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Timothy A. Koogle: Shouting Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) could have easily been Boohoo! Inc.--if it weren't for near-flawless execution by CEO TIMOTHY A. KOOGLE and his Internet team. While other Web wannabes were still fiddling with basic strategies, Koogle was already transforming Yahoo! from just another search engine into a megaportal loaded with consumer-friendly information and services. What sets Koogle apart from other Internet execs? Thinking big. From the start, Koogle saw Yahoo! as a consumer-driven media company, not a one-trick technology startup. So in 1996, a year after joining Yahoo!, Koogle unleashed a bevy of clever brand-building TV and radio commercials aimed at mainstream America. Thanks to that marketing emphasis, Yahoo! is now one of the best-known Net brands around. But Koogle has ensured that Yahoo! is more than a brand built out of Net air. A lanky guy with a passion for vintage guitars and fast cars, he has managed to turn a profit for five quarters running--a rare feat in Net Land. Yahoo! is expected to earn $48 million in 1998 on sales of $190 million, nearly triple its 1997 revenues. Investors are doing even better. Yahoo!'s soaring stock price gives the four-year-old company a market valuation of almost $25 billion. The 47-year-old Koogle's stake so far: a tidy $625 million. Now, Koogle wants to make Yahoo! into a global multimedia and E-commerce leader. The company has already set up localized versions of its site in 14 international markets. With Web traffic expected to triple in the next five years to more than 320 million users worldwide, Koogle will have his hands full keeping Yahoo! out front.
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Updated Dec. 30, 1998 by bwwebmaster
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