Icahn haz Yahoo board resignation
Carl Icahn, the Yahoo investor who attempted a hostile takeover of the company last year, has resigned from the board of directors.
Icahn’s move against Yahoo’s board, especially then-chief executive Jerry Yang, was prompted by the failure of the struggling company to reach an acquisition deal… Continue Reading
Yahoo apologizes for lap dancers at Taiwan Hack Day
Yahoo apologized for bringing scantily clad dancers onstage at its most recent Hack Day in Taiwan over the weekend.
Chris Yeh, who is head of Yahoo’s Developer Network, wrote:
As many folks have rightly pointed out, the “Hack Girls” aspect of our Taiwan Hack Day is not… Continue Reading
Google poaching Yahoo engineers in public
Mountain View’s largest ad network with a search engine attached is looking to hire more software experts. Specifically, Google wants to hire one or more “excellent Yahoo engineer(s) with solid experience in search.”
Normally, Silicon Valley companies hire recruiters to identify and solicit senior technical people…. Continue Reading
5 O’Clock Roundup: Bartz would’ve taken Microsoft buyout, Peter Kafka trumps Yoko Ono
New Yahoo CEO Bartz says she would have accepted Microsoft’s 2008 offer to buy the company – “Do you think I’m stupid?” Carol Bartz blurted out in that sassy way bored journalists love on CBNC’s Squawk Box Thursday. Now that Yahoo has rebuffed Microsoft and installed… Continue Reading
Yahoo launches Flickr iPhone app, plus Yahoo Finance, Fantasy Football
Yahoo has announced three new mobile apps this morning for some of its most popular properties. Click the links below to find and install them.
Flickr for Mobile (iPhone / iPod Touch only) — This free iPhone app lets you upload, share, and tag photos and… Continue Reading
5 O’Clock Roundup: UK’s new largest telco, Yahoo CEO dumps stock, ethics wonking over David Pogue
Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom will merge their UK operations, forming the Brits’ largest operator — O2 will soon be second to the merged carrier, which will have a combined market share of 38%. The Wall Street Journal reports what you’re already thinking: ”The deal… Continue Reading
Yahoo SearchMonkey keeps chugging as Bing looms
Since last month’s announcement that Microsoft’s Bing search engine will be powering Yahoo search, it’s unclear how exactly Yahoo’s search technology will transform, especially since the switch won’t happen until the technical details get worked out and federal regulatory agencies approve the deal. But despite… Continue Reading
Yahoo acquires Maktoob, jumps into fast-growing Arabic ad market
While Internet ad spending has fallen off in North America and Europe, the Arab online ad market is still growing between 25 and 50 percent per year. That’s the claim Yahoo’s senior vice president of emerging markets, Keith Nilsson (pictured) made at a press conference… Continue Reading
The delusion of the perfect product
I’m going to tell you something you may already know: There is no such thing as a perfect product.
While it’s a pretty obvious fact, it’s still something that any manager can (and often does) forget – and the results can be like quicksand for the… Continue Reading
Roundup: Milken launches business advice site, Palm blowhard proves wrong, Microsoft goes on a “permanent diet”
Michael Milken-backed business advice site goes live — Bizmore is a new businessperson-to-businessperson advice site aimed at small business and small enterprise execs. The site, which I’ll disclose that I worked on for all of three days last year, aims to fill a perceived gap… Continue Reading
Blog millionaire Jason Calacanis offers best analysis of Yahoo / Microsoft deal
The baby-faced, fast-talking entrepreneur, who edited Silicon Alley Reporter during Web 1.0 and sold Engadget and some other blogs to AOL for more than $25 million in his Web 2.0 comeback, lacks only one thing to make him a star business pundit: An editor.
VentureBeat can… Continue Reading
Microsoft and Yahoo turn on the buzzword firehose
Microsoft and Yahoo are shaking up the web search landscape today with their just-announced partnership. But before returning you to our regularly scheduled business analysis, I’d like to take a moment to celebrate the way Microsoft and Yahoo shared the news. Normally, talking about PR… Continue Reading
Questions not answered on Microsoft / Yahoo deal
Despite the large amount of text coming from Yahoo about its ten-year search deal with Microsoft, there are a few questions still nagging the VentureBeat staff. We don’t expect to get answers, but we need to get the questions out there anyway.
1. What happens to… Continue Reading
Twitterers mixed on Bing getting big through Microsoft / Yahoo deal
One reason Twitter is so fascinating is that conversations don’t stick to topics the mass media considers important. This morning, there’s not much tweeting about the business details of Microsoft’s deal with Yahoo to take over its search engine and search advertising sales. Far more… Continue Reading
Yahoo / Microsoft 110% rumor nixed
[Update: Last night, AllThingsD -- usually a reliable source on Yahoo stories -- reported that Microsoft would give Yahoo 110% of the ad revenue it collected by selling ads against its Bing search engine on Yahoo sites. Instead, the official press release on the deal... Continue Reading
Traders reward Microsoft, punish Yahoo for deal
“This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry,” Carol Bartz said in her prepared statement about Yahoo’s agreement to turn over the bulk of its search and advertising business to Microsoft. Day traders don’t seem to agree. YHOO shares… Continue Reading
Roundup: Sprint / Virgin, Microsoft / Yahoo, VentureBeat on Techmeme
What does the Sprint-Virgin hookup actually mean for cellular customers? — “The answer is … probably nothing,” claims my fellow New York Times Gadgetwise blogger Roy Furchgott. As a guy who reports doggedly on the wireless industry, Roy’s immediate response to the deal is that it… Continue Reading
Yahoo confirms that it’s buying Xoopit
Yahoo just published a blog post confirming yesterday’s reports that it plans to buy Xoopit, the startup that adds social and media-sharing tools to email .
What’s the reasoning? Well, if Yahoo’s post is to be believed, this deal is all about photos:
With the integration of… Continue Reading
Report: Yahoo acquires Xoopit; will Yahoo Mail get even more social?
Yahoo is about to acquire Xoopit, a startup that brings social tools into email programs like Yahoo Mail and Gmail, for $20 million, according to multiple press reports.
The Wall Street Journal and BoomTown (both owned by Dow Jones, incidentally) have reported on the deal —… Continue Reading
Tech sector flying low but gunning for takeoff
Valley companies’ quarterly results have made it hard to plot a trend this week. Apple reported a quarter that the company’s PR pros have dubbed “the best non-holiday quarter in Apple’s history.” By contrast, Yahoo’s revenue headed down for the third straight quarter. Google hung in… Continue Reading