雅虎（Yahoo）CEO的“学历门”已告尘埃落定，对雅虎的伤害已经造成。一向麻烦缠身的雅虎董事会这次输在事先没有好好审查这位前途无量的CEO的简历。现在雅虎能做的只有收拾残局继续前进。不过这究竟意味着什么？雅虎怎样才能走出眼下的困境？

    当然，眼下需要雅虎收拾的烂摊子不少。雅虎近年来像走马灯似的更换CEO，他们一个个信心十足地来，转眼又垂头丧气地走。雅虎股票与2006年的最高值时相比已经下跌了64%，而且它的广告收入也正在被Facebook和谷歌（Google）步步蚕食。更重要的是，一直以来，雅虎董事会一直昏招不断，做出的决策只会使事情变得更糟。

    2012年，雅虎原本希望新CEO斯科特•汤普森能带领公司走向未来。汤普森具有领导易趣（eBay）贝宝（PayPal）支付平台的成功经验，因此他打算把雅虎的发展重点从在线广告转移到电子商务和数据分析上。这是一个非常大胆和另类的发展战略，而且说不定能够成功。不过后来维权投资者第三点基金（Third Point）却在一份雅虎向证监会（SEC）提交的股东委托书中披露了汤普森的学历造假。从第三点基金“棒打鸳鸯”之日起，不到一个星期，汤普森就离开了雅虎。

    “学历门”事件使雅虎陷入了自从微软（Microsoft）撤回31美元每股的收购邀约以来最黑暗的时候——现在甚至也可能是雅虎18年历史上最悲惨的日子。不过老话说“黎明前总有黑暗”，这话对雅虎来说也不乏一些道理。虽说雅虎也许还会迎来更黑暗的时候，不过让我们现在暂且不去想它。如果雅虎能够做出正确的决策，那么它有没有可能转“危”为“机”，使公司绝地逢生，变得更强大呢？

    要想实现这个目标，雅虎必须做出一些艰难的决定，冒一些大风险，还需要不小的智慧。

    第一步就是尽量满足第三点基金的要求。这一点看起来是不可避免的，因为现在雅虎董事会中有三名董事都是第三点基金推荐的，其中就包括第三点基金的CEO丹尼尔•洛布本人——他也是雅虎的眼中钉和肉中刺。洛布提出了整改雅虎的九项要点。除了其中的几项涉及重大变革之外，总体看来，洛布的九大要点就像一个建筑师在餐巾纸上画的建筑草图一样，难逃“心血来潮”之嫌。

    第三点基金强烈呼吁雅虎将旗下的阿里巴巴（Alibaba）和雅虎日本等亚洲资产出手变现。虽然如果雅虎继续持有这些资产，它们的价值可能会继续增长，不过第三点基金认为，现在雅虎已经到了放弃它们的时候，把变现的资金用来投资那些才华横溢的网络初创公司，这可能会为雅虎品牌带来第二春。

    The train wreck is over. The damage has been done. Yahoo's perennially troubled board failed to vet the resume of a once-promising CEO. All the company can do now is pick up the pieces and move on. But what exactly does that mean? How does Yahoo move on from here?

    Certainly, there is no shortage of wreckage to move on from: Yahoo's (YHOO) CEO suite has been a revolving door of leaders. Each enters hopeful and exits defeated. The stock has lost 64% of its value since its January 2006 peak. Facebook and Google (GOOG) have been eating Yahoo's ad-revenue lunch. And the whole time, Yahoo's board has floundered in complacency, making the easy decisions that only made things worse.

    Yahoo began 2012 with hope that its brand-new CEO Scott Thompson had what it took to push the company into the future. Thompson's success leading eBay's (EBAY) PayPal unit inspired him to steer the company away from online ads and toward e-commerce and data analysis. It was a strategy bold and unorthodox enough that it just might work. Then activist investor Third Point uncovered a falsehood in a Thomson bio included in a Yahoo proxy statement filed with the SEC. Third Point used it as a thug would wield a cudgel. Within a week, Thompson was gone.

    That has plunged Yahoo into its darkest hour since Microsoft (MSFT) withdrew its $31-a-share takeover bid -- perhaps even the bleakest moment of its 18-year history. And yet, those old comforting chestnuts like "it's always darkest before the dawn" may have some truth in them for Yahoo. It could easily get even darker for the one-time web giant, but let's not think about that right now. What if the chaos that is shaking the company could -- if the right decisions are made -- make it stronger?

    It would take some hard decisions, big risks and a good deal of cunning.

    The first step would be giving Third Point much of what it wants. That seems all but inevitable, now that Yahoo's board seats three of Third Point's recommended directors, including the firm's own Daniel Loeb -- until now Yahoo's gadfly-in-chief. Loeb outlined his "solutions" for Yahoo in nine tidy bullet points. But except for a few significant changes -- clearly, his true agenda -- Loeb's plan is as specific as an architect's blueprint drawn on a cocktail napkin.

    ThirdPoint was most specific when it clamored for Yahoo to cash out of its Asian assets like Alibaba and Yahoo Japan. While the value of these assets could increase if Yahoo holds onto them, it's time for Yahoo to give them up and use that money to invest in select investments of talented web startups that could provide the foundation for the second act of the Yahoo brand.

    但与此同时，雅虎仍应继续保持阿里巴巴和雅虎日本的部分交叉所有权，以巩固在中国和日本来之不易的长期关系，这也有助于雅虎在亚洲最大的两个网络市场上立足。

    虽说第三点基金提出的“九大要点”比较模糊，但是雅虎的亚洲资产一旦变现，第三点基金如果不马上坚持把至少其中的大部分用来给股东分红，那它就不叫“维权投资者”了。不过也就是在这个问题上，因循守旧的雅虎董事会其实有一个可以“硬起来”的机会——把这笔钱中的大部分用于重建雅虎，而不是放进股东的口袋。

    在雅虎帝国之中，仍有几处闪耀着这个老品牌过去的光辉，比如人们最常提到的雅虎体育、新闻和金融。近年来这些领域也涌现出不少创新的应用程序和网站。比如时下正热的科技博客The Verge的母公司Vox Media，以及拥有321个体育博客的SB Nation，他们都是值得收购的公司，虽然不免要花一大笔钱，但是一定对得起那个价格。另外像Flipboard和基于Twitter的News.me这样的应用服务也可以让雅虎在方兴未艾的网络新闻递送领域稳据一席之地。

    如果雅虎愿意打开它即将有望变得鼓鼓囊囊的腰包，那么还有其它一些领域也是可以进军的。比如它可以从IAC/Interactive公司那里收购YouTube的小兄弟Vimeo，这也是个很有前途和才华的视频网站。如果有人肯为Vimeo出笔大价钱，IAC的老板巴里•迪勒肯定乐于促成交易。另外自从2010年起从母公司RealNetworks独立出来的流媒体音乐网站Rhapsody也可能是雅虎音乐一直梦寐以求的那种音乐服务。

    最后，在雅虎的“窒息文化”里其实也隐藏着一些宝贵的资产。例如照片分享网站Flickr就是雅虎的一次明智的收购。虽然雅虎的本意是任其自行发展，但Flickr还是被扼杀在了雅虎的官僚主义泡沫里。为什么雅虎没有围绕着Flickr建立自己的社交战略，而是非要把它囫囵吞进雅虎自己愚蠢的社交蓝图里呢？为什么雅虎从来没把Flickr变成一款移动应用，让它具有像Instagram那样的潜力呢？

    啊，对了，我们是在讨论雅虎未来的前途，而不是声讨它过去的失误。如果雅虎打算通过购买创新公司来构建公司的前途，那么它就应该让那些创新公司的点子引领着公司前行，而不是把它们吞进一个行将就木、僵化可笑，却仍然相信自己无所不知的企业文化中。如果说过去的教训告诉了我们什么，那就是雅虎根本不知道什么才是对自己最好的。Facebook花大价钱收购了Instagram，为的是学习和认识Instagram对移动应用的了解，而不是要吸干它的血。

    最后，如果雅虎继续放任自己堕落到“专利流氓”的水平，那么雅虎将永无复苏之日。因为这会让对其未来成功至关重要的工程师和独立开发者敬而远之。在网络世界上，让一个品牌蒙羞最快的方法，莫过于你有一个好点子，但不知道拿它怎么办，结果别的公司利用这个点子赚了钱，而你就气急败坏地去起诉它。所以不要起诉他们，而是应该与它们合作，向它们学习。

    这就是我眼中的雅虎复兴之路：一、卖掉亚洲资产；二、不要把钱分给股东，而是精明地用于投资那些天才的初创公司；三、向那些初创公司学习如何在2012年的网络世界上茁壮成长；四、把专利当成防御武器，而不是进攻武器。

    如果雅虎可以做到这几点，那么它也只是有了一个背水一战的机会而已——但也许这是雅虎五年来最好的机会了。如果它做不到，那它最好现在就把过去18年赚来的每一笔资产进行破产清算，然后把钱还给投资人算了。雅虎，究竟怎样做，就看你的了。

    译者：朴成奎

    But Yahoo should also use whatever leverage it has to insist on some cross-ownership of shares in both Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, cementing already long-standing relationships that could help it establish a presence in two of Asia's largest web markets.

    Third Point's vague bullet points notwithstanding, the firm wouldn't be worthy of being called an activist investor if it didn't immediately insist on returning much, if not all, of that lucre into a shareholder payout. But here's where Yahoo's old-school board has a chance to develop a spine: Put most of that money not into shareholder pockets, but into rebuilding Yahoo.

    Several pieces of Yahoo's empire still emit some of the shine of its old brand -- sports, news and finance are ones most frequently mentioned. And there have emerged a number of apps and sites that are innovating in these areas. Vox Media, owner of rising-star The Verge and the 321 sports blogs on SB Nation, could be a big expense well worth the price. Apps like Flipboard and Twitter-based services like News.me would give Yahoo a strong foothold in the emerging world of news delivery.

    There are other neighborhoods of the web that Yahoo could buy its way into if it would only open up its (potentially) fat wallet. Vimeo, for years YouTube's potentially talented little brother, could be snatched from IAC/Interactive (IACI) After all, Barry Diller loves nothing more than being involved in a good deal. A music-streaming service like Rhapsody, independent from its long-time parent RealNetworks (RNWK) since 2010, could be the music service Yahoo Music always wanted to be.

    Finally, there are valuable assets hidden inside Yahoo's culture of suffocation. Flickr was once a brilliant acquisition that, despite Yahoo's intention to leave it to its own devices, was smothered in bureaucratic styrofoam. Why didn't Yahoo build its social strategy around Flickr, instead of swallowing it into its own ham-fisted social vision? And why did Yahoo never turn Flickr into an app with Instagram-like potential?

    Ah well, we're here to look at Yahoo's potential future, not its past missteps. If Yahoo is going to buy up innovative startups to build its future on, it will have to let their ideas guide the company forward -- and not engulf them into a dying and stultifying culture that still believes it knows best. Because if anything is clear now, it's that Yahoo doesn't know what is best for itself. Facebook paid a steep price for Instagram to learn -- and follow -- what Instagram knew about the mobile web, not to suck its blood dry.

    Finally, Yahoo's recovery is over if it keeps stooping to the vile level of the patent troll. It will drive away the engineers and independent developers vital to its future success. On the web, nothing taints a brand faster than suing a company that is smart enough to capitalize on ideas you had but didn't know what to do with. Don't sue them, work with them to learn from them.

    So there's the road to a Yahoo recovery, as I see it: Sell the Asian assets; don't give the cash to shareholders but invest it, shrewdly, in smart startups; learn from those startups how to thrive on the web in 2012; and use patents as a defense, not an offense.

    If Yahoo can do that, it only has a fighting chance - but perhaps its best fighting chance in five years. If it can't do that, then it's better off liquidating everything it's built for the past 18 years and handing the cash over to shareholders. It's your call, Yahoo.