When your own people start sharing your dirty laundry with the press, you know you've got a management problem. It happens in politics and business. Just as Bush insiders are airing his dirty laundry so is a Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) insider. I don't know what you can do about the Bush leaks but I think you ought to sell Yahoo shares and if you don't own them stay away.
Sunday's Washington Post higlighted how Bush administration insiders have spilled the beans on their dissatisfaction with his management of Iraq and its impact on the recent elections. This betrayal from inside reveals the fragility of Bush's once-vaunted message discipline. And it's a sign that these insiders sense Bush's loss of power and are using it to their own advantage.
What does this have to do with Yahoo? A strategy memo by Brad Garlinghouse, a Yahoo senior vice president, was leaked to last Saturday's Wall Street Journal. Just as in Washington, leaking at Yahoo is a tipoff that Yahoo has a serious management problem. Based on my experience working in public companies, if such a memo were leaked to the press by just about anyone, that person would be fired so fast it would make your head spin. Not only did Garlinghouse's memo contain confidential information, but by highlighting Yahoo's internal weaknesses his leaked memo could help Yahoo's competitors.
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