Yahoo "Loses" $2.7B In Mysterious Mexican Yellow Pages Lawsuit 85
An anonymous reader writes "CNN reports that a Mexico City court has ordered Yahoo to pay $2.7 billion to Worldwide Directories and Ideas Interactivas. The classified directory publisher sued Yahoo, claiming various losses and breaches involving 'contracts related to a yellow pages listings service.' Yahoo announced its intention to appeal but is saying little else about the case."
Yahoo's take (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Yahoo's take (Score:5, Informative)
http://investor.yahoo.net/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=724306 [yahoo.net] will work better (without the trailing slash).
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Or:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/yahoo-inc-reports-judgment-lawsuit-214700948.html [yahoo.com]
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Re:Well? (Score:5, Funny)
Well they pay people to post on anonymous internet forums about how they're more than just a search engine, for one.
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http://www.yahoo.co.jp/ [yahoo.co.jp]
Yahoo is actually really big over there. eBay exists, but may as well not: Yahoo! Auctions is overwhelmingly dominant in online auctions. Yahoo! Shopping takes the role of Amazon.com. (Amazon itself has a presence also, and it isn't too shabby.) And Yahoo! Japan is also a broadband provider with a lot of mindshare.
They've diversified. Wisely so.
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It's all in the lingo (Score:3)
Bear with me here ...
Japanese syllables generally start with a consonant and end with a vowel, or are a vowel alone. Thus "McDonalds" is something like "ma ku do na ru do" and a Big Mac is a biggu makku.
For some reason, they used the American pronunciation of "Mexico" (meks sih ko) as the basis for their word, which comes out as "may kee shi ko". But the Spanish pronunciation "may hee ko" copies over almost perfectly into Japanese. It's a shame they copied the wrong pronunciation.
I suppose the proper pro
Re:Well? (Score:5, Funny)
Yahoo is more than just a search engine.
Like what?
An exclamation of joy.
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It's also a museum of web design from the "portal era".
Re:Does Yahoo even still exist? (Score:5, Funny)
>> Yahoo is more than just a search engine.
It can also cut through these beer cans, and look, it's still sharp enough to slice these tomatoes...
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Indeed.
History of Google vs Yahoo homepage over the years ...
http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/443/yahoovsgoogle1996to2005ys4.png [imageshack.us]
Google focused on doing one thing extremely well. Yahoo is a perfect example of the bloated web 2.0 in search of monetization.
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Yahoo is more than just a search engine.
Yahoo is less than just a search engine
FTFY.
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Is yahoo still relevant? I though yahoo had just become a none MS face for bing.When will people learn and just use Google.
Perhaps not relevant in search like they used to be, They do have some other popular products such as Flickr, an instant messaging product, and a few other things.
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I use yahoo local to find businesses and yahoo finance to watch stocks and funds, much better than competitors
Re:Call me a cynic... (Score:4, Funny)
First the Samsung judgement, now this... its open season with litigation out there.
The information superhighway needs fences to keep the liti-gators off the road.
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Too late -- several, scratch that, a gazillion people already have the patent on internet patents. Now if they all get busy and start suing each other, they won't have time to sue anybody doing real work.
classified directory? (Score:4, Funny)
"classified directory" vs "classifieds directory"
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No youtube links or NWO/FEMA ramblings? My conspiritard isn't ripe!
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The government sells marijuana for "profits"? When they're already several trillion dollars in debt and don't seem to give a fuck? Okay.
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the US Govt and mainstream media blather on about terrorists half-way around the world in the middle-east yet ignore the drug smuggling terrorists just south of the border
And yet I've read dozens and dozens of stories about them from the "mainstream media" for some time now. Maybe you just have blinders on?
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Easiest explanation (Score:5, Interesting)
Someone just sufficiently far removed from the judge made a bet on Yahoo's shares falling just about this time.
Interesting figure (Score:5, Interesting)
Isn't 2.7Bn larger than the combined market value of every yellow pages business in the world combined? Might anyone know how the Judge came up with a figure this large?
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I know it seams like a large figure. This is another hurdle the new Yahoo CEO is going to have to deal with. I never realized how much of a mess yahoo really was until lately.
Sorry but Ya Who????
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The judge is probably related to the plaintiff. :)
They probably see it like winning the lottery. cha-ching!! profit!!
Re:Interesting figure (Score:4, Insightful)
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Isn't 2.7Bn larger than the combined market value of every yellow pages business in the world combined?
Doubtful. AT&T sold 53% stake in their yellow pages business for $950 million [seekingalpha.com] which would put the estimates for solely AT&T's yellow pages business around $1.8 billion.
Re:Interesting figure (Score:5, Informative)
Have you ever seen how much yellow pages charges each of the companies to be listed in it? It's not craigslist.. those listing can be expensive.
Earlier this year, ATT sold part of it's Yellow Pages operation for close to a billion dollars. The division is valued at $3.9billion:
http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.aspx?post=ec6803ce-4128-42be-bc43-eb1534853efd [msn.com]
Look at the chart on this page:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-22/the-golden-allure-of-the-yellow-pages [businessweek.com]
revenue:
att: 3.3 billion
dex: 1.5b
supermedia: 1.6b
yell group: 1.5b
share of TOTAL US ad spending: ~8%
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The missing factor is probably time. Yearly losses * number of years = $$$$$$$$$$.
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Because if someone wrongs you and has $1m, you sue for $100k. If someone wrongs you and has $1b, you sue for $100m. It is about the other's assets, not the actual value lost.
Be careful Mexico (Score:2)
You may find that the San Sebastian Data Center has been stripped down to the barest minimum of equipment.
Yahoo (Score:2)
Always seems to be the search behind search spoofing malware I have to clean up from the PCs of family and friends.
Mexican Yellow Pages (Score:1)
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Just to state the obvious, this isn't something México is doing anymore than being sued for libel is something that Britain for instance. More over World Directories really doesn't sound like a Mexican business. It's probably a larger problem between WD and Y! but Y! probably got away in the US and WD is trying somewhere else. Further more, I don't think the final fine is ever going to be that large, WD is probably looking for a settlement.
Comment removed (Score:3)
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And if they ignore the ruling what happens? Just because a court in some country rules against you doesn't necessarily mean that there's any consequence.
From one of the other links posted earlier:
"he 49th Civil Court of the Federal District of Mexico City has entered a non-final judgment of U.S. $2.7 billion against Yahoo! Inc. and Yahoo de Mexico, S.A. de C.V.
I don't exactly know why there needs to be a Yahoo de Mexico, but that puts them on the hook for whatever amount the corrupt Mexican court wants to decide.
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In most countries a business is required to establish a local legal entity to operate within it's borders. At a bare minimum most nations require the appointment of a registered agent based in the country. This is intended to protect local citizens and businesses from businesses based in other countries that do business within their borders. It is also important for complying with local laws and regulations, and payment of taxes applicable to business carried out within their borders. If you are harmed
question (Score:4, Interesting)
Are they sure that's dollars and not pesos?
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The original press release says US$2.7 billion so its in USD and not Mexican pesos.
Statement from Yahoo CEO (Score:3, Funny)
"Why must we peso much?"
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Mexican newspapers confirm the figures:
http://www.milenio.com/cdb/doc/noticias2011/5118e8f851051aafbb05375db4b342f6
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I know damn well what they said.
My question was if they had made a typo somewhere.
And I'm talking about TFA and not just TFS.
If the USA jumped off a bridge, Mexico... (Score:1)
Given the spate of breathtakingly prejudiced flag-waving verdicts that have been coming out of US courts recently, is it any wonder that Mexico feels comfortable with trying to carve itself a slice of the pie?
And why shouldn't they? If US justice just means doing some token table pounding and then awarding a win to the home team, then you do not - you do not - get to question the integrity of foreign courts.
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It isn't the US... The EU tribunals get bored periodically and rake Google and Microsoft over the coals every so often since it makes good press for them ("evil foreign company gets hauled in for another round of justice".) Same old xenophobic shit the EU has been doing, but just now spread across the pond.
Might be nice if countries cleaned their own house, and this applies to the Yanks as well.
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Not too clear to me why I cannot question the integrity of a foreign court, just because my own court system has done some questionable things.
I can question the integrity of a foreign court, just as I can question the integrity of a domestic court. You dont get to decide what I can question, thanks.
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Because he said so. He has declared himself "King of teh internets".
Therefore you must post as he decrees.
Mexico isn't a party to the case (Score:2)
Well, yeah, its a civil case between two private companies in a Mexican court. Even if the non-final verdict does become final and Yahoo! fully complies with it, then Mexico won't get that money -- the plaintiffs, Worldwide Directories SA de CV and Ideas Interactivas SA de CV, would get the money.
It's not going to happen (Score:3, Funny)
An off topic comment:
As a Mexican it's funny to read slashdoters opinions about my country. If you come here you would be surprised that there are a bunch of us with high speed internet, cars, smartphones, etc. We are not involved in shootings every day around each corner and we don't speak the same Spanish than the "mexican-americans", actually our culture is quite different. Believing in what the TV says about a country and establish prejudices based on that is simply wrong. Based on what I have seen about US citizens on the news I would assume they like to drink a lot and show their parts to strangers, they start shooting people randomly at schools, theaters or workplaces, most of them are ignorant. Do you know what makes the US different from yogurt? If you leave them both 300 years unattended, the yogurt will grow a culture.
You see?, prejudices are wrong.
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Based on what I have seen about US citizens on the news I would assume they like to drink a lot and show their parts to strangers, they start shooting people randomly at schools, theaters or workplaces, most of them are ignorant.
Seems pretty accurate to me.
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I think I know what happed (Score:1)
Judgement was actually in pesos.. (Score:1)
That's around $208,457 USD.
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extortion? (Score:1)