Restructuring / Turnaround Strategies Case Study

Corportate Restructuirng at Yahoo! Inc.

Abstract:

Yahoo! Inc., a leading global internet service provider, offered online products and services besides offering a full range of tools and marketing solutions for businesses to connect with internet users around the world. Its total revenue was $6.256 billion and it had around 11000 of total workforce in 2006.

Google was a proven leader in search engine industry by 2006. With emergence of the social networking media such as MySpace and YouTube, Yahoo! was facing a tremendous pressure in its growth initiatives. Yahoo! was suffering from an identity crisis as a result of no clear focus or strategy. Amidst the crisis and after witnessing a decrease in quarterly profits by 38% to $158 million (£84.4 million) and share price decrease of 2.1%, to $26.86. Yahoo decided to undertake the corporate restructuring initiative.

Case details Yahoo’s reorganization of its structure and management to align its operations with its key customer segment, and it ends with a debate whether Yahoo’s restructuring strategy would work in its favor?

Pedagogical Objectives:

• To analyse the significance of corporate restructuring strategy and performance of an SBU
• To examine the role of leadership role in the change management.

Keywords : Corporate restructuring; Reorganization; Audience group; Advertisers & Publisher group; Technology Group; Strategy; Google Inc.; Restructuring / Turnaround Strategies Case Study; Share Price; YouTube; MySpace; Social Networking Websites; Search Engine industry; Web Portals