In appointing Thompson, Yahoo is choosing a leader with a deeper technology and product background than prior CEO Carol Bartz who was abruptly terminated last September. In the interim Yahoo CFO Tim Morse has been serving as CEO.

Not going to sell itself now

There had been an expectation that Yahoo was going to sell itself or a significant minority stake to a private equity buyer or another company (perhaps even Microsoft). However the appointment of Thompson would seem to contradict that scenario. (Update: Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock said in the Thompson press release that the company was still considering a sale of assets.)

Thompson was PayPal’s CTO prior to being named president. Before that he worked for a technology subsidiary of Visa. And before Visa he was CIO of Barclays Global Investors. The Yahoo board undoubtedly likes Thompson’s resume, which offers a diverse mix of skills and capabilities.

PayPal has been eBay’s most successful business unit of late, outshining its parent. Thompson’s departure from PayPal will be something of a blow but probably only a temporary one to the payments platform, which is seeking to establish a leadership position in mobile.

The larger and more important question is whether Thompson has the capacity to bring new vigor and focus to Yahoo, the company and the brand — both of which badly need innovation and energy. Another question is whether he’ll seek to bring in his own team or do any sort of reorganization. Numerous personnel changes and reorgs over the past few years have been damaging to Yahoo morale and momentum.

Confronting a range of challenges

Thompson and a renewed focus on product could help stabilize Yahoo. But what we might call “structural” changes in the online ad market (including the rise of Facebook and Google in display) have perhaps irrevocably eroded Yahoo’s once dominant leadership in its bread and butter segment: display advertising. Thompson is also going to be inheriting a search deal that has underperformed and failed to live up to revenue expectations for Yahoo.

What Thompson is not is an advertising or media executive. However current Yahoo EVPs Blake Irving and Ross Levinsohn can more than compensate in those areas, provided that they’re retained or stay, as the case may be.

Mobile is another area that Yahoo badly needs to focus on. While it had an early leadership position in mobile product development and advertising that has been entirely erased by Google in the past two years. Thompson’s knowledge of and experience with the mobile market may also be extremely helpful to Yahoo.

Does he have the right mix of skills?

I had earlier written that Yahoo needed to find its own version of Steve Jobs. That may be too much too ask. But perhaps in Thompson Yahoo will get a fresh start with a new CEO who has the right mix of knowledge, skills and temperament to pull the company out of its protracted slide.

Below is a video from the 2009 Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco at which Thompson spoke about PayPal and mobile payments.

Postscript: Yahoo has officially confirmed Thompson’s appointment as CEO. Yahoo Board Chairman Roy Bostock also indicated in the press release that the company is still considering a sale of some of its assets:

“Scott’s primary focus will be on the core business, and as CEO and director, he will work closely with the Board as we continue the strategic review process to identify the best approaches for the Company and its shareholders. As part of this process, Yahoo! is considering a wide range of opportunities for the Company’s business, as well as specific investments or dispositions of assets,” added Bostock.

Postscript II: Now a couple of reactions from financial analysts who cover Yahoo. They’re consistent, seeing Thompson as a positive hire but expressing some concern about his lack of experience with digital advertising.

Mark Mahaney, Citi:

We Are Marginally Positive On YHOO’s CEO Hire – Mr. Thompson was with PayPal for the past five years – he has been CEO of PayPal since 2008 and before that he was SVP and CTO of PayPal . . . We believe Mr. Thompson has strong technical and organizational skills (like Carol Bartz) and should bring that rigor to Yahoo!. His track record at PayPal was excellent. However, we are somewhat concerned that he does not have strong media/advertising experience, which we believe Yahoo! needs, given the structural issues surrounding the company’s Search and Display initiatives. And by selecting Mr. Thompson, Yahoo! is explicitly pursuing a Growth strategy, whereas we believe a Value strategy might be more appropriate.

Ben Schachter, Macquarie Capital (USA):

We’ve always been impressed with how Scott Thompson led PayPal, and believe that his experience and track record of execution rank him amongst the Internet sector’s more capable executives. YHOO should benefit from Thomspon’s leadership, but we must admit that we find the appointment somewhat surprising given Thompson’s background as a specialist in the online payments/technology space. YHOO has been in the midst of an identity crisis, unsure of its place on the Internet. We look forward to seeing how Scott defines Yahoo, but at this very early stage that vision remains unclear. All else equal, we would have preferred to see the Board hire a candidate with deeper experience in the online advertising/media space, but Thompson could surprise by defining and executing YHOO’s vision in an unexpected way.

There were four announcements, lead by the formal unveiling of Livestand, Yahoo’s long-promised tablet news reader application. It competes with Flipboard, CNN’s Zite, AOL Editions, Taptu, Pulse and others.

Here is a quick summary of the four announcements:

• Livestand: Described as a “personalized living magazine,” it’s a mix of Yahoo’s own content and third party content. There will be ad-supported and subscription based content on Livestand. Irving also demo’d “living ads” for Livestand, which offered rich media interactivity.
• IntoNow is a tablet-based TV companion app. Yahoo said that in the past six months it has seen traffic “double” from tablets. According to the PR materials, “IntoNow identifies what people are watching, whether live or recorded; shows related content and personalized recommendations; and enables discussions with friends.”
• Yahoo Mail was also upgraded for iPad with more visual content and “personalized news, local weather, and Trending Now videos.”
• Yahoo Weather (for Android): Yahoo introduced a richer weather application for Android devices, with images from Flickr (tied to time and location)

Among the four apps, IntoNow is the most interesting from afar.

Before and after the main announcements and demos, there was considerable of discussion of various Yahoo technologies (“CORE”). It was Yahoo again asserting “hey, we’re a technology company.” Yahoo also showcased “fresh faces” from startups the company had acquired. There was also an interesting discussion of a new emphasis on “design” at Yahoo, which seemed to be taking a page from the Steve Jobs playbook.

Yahoo also spent time discussing social integration across its properties and apps. The company spoke in particular about myriad social tools now being rolled out for Yahoo News. My sense of many of these features is that they were a bit “forced” and cumbersome but Yahoo cited traffic stats to suggest they were working or would work to engage audiences.

I was asked by someone after the event was over, “does this move the needle?”

Whether or not Yahoo sees any traffic benefits from these apps, Yahoo is doing the right thing in seeking to re-establish momentum in mobile and build apps that associate its brand with innovation and “cool stuff” rather than simply management turmoil.

Speaking of which, to his credit, Blake Irving acknowledged the uncertainty about Yahoo’s future. But Irving also sought to put to rest a persistent issue that has dogged the company for the past several years. He rhetorically asked and answered the question “what is Yahoo?” He said, “Yahoo is the premier digital media company. Full stop.”

Here is the video of the Google logo in action:

Here is a video of the Google Doodle team making the logo:

Google is not the only one with an animated logo for Halloween. Both Bing and Yahoo have animated logos or themes:

Yahoo:

Bing:

Ask.com:

Dogpile:

For more logos from the search industry, see my other post over here.

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Reuters is reporting that Yahoo has hired the infamous Goldman Sachs and Allen & Co to help potential buyers through the due diligence process, which could take “months” according to the report.

The New York Times tries to value the various pieces of Yahoo: Alibaba, Yahoo Japan, its patent portfolio and the rest of Yahoo proper and comes to the conclusion that selling off the Asian operations, separate from the main business, could generate more than if Yahoo were sold in one piece.

As of this morning Yahoo’s total market capitalization is about $18.7 billion. But there’s an argument that the core business may not be worth much more than $5 billion according to the New York Times’ analysis.

Let’s assume that Yahoo will be sold some time in the next six months. What will be its fate? That depends of course on the buyer — entirely. A News Corp might run the company very differently than a private equity firm or Jack Ma, if Alibaba were to successfully acquire Yahoo.

Behind the speculation of who might buy the company is the question of whether Yahoo can be reinvigorated and regain momentum. This is a version of the same same question that dogs AOL, which like Yahoo was dominant at one time but has endured a long, slow decline.

Yahoo remains the second largest site online, according to comScore, after Google. Its brand still has great value and is stronger than most other brands online with only a couple of exceptions (Google, Facebook). It may also be a “more trusted” brand than Facebook. Accordingly, “it’s not too late” for Yahoo.

The buyer would need to install strong leadership and be willing to invest in the company rather than simply cut costs and outsource operations to third parties as Bartz had been doing in many cases.

I’m skeptical, however, that any financial buyer would bring the right perspective and commitment to Yahoo. A strategic buyer might do a better job. Then again we saw News Corp. preside over the demise of MySpace.

What should happen to Yahoo and which potential buyer represents the best “fit”?

Postscript by Matt McGee: Following up on what Greg references in the first paragraph above, Reuters is reporting that Microsoft is “considering a bid for Yahoo.” Reuters’ source is a “high-ranking Microsoft executive,” but the article says it’s possible that MSFT won’t follow-through on bidding for Yahoo because “there are internal divisions at the software company on whether it should pursue Yahoo again.”

Microsoft bid $45 billion to buy Yahoo in early 2008, but the deal never came to fruition.

Stock image from Shutterstock, used under license.

Low Employee Approval

The task of both chief executives was to turn around a their respective enterprises. Obama has not been able to do it and may face an electoral ouster next year. And after a number of flat or down quarters Bartz was removed over the phone yesterday. That followed several months of rumors that she would be fired.

Bartz’s employee approval rating had sunk to 33 percent, according to Glassdoor, Obama’s numbers are in the low 40s. Among the Yahoo-employee comments on Glassdoor,”execution” failures were cited as a major reason for disapproval of Bartz.

Bartz confirmed the termination herself (from her iPad) before Yahoo itself did in a press release. People are now reading between the lines of that press release for signals as to what Yahoo may do next. The particular line drawing scrutiny is Yahoo’s Chairman Roy Bostock’s statement, “We are committed to exploring and evaluating possibilities and opportunities that will put Yahoo! on a trajectory for growth and innovation and deliver value to shareholders.”

Carve It Up, or Sell the Whole Hog?

That statement, together with the fact that CFO Tim Morse is now the acting CEO, is being seen as a suggestion of a sale of some or all of the company. However a carving up of the company’s assets seems less likely than a sale of the entire company. But that in turn seems less likely than an attempt to find a new CEO and try again. A merger of AOL and Yahoo would probably be a disaster.

Bartz’s ouster has prompted many to say again that Yahoo made its first mistake by not selling whole hog to Microsoft for $45 billon several years ago. Many people also believe that selling search to Microsoft was a mistake. I agree, but Bartz followed a certain kind of cost-cutting logic in doing that deal as well as other “outsourcing” deals at Yahoo.

Others are speculating about who the next CEO might be or should be. GigaOM’s Om Malik likes Jason Killar (of Hulu) as a strong, product-oriented CEO. Yahoo is bidding for Hulu. Mike Shields in Digiday lists numerous current and former interactive and media company CEOs as possibilites (including Michael Eisner), arguing that Yahoo’s next CEO should be from New York and fully position Yahoo as a “media company” rather than a Silicon Valley based tech company.

Yahoo Needs to Find Its Steve Jobs

Yahoo needs a master marketer and visionary to help focus and market the company to employees, investors and consumers. Effectively it needs its own version of Steve Jobs.

Yahoo has already given co-founder Jerry Yang a try, without success. And finding a person with the leadership skills, charisma, vision and overall capabilities of a Steve Jobs is impossible. But if it is going to regain momentum the company still needs someone almost as inspired to help lead the company out of the wilderness.

Yahoo is still a powerful brand with considerable traffic and assets. The company has not fallen as far for “regular people” as it has for technology journalists and insiders. If it is going to avoid being carved up and “sold for parts,” the company will need to find the right CEO who can reinvigorate the company, create a product vision and restore growth. Yahoo isn’t going to get more than about one more chance to “get it right.”

Postscript: Kara Swisher at AllThingsD has compiled a list of potential CEOs for Yahoo, including names such as Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, News Corp’s Jon Miller and Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi. Most of the candidates, however, are unlikely for one reason or another.

Postscript II: From the WSJ: “One of these people said Yahoo is open to selling itself to the right bidder.”

Below is a listing of the logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com and other search engines that have special logos up for Mother’s Day.

More Fun Google Logos:

• Google’s Royal Wedding Logo
• Your Guide To The Royal Wedding 2011, Social Media Style
• What Time Is The Royal Wedding? Google Tells You With Special Box
• John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address Google Logo
• Will Eisner Google Logo
• Google Logo Honors John James Audubon’s Birthday
• The Harry Houdini Google Logo
• Google’s Interactive Earth Day Logo

IntoNow’s main “secret sauce” is the proprietary “Soundprint” technology that recognizes television shows by their audio — it says it has more than five years of 130 channels of U.S. based programming in its databases. The idea is to make it simpler for people to share their viewing habits with friends on Facebook or Twitter. Users running the app press a green button and IntoNow recognizes the program they’re watching, down to the episode, including never-before-aired shows, the company claims. Users can then find out which of their friends are watching the show, discuss the programs, find similar programs, and get more information about what they’re watching.

Yahoo says it’s tapping into the trend of consumers relying on social channels to discover new content. In a statement, Bill Shaughnessy, SVP of global product management, cited “the opportunities the technology presents across Yahoo!’s network, especially in regards to our video content, search, mobile and Connected TV experiences.”

The technology works not just for programming, but also for advertising. IntoNow is currently running a program with Pepsi MAX that lets users who see the new Pepsi MAX TV commercial, which features baseball legends past and present, to automatically receive a coupon on their phones that’s redeemable for a free Pepsi. The ad began airing on MLB broadcasts on April 20. The company also partnered with MTV to promote Jersey Shore and My Life as Liz, rewarding people who checked-in to those shows with a chance to win a prize or get additional information about the stars.

So far, the technology is only available for iPhone, but presumably the Yahoo acquisition will allow the company to more quickly develop versions for Android, iPad, and the Web. The newly-acquired company’s blog post about the deal suggests international versions are also in the works.

Yahoo has been struggling as of late, most recently turning in lower revenue numbers in the first quarter of 2011, as compared to the same period last year.

Today on Google’s home page is a special interactive Google logo for Earth Day. Earth Day this year falls out on Good Friday and for the special day, Google made a fun, animated and interactive Google logo.

Ironically, it seems as if you have Pandas playing (see the Google Panda update), the logo also has birds flying, fish swimming, lions sleeping, penguins sledding and much more. Here is a video me interacting with the Google logo.

Google was not the only search company celebrating Earth Day with a special logo, so is Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com, AOL and others. Here they are:

Yahoo:

Bing:

Ask.com:

AOL:

Search Engine Roundtable:

Related Stories:

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Here is the Google St. Patrick’s Day logo on Google Ireland:

I have a feeling Google did not post it globally because of the Japanse crisis but I do not have that confirmed as of yet.

Interestingly enough, Yahoo.com is also missing the St. Patrick’s Day logo. Only those in the Ireland region will see an animated logo. Here it is:

Bing, Ask.com, Dogpile, DuckDuckGo and some others have logos for the special day. Here they are:

Postscript From Danny Sullivan: For those who really care, I checked my database of Google Logos (yes, I keep such a thing), and here’s the rundown on Google and St. Patrick’s Day logos:

• 1999: No logo
• 2000 through 2002: Special logo posted
• 2003: No logo
• 2004 through 2010: Special logo posted
• 2011: No logo

Google first started posting logos in September 1998, so that year doesn’t count. Since then, it has celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a special logo 10 out of 13 occasions, or 77% of the time.

For more stats like that, see my past post:

• Those Special Google Logos, Sliced & Diced, Over The Years

Today would be his 82nd birthday celebration. Technically, Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15th, but the United States celebrates the first Monday after his birthday as a national holiday for his leadership during the African American civil rights movement. In 1964 he received the Nobel Peace Prize, at that time, he was the youngest person to ever receive the prize.

Mr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.

Here is a larger version of the logo on Google’s home page:

Yahoo, Bing and Dogpile also have special logos and designs, as I noted. Here they are: