The need to define Google and Yahoo in terms of each other is almost a compulsion these days. In part, that’s because the two companies seem to frame things that way much of the time. CNET’s Stefanie Olsen takes the the business culture/management style tack. Yahoo is being run primarily by Hollywood exec Terry Semel and his team instead of founders David Filo and Jerry Yang while Google opted for technologist Dr. Eric Schmidt and more involvement from founders Sergy Brin and Larry Page. After four years of Semel and COO Yahoo is a “more mature company with tough management discipline, but perhaps lacking the creative giddiness it had in its early years” while Google is the “Wild West.” As befits a company run by an entertainment vet, Yahoo is much better at schmoozing Mad Ave. That wasn’t always the case; it’s part of the company’s rebound. Google has yet to hit a wall but the odds of that staying true aren’t great.
I can’t agree with Olsen’s thesis that “this tug-of-war is really a test of what kind of corporate culture an Internet company needs.” Perhaps if there was only one kind of internet company but the last time I checked they come in all shapes.
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