5 O’Clock Roundup: Microsoft CFO out, new Google ads, an $85 million fraud?
Here’s the latest action:
Canopy Financial is accused of fraud — The health IT company, which raised $85 million in venture capital, allegedly made fraudulent financial statements, even forging some with fake KPMG letterhead. Spectrum Equity Investors may have taken the biggest loss on their recent $62.5 million investment in the company, TechCrunch reports.
Microsoft chief financial officer Chris Liddell to step down – It’s not clear why he is leaving, but he will be replaced by Peter Klein, the CFO of Microsoft’s business division. Liddell oversaw the company’s cost-cutting efforts and mass layoffs this year. His departure letter said he was looking at opportunities beyond that of a CFO, suggesting he may want the top job of CEO.
We get a step closer to legally replacing snail mail – Goodmail Systems Inc. is partnering with Epostmarks Inc. to launch a product, Postmarked Email, that’s recognized and has the protection of the U.S. Postal Service. That will make emails handled by this service the legal equivalent of physical mail. This will help business cut costs associated with physical mail.
Gmail starts supporting attachments even if you’re offline – Google implements one of its most-requested features for e-mail. You can attach all kinds of files except for inline images (which appear in the body of the e-mail). Take that, Microsoft Outlook!
More speculation on what’s going on inside Rupert Murdoch’s noggin – The News Corp. mogul’s threats to de-index his content from Google are still circulating about the internets. AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher suspects there are a few motives — he’s got to find a replacement for the Google revenue deal around MySpace so he’s threatening with a stick, or he wants to shake down Microsoft for cash in exchange for being accessible exclusively from Bing (unlikely), or he really means it and is willing to suffer the drop in traffic.
Google’s search ads are going beyond blue links: The search giant unveiled a number of ad formats that could rest alongside query results.
Some will have video.
Some will have more links.
Some will have maps.
Some will have photos like a catalog.
Some will have comparisons.
But above all, Google says they will be relevant to search terms.
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About the Author, Kim-Mai Cutler
Kim-Mai was born and raised a stone's throw from Apple headquarters in Cupertino by a devout Hewlett-Packard family. After attending UC Berkeley, Kim-Mai worked for Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires in New York, Los Angeles, London and Buenos Aires. Follow her on Twitter at @kimmaicutler, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.