Investor and Yahoo board member Carl Icahn has reportedly reduced his holdings in Yahoo by roughly 12 million shares, according to a recent regulatory filing with the US SEC. Icahn became a board member last year after a prolonged and very public episode that involved heavy criticism of then Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and an attempt […]
How will big brands will successfully latch onto social media and use it intelligently as marketing channel going forward? Read on for how we're doing it at Yahoo.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is boosting spending on lobbying in Congress: Google spent $950,000 lobbying lawmakers, regulators and the White House on issues ranging from cloud computing to copyright in the second quarter, according to public lobbying disclosures. The sum tops the $880,000 it spent in the first quarter and represents a […]
Yahoo has announced the hiring of Tim Morse as Chief Financial Officer. He’ll report directly to CEO Carol Bartz. Morse most recently was CFO at Altera, and before that served as CFO for General Electric Plastics. According to Yahoo’s SEC filing, Morse gets a base salary of $500,000, a signing bonus of $500,000, and has […]
Today, Microsoft announced that it had delivered layoff notices to 3,000 employees across several divisions (1,200 in Washington state). This comes just months after an initial round of 1,400 who were let go when Microsft announced second quarter earnings. At that time, Microsoft said it planned to eliminate 5,000 jobs this year, and Microsoft’s CEO […]
Last year Google was all but forced to back out of its proposed paid-search deal with Yahoo because of a reportedly impending Justice Department anti-trust action against it. Much more recently — in fact, just last week — Google’s Book Search settlement came under anti-trust scrutiny from the US Justice Department. Now the Federal Trade […]
Google takes plenty of well-publicized heat for things it hasn’t really done or concerns that get hyped. But in the case of one of its AdWords employees being accused of bypassing AdWords policies for his own benefit, I’m surprised the Big G isn’t being dragged over the coals. Over a month after the initial accusations, […]
Silicon Alley Insider raises a provocative question about Google CEO Eric Schmidt: how much have he and his leadership contributed to the company’s success? Is he smart or the luckiest man in the world? Clearly Schmidt is smart but the article tries to dissect Google M&A activity and results during Schmidt’s tenure to determine whether […]
Yahoo has named Elisa Steele as the company’s new Chief Marketing Officer, effective today. Steele comes to Yahoo from NetApp, where she was the senior vice president of corporate marketing. Yahoo hasn’t had a CMO since 2007 when Cammie Dunaway left the company. Yahoo tells us that new CEO Carol Bartz recently decided to re-establish […]
Approximately five days after Tim Armstrong left Google for AOL, Google has filled his position. paidContent.org reports Dennis Woodside is the successor and will be the new VP-Americas Operations at Google. Woodside, a Googler for five years, was most recently Google’s Vice President for the UK, Ireland and Benelux. He will be transitioning into his […]
SEMPO‘s Board of Directors has elected new officers to oversee the organization. The new officers include Jeffrey Pruitt, formerly SEMPO president and executive vice president of corporate partnerships, iCrossing, who was elected chairman. Sara Holoubek, corporate strategy consultant, was elected president. Ron Jones, president and CEO of Symetri Internet Marketing, was elected vice president of […]
People have been writing about the forthcoming management changes at Yahoo for a few weeks. Now they’re starting to kick in officially. Yesterday Yahoo Connected Life chief Marco Boerries resigned and today, in something of a surprise, Yahoo CFO Blake Jorgensen also resigned. Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz wrote a blog post explaining in general terms […]
Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org is changing its operational leader and trying to more tightly integrate with the larger objectives of Google the company. According to the Google Blog: Long-time Googler Megan Smith will take over day-to-day management of Google.org, joining as General Manager to lead us through this transition, in addition to her existing role […]
Yahoo was widely expected to report lower earnings. But the lower earnings reported beat some financial analysts’ very low expectations. Here are the top-level highlights from the earnings release: Q4 Financial Results Revenues were $1,806 million for the fourth quarter of 2008, a 1 percent decrease compared to $1,832 million for the same period of […]
Both Barack Obama and incoming Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz are taking charge of their respective administrations at times of crisis: the US is in financial turmoil, must establish clear and coherent priorities, restore its credibility, and build new momentum diplomatically around the world. Yahoo, on a much smaller scale, is in a conceptually similar situation: […]
Valleywag is reporting that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer met with Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock Thursday in New York City. As you can imagine, news of the meeting has restarted speculation about the on-again, off-again merger/deal talks. The New York Times says that spokespersons for both companies refused to comment about the Ballmer-Bostock meeting. Earlier this […]
In Rare Move, Microsoft Is Exploring Job Cuts from the Wall Street Journal reports the rumored Microsoft job cuts may come as early as next week. It is uncertain if the job cuts will actually happen, the Wall Street Journal said Microsoft is looking for alternatives to cutting jobs. Those numbers are likely going to […]
According to news out today from the Wall Street Journal, Carol Bartz, the former CEO (and current executive chairman) of software company Autodesk, will be named the new Yahoo CEO. Bartz has been praised for her management and deal brokering skills but has never run an internet company, nor does she have an advertising background. […]
SearchBiz today rounds up some items from the last 24 hours. Most of them concern personnel moves or speculation about who might get the top spot at Yahoo. Then there’s the ongoing MicroHoo saga and whether a new CEO will restart talks with Redmond. There’s also the matter of MSN being branded a “lewd” site […]
Will Yahoo have a new CEO by the end of the month? That’s the word from sources talking to AllThingsD today. The report says Yahoo has put together an informal search committee to help executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles find a new CEO. There’s reportedly a list of six criteria the new Yahoo CEO […]
There’s lots of news today and from over the US holiday weekend. Much of it concerns Yahoo and Google, as it often does in this column. The big buzz generated over the weekend was from the UK’s Times Online report that there was a tentative deal reached between Yahoo and Microsoft to buy the former’s […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Wait, they already have. PaidContent posted a fairly comprehensive roundup yesterday of possible successors to outgoing Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang. (Yahoo is up in early trading on the news of Yang’s resignation, which was received favorably by most financial analysts.) PaidContent also poses the question: will the board go with a tech executive or a […]
Yahoo has announced that Jerry Yang, Yahoo’s founder and current CEO, will be stepping down from the CEO role after Yahoo finds a successor. Jerry will resume his former role of Chief Yahoo when the new CEO comes in. All Things Digital has posted the email Jerry sent out to the company; I will include […]
Google CEO Eric Schmidt may have endorsed Barack Obama for president, but that doesn’t mean he wants to work in the Obama administration. According to Reuters, Schmidt told CNBC that he would not take on the role of “technology czar” if Obama were to ask him. “I love working at Google and I’m very happy […]
Everyone at Yahoo must be totally exhausted — perhaps most of all CEO Jerry Yang. It’s probably apprpriate to now use modifiers such as “beleaguered” or “embattled” to describe Yang. Mike Arrington has called for Yang to be replaced, as have others before him. After the termination of the Google paid search deal yesterday, more […]
Yahoo announced (pdf) Q3 revenues this afternoon. Search revenues and performance-based display ads were up. However, “premium display” (CPM) was down. Revenues were $1.786 billion, a (tiny) one percent increase, vs. $1.768 billion in the same period last year. The company stressed that consumer page views and engagement were up. Yet Yahoo confirmed that it […]
With Yahoo’s stock nearing its 52 week low, conspiracy theorists might think that the Financial Times report about the resumption of merger talks between AOL and Yahoo was based on news leaked with the intention of boosting Yahoo and/or TimeWarner shares. However, it appears that discussions which began to fend off Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo […]
Yahoo has announced the formation of a new advisory council. Yahoo has named this council the Digital Advisory Council and it is made up of “industry executives from its agency and advertiser partners.” The council will give Yahoo feedback on search advertiser plus digital media and online advertising. The council will meet for the first […]
I must have done something in a past life that now requires me, as punishment, to write about the obscure politics of Yahoo’s corporate governance on an almost daily basis. Accordingly, a recount of board votes from last Friday’s Yahoo annual shareholder meeting found that the “no” votes against most of the current board membership, […]
At last Friday’s annual Yahoo shareholder meeting, the Yahoo slate of directors was re-elected, with CEO Jerry Yang and Chariman Roy Bostock receiving 15 percent and 20 percent “no” votes. AllThingsD points out these numbers are actually better than last year in the absence of the MicroHoo controversy and proxy contest. Yahoo Director Robert A. […]
Perhaps we’re coming to the point where we’ll no longer be writing about Microsoft and Yahoo and their failed courtship. We’ll see. Today Yahoo survived its long-anticipated shareholder meeting. It’s detailed in this CNET blog post. At the conclusion of the meeting, Yahoo issued a statement that its slate of directors was elected, following the […]
Reuters reports that Gordon Crawford of Capital Research and Management, one of Yahoo’s largest shareholders, has apparently said that he may not support the existing Yahoo board at Friday’s annual shareholder meeting. The only trouble is that Yahoo’s settlement with Carl Icahn removes the ability for Crawford and other disgruntled shareholders to vote for alternatives […]
As Greg noted earlier, Carl Ichan was seeking control of Yahoo’s board. Instead, Yahoo and Ichan came up with a compromise, giving Ichan 3 of the 11 seats on Yahoo’s board. Eight members of the board will stand for reelection, including Yang. Robert Kotick will not be up for reelection. The board will expand to […]
The never-ending MicroHoo drama has provided virtual reams of blog posts and endless fodder for speculation. The latest installment involves the question of whether Carl Icahn’s proxy battle for control of Yahoo’s board will see any success. In case you joined this story late, institutional shareholders are frustrated by Yahoo’s unwillingness to take the original […]
In the latest and perhaps strangest escalation of name calling and “he-said/she-said” accusations, Yahoo, Yahoo insurgent shareholder Carl Icahn, and Microsoft have all issued dueling press releases in the wake of the latest Yahoo rejection of the latest, somewhat unexpected Microsoft (now + Icahn) search takeover offer.
There’s that moment in almost any thriller, action, or horror film when you’re supposed to think everything is resolved, but the bad guy, monster, or adversarial force makes a final appearance, startling the hero and the audience. I’m not implying anything about any of the involved parties in particular, but it appears we’re in that […]
Lots of action for SearchBiz today; let’s start with Yahoo. Fortune reprints a purported Yahoo employee email that is very upbeat and flies in the face of the gloom and doom analysis going on in the blogs. Meanwhile, TechCrunch reports on another executive loss at the company, while Carl “proxy fight” Icahn uses his blog […]
Google has finally filled the CFO spot being vacated by George Reyes, the outgoing CFO who has been with the company since roughly 2002 (pre-IPO). The new CFO (and SVP) is Patrick Pichette, who was President of Operations at Bell Canada.
In a bit of irony, Microsoft-owned Avenue A/Razorfish’s search VP Matt Greitzer said that the recently announced Google-Yahoo paid search pact “is going to be good news for advertisers.” Greitzer subsequently qualified (or might have been asked to qualify) his early enthusiasm for the deal by suggesting that it could result in higher prices for […]