How Yahoo Destroyed Its Value

The Internet Pioneer’s Long Journey to the Graveyard Was Shaped by Repeated Misjudgments in Mergers and Acquisitions

On July 25, Verizon announced plans to buy Yahoo’s internet assets plus some real estate for less than $5 billion in cash. Yahoo, which went public in 1996, had spent approximately $20 billion acquiring more than 100 companies, more than four times what it will receive in total from Verizon.

So while companies such as Google have built significant value as result of a well-considered mergers and acquisitions strategy, Yahoo seemed to squander its value. What role did merger-and-acquisition missteps play in Yahoo’s slow death?

There are three major reasons for …

Have Emojis Replaced Emotions?

As the Digital Age Expands Our "Connections," We’re Losing the Value of Face-to-Face Relationships

What could be more human than conversation, and what better time than now to converse? The desire to connect is a powerful force, technology a mighty conduit.

Last month, when …

We All Have a Little Internet Zombie in Us

Kids Need Good Teachers to Learn Healthy Online Habits—Parents Included

You can’t protect children from smartphones—but you can teach them how to use them in healthy ways, in part by modeling good behavior yourself, said panelists at a Zócalo/UCLA event …

What Constant Screen Time Does to Kids’ Brains

Internet Exposure Can Improve Children's Learning—but It's Still No Substitute for Real-World Experience

An 8-year-old American child has never known a world without an iPhone. For today’s kids, smartwatches, video chats, and virtual reality aren’t harbingers of the high-tech future that adults have …

Social Media Has Made Politics Impossible to Predict

We Don't Understand Why Some Campaigns Go Viral While Others Flop

U.S. citizens spend growing proportions of their lives on social media, and while they are there, they are continually invited to take part in politics. Liking, sharing, or tweeting a …

The Internet Will Not Turn Your Teen Into a Brain-Dead Zombie

A Child Psychologist Explains How Our Social Brain Adapts to New Technology

I come bearing good news: Our teens are not growing into brain-dead zombies or emotionally stunted sociopaths. After more than a decade of research by child psychologists like me, we …