<p>
[quote]
More importantly, Yahoo! has now branched out into search engines and bought AbuDhabi, the Asian equivalent of Ebay. They're annihliating Google in the Asian market now, and are a much more profitable company with more diverse holdings than when Semel first took over.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>But you are missing the point that there had to be a company for Semel to take over. Keep in mind that plenty of dotcoms did absolutely nothing and completely flamed out. Why didn't Semel go to one of those dotcoms and not Yahoo? It's because even when Yahoo was falling, Yahoo was still one of the top dotcoms around. So, if nothing else, you have to give credit for Yang and Filo for building one of the best dotcoms such that there was something for Semel to take over. A lot of other dotcoms, like Webvan, completely bit the dust. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Oh yeah, and Stanford had no more to do with Silicon Valley's prominence than UCLA had to do with Hollywood's success.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Come on, man, did you bother to read any of the links I posted? Heck, you can find your own, and you will see that there was clearly a period when Stanford was instrumental in the development of Silicon Valley as we know it. Fred Terman in particular was highly influential in the creation of the Silicon Valley business model. To dismiss that would be an insult to him and his memory.</p>