Marissa Mayer And Yahoo Try An Aggressive Tactic To Hire Back Former Employees

Marissa Mayer in a Flickr-filtered photoYahoo is trying to hire them back with an aggressive ploy.

TechCrunch's Alexia Tsostis has the story:

Over the past couple of months, Yahoo recruiters have reached out to ex-VPs, low-level engineers and PMs who used to work for Yahoo with these packets, with the word “Back!” scrawled on them in black Sharpee.

On the packet inside is a bunch of copy about how much has changed since the new Marissa Mayer regime, and how Yahoo wants to talk about “big opportunities.” “I’ve heard they literally cannot buy people,” said one recipient of the packet, who passed on whatever the big opportunities are.

Here's what the packet looks like, via ex-Yahoo Tom Coates's Twitter feed:

Yahoo has a massive audience on the desktop Web, but it's declining every day.

Check out this chart from our presentation on the Death Of The PC:

Meanwhile, Yahoo has a massive install-base on mobile, but consumers don't actually spend very much time with the Yahoo apps they've downloaded.

Check out this chart from Goldman Sachs (which we hear is working with Yahoo on strategy):

The only way either trend is going to turn around is if Yahoo builds awesome new products.

The only way Yahoo is going to build awesome new products is if it hires top notch employees.

The sad things is, Yahoo used to have lots of those, but many of them have fled for more innovative companies like Facebook or Google.

Coates, who called the packet "a weird "have you thought about coming back to yahoo" thing..." will not be re-joining Yahoo, TechCrunch reports.