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i was a part of the team that bought GeoCities at Yahoo, and i think it wasn't as dumb of a deal as it looks on paper, because a) YHOO stock was so high at the time that the $3.8B wasn't actually all that dilutive, and b) buying GeoCities ensured Yahoo was the #1 destination online, and thus we could command a disproportionate share of ad revenue. If you wanna look at a really silly deal that Yahoo did, how about the Broadcast.com deal? Billions for a bunch of servers...


>> how about the Broadcast.com deal? Billions for a bunch of servers... Well, it certainly made Mark Cuban a billionaire, if nothing else!


You're forgetting the opportunity cost to buy other things.

In 1997, Yahoo turned down the offer to acquire Google for $1,000,000.

That was not a good call. I wonder how many other missed opportunities those $3.8B had.


Do you think Yahoo made back what they paid for GeoCities based solely on the added value of GeoCities?

By the way, thanks for posting. It's always nice to hear from people who were there at the time.


dilutive.




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