PABEARSNEWS

YAHOO UPDATE MAY 2ND 2002
YAHOO CONSIDERING CHARGING
ALL USERS..checked 1/16/2003..SAME

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MANY USERS NOW AWAITING A PAID MESSENGER AS OF NOVEMBER 23rd 2002

AS OF DECEMBER 11TH 2002...........THE FIRST
PAID VERSIONS OF MESSENGER HAVE BEEN
OFFERED TO COMMERCIAL COMPANIES.......
YAHOO STATES VOICE IS CLEAR....NO BOOTS
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???QUESTION???
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WE SHAL SEE!???



	When former Hollywood studio chief Terry Semel was tapped a year ago to rescue Yahoo from the dot-com dustbin, speculation swirled that the man behind action flicks ``Lethal Weapon'' and ``Batman'' would arrive with guns blazing. Instead, Semel, 59, has followed a mostly plodding script, punctuated with a few surprising twists, as he works on the biggest revival of his career: returning the world's best-known Internet portal to profitability under the now Web-wary eye of Wall Street. Exactly a year after taking the reins of Yahoo, Semel has replaced almost all the top managers. He is now focused on a broad makeover that would move Yahoo further away from its roots as a fountain of free information and communications and closer to being a platform for fee-based services and advertising. Among Semel's strategies: � Persuading Yahoo users to begin paying for services, many of which used to be free. � Selling pay-for-placement ads in its once commercial-free search engine. � Getting Fortune 200 companies to embrace Internet advertising, while building a classified ads business. � Owning and selling content, instead of just reselling others' material. � Betting on broadband Internet access to take off. For the most part, Semel is seen as having a steady hand, as he navigates untested waters under intense scrutiny. ``The jury is still out,'' said W.R. Hambrecht & Co. analyst Derek Brown. ``At this point, Yahoo remains a company largely dependent on ad revenue and its efforts to diversify have met with very limited success.'' Semel says Yahoo is poised to return to profitability this year, though ``a lot of executional challenges'' still loom. When Semel arrived at Sunnyvale-based Yahoo in May 2001, revenue had plummeted 42 percent from the previous quarter. He spent his first several months methodically examining how to make money from the large collection of mostly free offerings. ``How do we stop the bleeding?,'' Semel recalled thinking. Semel's triage has brought its share of pain: Much of the close-knit, youthful team that had guided Yahoo since its 1995 founding has left. As their replacements, Semel chose several corporate veterans and Hollywood dealmakers, and laid off 400 workers. ``You can't do it with youth and enthusiasm,'' quipped Greg Coleman, 47, formerly of Reader's Digest and now head of Yahoo's North American operations. Major rethinking In many consumers' minds, Yahoo is still a symbol of the young, hip and free Internet. Co-founder Jerry Yang is still a pivotal player at Yahoo, and in the community. Semel still lives in Southern California, and commutes in a private plane he co-owns. But Semel knew Yahoo's business model needed major rethinking. He has set an ambitious goal of turning 10 million of Yahoo's 100 million active users into paid subscribers ``in a reasonable period''; currently about 500,000 users pay for one service or another. ``This is a different place,'' President Jeff Mallett said last Friday, his final day after seven years at Yahoo. But, he concluded, ``We are ahead of the curve, making changes so we can adapt to the different business climate.'' In mid-April, Yahoo reported a sixth consecutive losing quarter. But there are signs that Semel's strategy has begun to stabilize revenue. First quarter sales in 2002 increased 7 percent over the year-ago period to $192.7 million. Ad sales for the same period were off 15 percent, but were more than offset by a healthy rise in listing fees, notably from online recruiter HotJobs, which Yahoo bought in February. As a result, the portal's reliance on advertising has dropped from 83 percent of sales a year ago to 63 percent today. Many services, from online dating to some popular e-mail functions, now command a fee. Among the most visible changes, users of Yahoo search must now navigate through labeled pay-for-placement ads before reaching non-commercial search results. ``It may be one of the most profitable businesses we've embarked on,'' Semel said of paid search results. Yahoo last week announced a three-year deal extension with Overture Services that analysts say could reap as much as $50 million in sales annually for Yahoo. The push for profit has angered some Yahoo loyalists, especially when it involves pitching paid services. The company reset users' marketing preferences, giving it automatic permission to market its services by phone, e-mail and U.S. mail. To refuse, users must uncheck 13 separate boxes. One Yahoo user angered by the aggressive marketing tactic told Semel at last week's shareholder meeting that the company had ``betrayed'' his trust. Stay for the ride Yahoo is willing to risk some backlash if it means the company can once again be profitable, a feat not accomplished since the third quarter of 2000. Think of Yahoo as a theme park, Semel told the shareholders. The more activities available ``the longer people stay and the more they will spend,'' he said. Semel's strategy is also firmly rooted in moving Yahoo away from simply being an ``order-taker'' for others' services and products to becoming full-fledged owner of content or at least well-compensated partner. ``We were building other people's businesses and we were getting a small return for that,'' Semel said. But competition is brewing among the surviving Internet behemoths. EBay, Amazon.com, America Online and Microsoft's MSN are all seeking to grow one or all of the proven online categories, including online classifieds for jobs, autos and home sales, travel bookings and entertainment ticketing. On the search front, Google is nipping at Yahoo's heels. Growing up Semel's boldest move so far has been the $436 million purchase of HotJobs, the No. 2 online recruiter, followed by a joint venture with SBC Communications to share subscription revenues from the sale of co-branded DSL and dial-up Internet services that is rolling out now. With online advertising still in the doldrums, much is riding on the new initiatives. Yahoo said it expects HotJobs to contribute up to $25 million in the current quarter. But the value of the SBC partnership cannot yet be measured. Much of the promise of the SBC deal rests on the adoption of broadband. So there are still many questions about what the future of Yahoo will hold. Said analyst Brown, ``When I walk away from my interactions with Yahoo, I find myself asking what does Yahoo want to be when it grows up?''

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