Yahoo's Yang: Train Wreck

On the heels of the Yahoo deal that fell apart V 2, comeback CEO Jerry Yang was skewered by the able hands of Web 2.0 Summit host John Battelle earlier today. Yang looked weary, to say the least; and who wouldn't, after seeing hundreds of millions of potential revenue flushed away thanks to Google's reluctance to battle the DOJ. Worse, Yang's strategy for Yahoo looked pretty close to a train wreck; or maybe warmed-over leftovers of a Web that's passed his company by.

Yang put the blame for the failure of his company's deal with Microsoft at the feet of Microsoft, saying that he was in favor of a deal. Battelle pressed him hard on his true desires here, and Yang was obtuse at best.

But deals frequently fall apart. What was more disturbing was his vision for Yahoo. He called it "a consumer brand that lets people get what they want on the Internet." His next trick will be creating a social network, and becoming an ad platform. Sounds a little familiar.

Judge for yourself in the video, but just a little anecdote: later in the evening when Lance Armstrong took the stage, he pleaded with Battelle not to Jerry Yang him.