by Dean on October 24, 2008
I recently finished writing a 2,000-word feature for PC Plus magazine about the future of Yahoo! To say that the one-time web colossus is facing challenging times is putting it mildly:
With the benefit of hindsight, perhaps Yahoo! should have agreed to that Microsoft buyout. Since the venerable web company rejected a $33 per share ($47.5 billion) offer to evolve into ‘Microhoo’, advertising revenues have slowed, jobs have been ruthlessly cut and Yahoo!’s share price has plummeted south of $12.
The company is battered and bruised; some say it lacks vision and direction. You wouldn’t want CEO Jerry Yang’s job right now.
Yet Yahoo! still hopes to innovate its way out of trouble. It’s got a ‘Plan B’ that starts with a revamp its portal page and continues with a raft of other improvements as part of a new ‘Open Strategy’. But is it enough?
The feature looks at Yahoo!’s perceived lack of focus, how CEO Jerry Yang plans to turn the company around (clue: social networking) and why it desperately needs a clearly-defined mission.
And no, it’s not all doom and gloom. Yahoo! has recently acknowledged that its one-size-fits-all ‘portal’ approach isn’t the way forward. Its new Open Strategy could well be the escape route that its embattled management is looking for.
The feature appears in issue 276 of PC Plus magazine, on sale 18th November at all financially solvent newsagents.
by Dean on October 15, 2008
Here’s a scary question: is the world’s financial stability inextricably tied to computerised trading algorithms?
Automated or algorithmic trading has been pegged as one of the causes of the stock market crash in 1987. Software was developed in the 1980s to trigger trades once a certain threshold was reached – either to maximise profit or to protect against losses.
Such programs are far from perfect. Earlier this year, the value of United Airlines stock dropped after an algorithm triggered sell orders based on an old Google News story.
$1 billion was wiped off the UA share price in 12 seconds.
How the web destroys banks
The current financial crisis has also highlighted an interesting phenomenon – the speed and accessibility of electronic/Internet banking can lead to invisible or ’silent runs’ on banks.
In the famous Wall Street stock market crash of 1929, the problems were exacerbated by public panic and mass withdrawals of money from beleaguered banks.
Until Northern Rock, there hadn’t been a run on a British bank for 140 years. Fuelled by liquidity fears, worried Northern Rock savers rushed to withdraw their money. A similar run afflicted big banks such as Fortis, Kaupthing and Wachovia.
But there weren’t any tell-tale queues on the streets. It all happened silently, quickly and electronically.
[The full text of this news article appeared in PC Plus magazine, issue 276]
