3/6/2014 Yahoo says Marissa Mayer has fixed its biggest problem - Quartz

http://qz.com/184046/yahoo-says-marissa-mayer-has-fixed-its-biggest-problem/ 1/10

W ORK IT

Yahoo says Marissa Mayer has fixed its

biggest problemBy John McDuling @jmcduling 8 hours ago

In September 2012, shortly after Marissa Mayer took charge of Yahoo, she moved swiftly to

try and rectify what was considered the search giant’s biggest problem: a lack of talent. The

company’s long-serving head of human resources departed, and a former private-equity

executive, handpicked by Mayer, replaced him.

1

Since then Yahoo has been on an acquisition spree—or more accurately an acqui-hire spree,

buying some 37 companies and their staff, according to CB Insights, the biggest of which was

the $1.1 billion purchase of blogging service, Tumblr.

And now Yahoo thinks the problem is solved and its talent crisis is over. At least, so

suggested its chief financial offer, Ken Goldman, who spoke at a Morgan Stanley investor

conference in San Francisco this week. Goldman was asked whether an exodus of Yahoo

veterans to places like Facebook, Google and startups could affect the quality of its services.

It's all working. Reuters/Denis Balibouse

QUARTZ - Vis it us at

http://qz.com or follow

on Twitter @qz

3/6/2014 Yahoo says Marissa Mayer has fixed its biggest problem - Quartz

http://qz.com/184046/yahoo-says-marissa-mayer-has-fixed-its-biggest-problem/ 2/10Read This Next: Why major creative breakthroughs happen in

“There’s no question that we lost a number of folks along the way. We lost that because, in

some respects, we pushed them out,” he said. ”When we came to the company, and we

talked about acquisitions…frankly, companies did not want to be acquired by Yahoo…and

for us to even acquire them we would have to pay a ‘Yahoo premium’ because they didn’t

want to come here. That’s not the case any more.”

Competition for talent in Silicon Valley is fierce, and of course the CFO is going to talk up

Yahoo as a good place to work. But Goldman’s statement is backed up by the company’s

annual report, which claims that it received more than 340,000 job applications in 2013,

double the number in 2012. According to the career site Glassdoor, Yahoo was the third-

highest-paying company in Silicon Valley for engineers last year, behind Juniper Networks

and LinkedIn.

But salary isn’t everything; unlike Facebook, Google or Twitter, Yahoo did not make it into

Glassdoor’s separate list of the 50 best places to work.

Mayer has received her fair share of criticism for not letting staff work from home and for

scheduling weekly meetings on Friday afternoons. But if the company is to be believed, the

cultural change she has instigated is working.

2

“She deserves the credit relative to changing the attitude and morale and the desire, if you

will, to… attract new folks as well as to retain folks we have,” Goldman said. “So I think –

I’m very confident. If you talk to anybody at Yahoo today you would find them, whether

they’ve been here for a year or five years, they’re very, very pleased with what they see in

working at Yahoo. I’m absolutely, very confident in that relative to attrition and our ability

to hire all points to that.”

3/6/2014 Yahoo says Marissa Mayer has fixed its biggest problem - Quartz

http://qz.com/184046/yahoo-says-marissa-mayer-has-fixed-its-biggest-problem/ 3/10

Read This Next: Why major creative breakthroughs happen in

your late thirties

http://qz.com/184046

3/6/2014 Yahoo says Marissa Mayer has fixed its biggest problem - Quartz

http://qz.com/184046/yahoo-says-marissa-mayer-has-fixed-its-biggest-problem/ 4/10

CH E CK MAT E

The four charts Vladimir Putin should

consider as he plots his next move in UkraineBy Jason Karaian @jkaraian March 5, 2014

3/6/2014 Yahoo says Marissa Mayer has fixed its biggest problem - Quartz

http://qz.com/184046/yahoo-says-marissa-mayer-has-fixed-its-biggest-problem/ 5/10

Who will blink first?

Vladimir Putin put the Russian invasion of Ukraine on “pause” at a press conference on

Tuesday, and markets stepped back from the ledge. The rout in Russian assets was partly

reversed; the ruble regained some ground, as did stocks and bonds. As long as there isn’t any

shooting—aside from the odd warning shot—the mood seems to be one of cautious relief.

But don’t expect any meaningful money to pour back into Russia until the ultimate outcome

of Ukraine’s crisis becomes clearer. Was Putin’s conciliatory tone a result of the market’s

rebuke? Perhaps, but that is probably a simplistic reading of the intrigue over the past few

days, as purportedly stateless soldiers flooded into Crimea and issued mysterious ultimatums

to local military units. Equally, Putin could be testing the markets and gauging whether it is

worth his while to fight in the open instead of in the shadows.

On this point, it is useful to assess Russia’s economic options in case its military ones are

activated in Ukraine. The mere threat of Western sanctions could be enough to defuse the

situation, with the turmoil at the start of the week a preview of the pain that the markets can

inflict. At the same time, Russia may calculate that it can withstand the turbulence longer

than the West—more specifically that its energy users, banks, and others entities reliant on

Russia’s physical and financial resources can hold their nerve.

As it happens, the last time Russia invaded one of its neighbors, it faced a severe financial

crisis. But the Russian tanks rolling into Georgia was only one of the factors that battered

markets in 2008, as the global financial crisis also hit the country hard. Is it better prepared

this time around? Judge for yourself, as the charts below compare the Russian economy

Decisions, decisions. Reuters/Aleksey Nikolskyi/RIANovosti

3/6/2014 Yahoo says Marissa Mayer has fixed its biggest problem - Quartz

http://qz.com/184046/yahoo-says-marissa-mayer-has-fixed-its-biggest-problem/ 6/10

Foreign currency reserves

Currency values

this time around? Judge for yourself, as the charts below compare the Russian economy

around the time of the invasion of Georgia with the situation today, starting from when

protests kicked off in Kiev in November.

As the ruble tanked on Monday, Russia’s central bank hiked interest rates and spent more

than $11 billion propping up the currency in the open market. It has quadrupled the amount

it is authorized to spend to keep the ruble trading within its target range. If the currency

comes under renewed pressure, future interventions will drain Russia’s foreign exchange

reserves (which include some of the assets held in its two sovereign wealth funds, the

Reserve Fund and the National Wealth Fund). Compared with 2008, Russia is starting from a

somewhat smaller base of reserves to draw on, meaning it has less firepower with which to

defend the ruble. In the tumultuous 12 months from June 2008, Russia’s reserves fell by $165

billion, which would be worth nearly 40% of today’s reserves.

Even before the latest bout of ruble turmoil, the Russian currency had been drifting

downward for months, losing 10% of its value against the dollar since November. Thus far, it

is following a similar path to mid-2008, although to see a depreciation on the same scale it

would need to shed another 20% of its value in the coming months, which will depend on

how aggressively the central bank deploys its reserves in defense the currency.

3/6/2014 Yahoo says Marissa Mayer has fixed its biggest problem - Quartz

http://qz.com/184046/yahoo-says-marissa-mayer-has-fixed-its-biggest-problem/ 7/10

Stock markets

Energy markets

Compared with 2008, investors have been much kinder to Russian stocks, even considering

the double-digit percentage plunge at the start of the week. Unlike the ruble, the benchmark

RTS equity index has not regained as much ground as it lost on that day, but stocks aren’t

yet under nearly as much pressure as they were during late 2008 and early 2009. Some think

the declines are overdone and now is the time to buy.

Another factor working in Russia’s favor is energy prices. The price of oil has been much

more stable in recent months than it was during the turmoil of 2008; few expect it to plunge

like it did back then, thanks to firmer demand from a global economy on the mend instead

of one in the throes of the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Russia links its gas

3/6/2014 Yahoo says Marissa Mayer has fixed its biggest problem - Quartz

http://qz.com/184046/yahoo-says-marissa-mayer-has-fixed-its-biggest-problem/ 8/10

Your move, Moscow

of one in the throes of the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Russia links its gas

prices to oil, so this should support the energy exports on which its budget depends.

Much has been written about Europe’s reliance on the gas Russia pipes through Ukraine, not

least how a mild winter has bolstered the continent’s gas inventories, making the threat of a

disruption in supply less immediately daunting—and thus a less attractive weapon for Russia

to deploy. European gas prices remain above last week’s levels, but for the most part

countries that rely on Russian gas aren’t as exposed as they were when Putin last turned off

the taps, in January 2009.

For Russia, its economic experience around that time is also something it would probably

not want to repeat—in 2009 GDP sank by nearly 8%, unemployment spiked, and inflation ran

in the double digits. And even as its economy has recovered, Russia is having trouble

attracting investment and convincing its citizens to keep their money within the country.

Provoking a return to recession—spurred by a currency collapse, sanctions, or some other

Crimea-related shock—seems an unwise move.

Of course, all wisdom is relative when geopolitics are involved. Some saw Putin’s press

conference not as the performance of a cagey chess player but as a dangerous, out-of-touch

rogue who was “nervous, angry, cornered, and paranoid, periodically illuminated by flashes

of his own righteousness,” as one Russia watcher put it.

As the above shows, Russia is in some ways in better shape than it was in the run-up to its

last financial crisis, but in others it looks like it may have already started retracing its

previous path down into the doldrums. To the extent that things like foreign currency

3/6/2014 Yahoo says Marissa Mayer has fixed its biggest problem - Quartz

http://qz.com/184046/yahoo-says-marissa-mayer-has-fixed-its-biggest-problem/ 9/10

previous path down into the doldrums. To the extent that things like foreign currency

reserves and stock valuations play into the decision to invade a neighboring country, there is

plenty for Putin to consider.

http://qz.com/183980

3/6/2014 Yahoo says Marissa Mayer has fixed its biggest problem - Quartz

http://qz.com/184046/yahoo-says-marissa-mayer-has-fixed-its-biggest-problem/ 10/10