Both Google and Yahoo made public statements over the weekend regarding the possibility of Microsoft acquiring Yahoo. In Google’s case, David Drummond, a senior VP and "chief legal officer," posted a rather stiff-sounding, formal note on the official Google blog that talked about how a Microsoft acquisition could give the software giant "inappropriate and illegal influence" over the internet, which Drummond characterized as a bastion of "openness and innovation." In one priceless moment of corporate chutzpah, Drummond stated that "Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies — and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets." As if Google never tried to do anything like that!
In Yahoo’s case, Jerry Yang — the founder and "chief Yahoo" of the company — sent an email to Yahoo employees late Friday that was co-signed by Roy Bostock, the new non-executive chairman (replacing the Hollywood-esque Terry Semel). Yahoo included that email among a group of documents filed to the SEC Monday morning, so Yang clearly knew it would reach a wider public. Yang and Bostock’s email is entirely in lowercase, long a signifier of casual and conversation and deliberate — almost pretentious — lack of pretension. The message made a point of recognizing employees’ worries and concerns, and of thanking them for their efforts.
In the PR battle, the winner is clearly Yahoo. By writing a letter to employees (and not to stockholders or to the wider public), and by writing it in all lowercase, Yang underscores what everyone in Silicon Valley wants to believe: Yang is just a regular guy, Yahoo’s a scrappy underdog, and the company understands and cares about the culture of the internet. By contrast, Drummond made Google look like its own worst enemy: A humorless, stop-at-nothing competitor that will use antitrust arguments only when they are to its own advantage.
Photo of Jerry Yang by Steve Jurvetson / Flickr
