February 12, 2008
Chip and Randy cut loose!
Perhaps you heard that Yahoo! was laying some people off today?
It turns out that this force reduction included [me] Randy Farmer and Chip Morningstar - much to our mutual surprise as we each had strong contributor/leadership roles in the company. From here it looks like they might have gone after those with larger salaries given the number of top-quality people we saw get the axe today. Given what we were working on, it was doubly confusing.
This layoff should be a recruiters dream.
Don't use farmer@yahoo-inc.com or chipm@yahoo-inc.com anymore - those don't work and aren't forwarding, as of now. I'm randy.farmer at pobox dot com, and Chip is chip at fudco dot com.
[update]My phone is back online so feel free to call or email or 
Y!IM frandallfarmer.
Apparently CNet thinks I was on the Yahoo A-List, at least as far as a MS/Y merger goes. Lets see if Microsoft thinks so too! [/update]
[update] Chip's resume link above is better now.[/update 2/13]
Business | Posted by Randy at February 12, 2008 03:33 PMHope great things come to both of you in your future endeavors. You were great coworkers and great people to know personally. Feel free to quote me on that. ;)
Posted by: [Some Yahoo!] at February 12, 2008 06:31 PMFinding out about you and Chip sure made me feel like less of a loser! I'm sure everything will work out find.
Posted by: lantzilla at February 12, 2008 10:18 PMSorry to hear about the layoffs...there are tons of opportunities out there.
http://furrier.org
I'm sure you'll have job offers fast but if your looking to do a startup give me a ring
Posted by: John Furrier at February 12, 2008 10:31 PMSorry to see you guys go - I'll miss seeing you about the place on my Sunnyvale trips Randy. Good luck with everything
Posted by: Sophie Major at February 13, 2008 03:22 AMChip and Randy were key contributors at Yahoo. It makes no sense to me that they were let go.
This is my take on layoffs: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/douglascrockford?p=770
Posted by: Douglas Crockford at February 13, 2008 10:24 AMVery sorry to hear it, you guys. You too, Lance. :(
Posted by: Kent Brewster at February 13, 2008 03:19 PMUm, surprised. Not cool at all ... very sorry to hear this. And surprised, did I mention surprised?
Yahoo's valuation just went down, maybe they should reconsider that MS offer afterall.
Well... I've been meaning to ping you guys again. (I guess I can skip the "any openings at yahoo" question.)
Anyhow, I see this as an opportunity!
Posted by: Jeff Crilly at February 14, 2008 02:57 PMI used to work at Yahoo and now work at Microsoft.
Most Yahoo architects would be mid-level program managers at Microsoft. Most Yahoo architects don't write code (many never have). At Microsoft, architect is the technical/IC career track for software developers; most Microsoft architects write code as part of their job and all are expected to be expert programmers.
People at Yahoo are also over-leveled compared to Microsoft, probably because Yahoo has grown so much through acquisitions. All those startup CEO/CTOs became VPs at Yahoo, but at Microsoft they wouldn't even be GMs.
Posted by: Some Microsoftee at February 16, 2008 02:10 PMThanks for the insight "Some Microsoftee" - I'm sure Chip and I will find that information very useful!
Randy (and Chip): Great time to be checking out the broader world, given what you guys know!! Keep up the great work....
Steve
Posted by: Steve at February 16, 2008 04:33 PMSorry to hear you got axed, Randy. From our discussion at the data portability summit last fall, it seemed you were on to great things at Yahoo! so this makes little sense to me.
Posted by: Jean Sini at February 16, 2008 06:28 PMSorry to hear what happened. I'm always looking for Sr. level talent. I'm attaching my contact info for future reference. Please feel free to pass it on to anyone else who was subject to the lay-off.
Michael Krug
Corporate Recruiter @ DivX, Inc.
mkrug@divxcorp.com
Wow, Yahoo! 360, what an achievement. Great job, guys. Please take this opportunity to remind us of your other great accomplishments during your (apparently) overpaid stint at Yahoo. Pretty please?
Pathetic. Get over your inflated view of yourselves.
Ironic that Foobar refused to identify himself.
You'd think that someone that had such a strong opinion would want to back it up with credentials of his own... Perhaps he didn't make the A-list? :-)
My work stands documented here and across the inter-webs for all to see and evaluate. No need to reiterate it here.
Randy
Posted by: Randy Farmer at February 19, 2008 06:04 PMErm... uh, to get this thread back on-topic (I think the links from valleywag, alleyinsider, etc have brought out the whackos...)
Randy (and Chip to a lesser degree -- we just didn't cross projects paths enough!) I want to thank you for a real education in community and social media during the time we worked together at Yahoo. Dialing in on conference calls, I almost felt as if I were auditing your graduate-level course ;-) (Which, btw, if you ever give, I will -totally- take.)
I notice that this just happens to be blog entry '66.' Coincidence, or a nod-and-a-wink to the Great Jedi Purge?
Posted by: Bryce at February 20, 2008 10:16 AMI doubt if your being laid off has anything to do with my desire to hit you both up with a bunch of ideas, but, you know...
Didn't discover you guys until after this happened, although I think I may have written to you, Randy, a few years ago about some weird thought I'd had.
Once upon a time I was shopping around an m-commerce idea to alleviate traffic gridlock and save the rain forest -- all in one go -- but mainly I dream up stories for my personal habitat.
You're both pioneers. Everything I've read shows that. Best of luck to you both in whatever you've dreamed up for yourselves. May you continue to include us all in the living dreams you've seeded.
-- tim
Posted by: Tim at March 13, 2008 07:57 PM