Yahoo execs admit missteps, outline change

By Eric Auchard

HALF MOON BAY, California (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has been slow to react to sweeping changes in Web consumer behavior and online advertising shifts, but it is picking up its pace, its top executives said on Tuesday.

Chief Executive Jerry Yang told advertising executives at a company-sponsored conference in this coastal town that Yahoo can differentiate itself by acting as an "open" alternative to rivals such as Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Yang, who formed Yahoo in 1994 with co-founder David Filo, said the company was looking to make its big properties into "starting points" that consumers return to again and again each day, rather than trying to keep them on Yahoo, as it long has done.

"Openness is upon us," Yang said in his first public speaking appearance since taking over as CEO four months ago. "There is an opportunity for Yahoo as a huge publisher to play the open game and do that as a strategy."

His comments come at the end of a 100-day strategy review of Yahoo's businesses, in which Yang has vowed there were "no sacred cows." Wall Street has pressed for radical action, including substantial layoffs and the possible sale of the company, but a modest rebound in third quarter results has bought Yang some time.

Speaking in South Korea, Yahoo President Susan Decker told a news conference that Yahoo failed to respond quickly to rapid changes in the market for display ads, the online banners and other ads wanted by corporate brand marketers.

"We didn't move fast enough," she said in Seoul, adding that the leadership that helped propel Yahoo into the lead during the first decade of online advertising was not well positioned for newer market shifts.

Part of the shift in strategy is for Yahoo to move away from being a media company that seeks to attract and keep audiences on its own site and to become more of a technology platform that helps users get things done, on its site or off.