Besides the two game systems launching over the weekend the other big story was a supposedly leaked internal Yahoo memo by Brad Garlinghouse and published by the Wall Street Journal (subscription required, sorry. Update: Paul Kedrosky reposts the memo that he said was being “forwarded all over the place.”).

Larry Dignan smells BS on the leakage aspect:

The Journal got the memo because it’s the business paper of record (and a damn good one at that). It’s called reporting and brand credibility that has taken decades to build. If you’re a CEO–or any exec–looking to float a memo you are going to the Journal. It’s your first stop to reach the folks that control your market cap. Sorry new media, old media has clout.

All I could do was shake my head after reading the memo and the various blog and media reactions. As a Yahoo shareholder, I’m embarassed by the company’s efforts in 2006. I was excited by what they did in 2005 and really thought they were on their way to doing some exciting things, but can’t voice my displeasure enough about what’s happened to date in 2006, beginning with the whole we don’t need to be #1 in search debacle.

At the present Yahoo seems like a very disjointed, disorganized, confused company. Sure, they have some smart people there but the disconnect between management and the workforce — at least to a complete outsider — seems to be almost incalculable. Outspoken employee insiders like Jeremy Zawodny seem to have gone quiet (last post over a week ago, maybe he’s on vacation?) regarding the substance of the memo which also calls for a reduction of the workforce and combining or eliminating competing products (Examples: MyWeb vs. Del.icio.us, Yahoo Photos vs. Flickr).

A bad case of Yahooitis has hit the Yahooligans. Let’s hope the holidays bring something other than coal in shareholder’s stockings. Draw a squiggly line at the top of paper toward the bottom and you’ll see what the performance has been like in 2006.

Update 10:47am PST: Greg Yardley offers some advice for Yahoo employees:

If you leave on your own, you can always take the high road and claim you were disgusted with the overall direction of the company. If you wait until you’re laid off, you’re going to get labeled as one of the employees who were “phoning it in, lacking the passion and commitment to be a part of the solution.” That’s one hell of a risk to take if you’re not sure if you’re staying or going.

Update 11/27/2006 7:52pm PST: Jeremy Zawodny stopped by to point out that he did post about the corrosive Peanut Butter memo on/about the same time that I posted this. You’ll see the link in comment #2 below, which sort of breaks his silence on the matter.

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