Yahoo!'s webcast was dull and uninspiring

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) had just finished a webcast discussing the resignation of Terry Semel from the CEO role and the appointment of Jerry Yang to that role. Sue Decker was appointed president. I, for one, found the webcast to be quite dull and most uninspiring.

Not that I expected discussion of Semel's inflated compensation package during times Yahoo! struggled, but there was hardly any meat attached to the bare-bones news. Yes, each gushed over the other two in his or her turn, and each gave the appropriate ra-ra-ra speech of how Yahoo! will not only be a great competitor, but a winner too. Despite all that, they didn't instill much confidence in me, not about the future of Yahoo! and not about their ability to change it. Maybe the reason is that there wasn't much of a change. Semel will remain as chairman, albeit in a non-executive role, and the other two, Decker and Yang -- names we've known for quite some time -- will be promoted. Perhaps looking outside of Yahoo! for the CEO, as Anthony Noto of Goldman Sachs suggested, would have been the better alternative. At least some fresh ideas and viewpoints would have been brought in.

There were several questions about capex, but Jerry and Sue gave no news of acquisitions or impending partnerships or inclinations to do either. There was talk of challenges, especially slower growth in display advertising, and allusion to Google's dominance. Even as Jerry said Panama was performing beyond their expectations and Yahoo! may outperform in Q2, revenue is seen in the lower half of the previous outlook.