can’t help but wonder if Weiner had flashbacks of working at Yahoo!, watching the company crumble. He knew Yahoo! made many mistakes; one of them being not accepting Microsoft’s $40 billion proposal. When Microsoft offered to buy LinkedIn for $26 billion, Weiner had the foresight to know those types of deals would not be on the table forever. He made a wise decision and sold the company to Microsoft.   

In an email to LinkedIn’s employees, Weiner explained his decision and called Microsoft an “agile, innovative, open, and purpose-driven company.” Microsoft will look to transform LinkedIn and has the toolset to do so. Microsoft could integrate Skype to allow LinkedIn users to have videoconferences with their connections across the world. Microsoft may also look to incorporate its Cortana software with LinkedIn. Microsoft’s Cortana is an “intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator,” that can set reminders, find facts, check the weather, and get directions among other things. If Cortana is combined with LinkedIn, one of her reminders could sound like this: “Reminder: You have a meeting with Joe in 30 minutes. You and Joe both attended Cornell University and you both know Bob Smith. Joe is a Philadelphia Eagles fan, who beat the Dallas Cowboys last night. Do you want to view Joe’s profile?” This new feature could enable users to go into meetings prepared with personal information to make better connections. 

Reminder: Mistakes are meant for learning, not for repeating. Yahoo! was once King of the Internet but got dethroned as other companies, such as Google kept up with the times and created better services and products. This is a great reminder to other companies that they must stay fresh and make changes to stay relevant. Jeff Weiner had this knowledge and sold LinkedIn to Microsoft, enabling the company to be taken to the next level.  

Written by Edward DuCoin and Emily DuCoin

Orpical Group