This Guy "Almost" Ran Yahoo Canada

BY: 

Dave Forde
July 17, 2013

Alfredo TanLast week we wrote about Yahoo’s hunt for a new Country Manager for Canada. Based on the feedback we’ve heard it seems that many of you agree on the points mentioned. While we’re on the topic of Yahoo, two more things come to mind.  One, a few years ago they were pretty close to hiring someone many of you know to fill the spot from ex-Country Manager Kerry Munro.  Secondly, its time to celebrate as Marissa Mayer completes her first year as CEO of Yahoo.

Alfredo Tan was very close to becoming a Country Manager for Yahoo Canada, they definitely wanted him for the job and at the time he was working for Yahoo as Director, Strategic Partenership, a role that had him working very closely with one time strategic partner Rogers and allowed for close ties to senior management at Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale.

What Would Yahoo Canada Be Like With Alfredo Tan As Country Manager?

You have to wonder, what would a Yahoo Canada be like with Alfredo behind the helm?  He’s a guy who gets technology, and has solid relationship through out the industry, which would have been key assets for Yahoo Canada, and he is based in Canada. He did end up turning down the offer and joined Facebook Canada where he continues to work his media magic and extending brand’s presence on the social network.  We had a chance to catch up with Alfredo recently and he did share some interesting plans that Facebook Canada will be rolling out in the coming months.

One person who is certainly singing the Yahoo song is Marissa Mayer who has hit her first year as CEO of Yahoo.  By many accounts, she has been the best CEO we’ve seen yet, especially when you compare the past which includes Tim Koogle, Terry Semel, Jerry Yang, Carol Bartz, Scott Thompson.  Under her leadership the stop has improved performance, a number of powerful and strategic acquisitions have been made, products have been revamped, dead products have been buried, and moral is at a high.  During yesterday’s “I grade our progress on mobile as an A,” Mayer said. “We invested heavily and are seeing incredible growth as a result.”

Yahoo’s Rising Stock

When Marissa took over the Yahoo stock was floating around $13 to $18 per share for a few years, and now it has seen a 74 percent increase to $26 per share.

Of course this is also partially due to Yahoo selling back half of its stake in Chinese eCommerce site Alibaba for around $7.6 billion.

Build or Buy? The Comeback Of An Internet Giant

Yahoo is over a decade old, and a big global company,  Marissa had to decide whether the internal engineering talent could match that of external. Result, so far 17 acquisitions. That’s a lot of young and energetic engineers who have only begun to tap their brain power to create consumer products we are sure to use. Unfortunately none of these acquisitions have been Canadian. Eh, Canada get on that, there has to another Flickr out there right.

Yahoo Performs Product Makeover

Speaking of Flickr, which was sold to Yahoo back in 2005 by Canadian husband and wife duo Stewart Butterfield  and Caterina Fake. Yahoo gave Flickr a maker over haul a few months ago, as well as giving users 1TB (that’s Terra-byte) of storage at no cost. We also saw changes to Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News and Yahoo Homepage

Yahoo is back and prepared to fight to win by the attention of consumers and hearts of wall street, so would you rather work for Facebook Canada or Yahoo Canada, we gotta ask…

 

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Dave Forde


Dave “The Connector” Forde has been involved in the marketing, public relations and technology industry across Canada for over 20 years in various sales and marketing roles, he launched The Connected One network of business sites which connects buyers to the right sellers. Profectio and PR In Canada covers news about the marketing and public relations industry each day helping professionals advance their career and businesses. He also serves as an advisor to a number of businesses across the country. Find Dave on LinkedIn and Twitter.


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