There’s a growing trend for children to be used as “PR tools” to raise funding or sell companies. Yahoo’s recent acquisition of Summly is the perfect example. A company built entirely off licensed intellectual property and questionable numbers of active users was purchased for “x millions of dollars.” In reality by the admission of insiders to the deal, the real value behind Yahoo’s purchase was improving their “PR image” and “human resourcing” to make Yahoo a popular company for developers to work for. It’s no secret that Marissa Mayer is making hiring the central piece of her management focus. “Nick will be a great person to put in front of the media and consumers with Mayer to make Yahoo seem like it is a place that loves both entrepreneurs and mobile experiences, which in turn will presumably attract others like him.” An example of this strategy imploding is Andrew Hsu, founder of Airy (Comparing the current site to the previous version, it may be reasonable to assume that Airy has joined the deadpool) and a Thiel Fellow. Andrew was a kid that succeeded in grabbing the limelight, but failed in creating a real company or product. In the end, he became a puppet to older stakeholders – his father. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest