Seeking to blunt attacks from Carl Icahn, the company goes to shareholders
MarketWatch Jun 26, 08 8:09 AM CDT
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Yahoo yesterday launched an offensive against billionaire Carl Icahn’s attempt to displace the board, detailing in a letter to shareholders why accepting Microsoft’s alternative $8-billion search-only deal would have diminished Yahoo’s value and hurt the company strategically, reports MarketWatch. CEO Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock said the proposal, in which Microsoft would have invested $8 billion in Yahoo, would have tied Yahoo to Microsoft for 10 years.
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Costs soar as sought-after
project managers
head for private sector
New York Times Jun 25, 08 2:15 AM CDT
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Greater "geek cachet" and higher pay is diverting engineering managers from the military into places like Microsoft and Google, the New York Times reports. The result is a dearth of managers overseeing military projects, which government investigators largely blame for long delays and $295 billion in cost overruns. The shortage has forced the military to increasingly rely on consultants, who often lack the skills and incentive to hold down spending.
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OPINION
No need for theories to connect the data—data all anyone really needs
Wired Jun 24, 08 6:38 PM CDT
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The data avalanche Google made possible has buried the scientific method, Chris Anderson argues in Wired , begging the question, “What can science learn from Google?” We’re in the “Petabyte Age,” he argues, when massive amounts of data obviate need for models and theories—the imperfect, if useful, imaginings of data-starved scientists. The petabyte revolution that lets Google conquer advertising is transforming science, he says.
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Plan would help companies target ads
Wall Street Journal Jun 24, 08 12:11 PM CDT
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A new Google service will track web users’ activity to help companies target ads, raising concerns about conflict of interest, the Wall Street Journal reports. The free tool will use server data to track hits, a plan that threatens current industry giants comScore and Nielsen Online. Those paid services employ user panels and surveys, methods that can be ineffective.
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Common search terms can show 'community standards,' he says
New York Times Jun 24, 08 9:13 AM CDT
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A defense lawyer in a Florida obscenity case is trying out a new technique for determining those elusive “community standards” courts have been fighting over for years: what locals search for on Google. The resourceful attorney compared the frequency of local searches for words like “orgy” and “apple pie,” and found that searches for the former were more common, the New York Times reports. That behavior, he argues, constitutes evidence of the sort of standard a 1973 Supreme Court decision called for.
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Net giants' deep pockets could squeeze creativity, competition
New York Times Jun 23, 08 3:22 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Advertisers are spooked at net giants like Google and Microsoft throwing their weight around in the world of online advertising, the New York Times reports. With its ad deal with Yahoo drawing fire at conference in Cannes, Google “clearly wants to replace the advertising industry in its totality," says the former CEO of a big New York agency.
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Google proves you don't need advertising if consumers see you as good citizen
Advertising Age Jun 23, 08 1:56 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Google is officially the most trusted company in America, Advertising Age reports. The search giant’s rise is all the more incredible because it spends essentially nothing on advertising, and all the sweeter because it’s taking the top spot from rival Microsoft. Oil companies bring up the rear in a new poll, with Halliburton coming in dead last. The top 10:
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Issues with Android software will delay launch to 4th quarter
Wall Street Journal Jun 23, 08 11:15 AM CDT
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It turns out revolutionizing the mobile-phone industry isn’t as easy as Google thought it would be. The first phones to bear the search giant’s much-anticipated Android platform won’t ship until the fourth quarter, the Wall Street Journal reports, because carriers are having trouble customizing the software. Many despair of having Android offerings at all in 2008.
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ANALYSIS
E-tailer stays nimble as Yahoo, eBay trip into the future
Economist Jun 20, 08 4:45 PM CDT
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Yahoo, eBay, and Amazon emerged from the dot-com bust as a mighty triumvirate, but only Amazon has kept its mojo in the decade's latter stages, the Economist reports. Yahoo, the oldest of the lot at 14, shooed away Microsoft, surrendered part of its business to Google, and failed to stay current. It survives, “but on the web’s equivalent of life support."
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Long-form is attractive to site, still looking for revenue and going after directors
CNNMoney Jun 18, 08 5:56 PM CDT
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YouTube is testing some long-format videos for its site, anxious to increase the amount of ads they can display per view, CNN Money reports. The site has only a few videos longer than an hour, but is reaching out to independent directors at the Los Angeles Film festival this week.
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MySpace's marketing-friendly makeover part of sites' evolving drive to cash in
New York Times Jun 16, 08 10:07 AM CDT
(Newser)
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A makeover planned to begin Wednesday for MySpace is the latest sign of the continued struggle to make social networking the cash cow many thought it would be when News Corp. bought the site three years ago, the New York Times reports. MySpace's user base has grown from 16 million to more than 118 million since—but still falling short of profit targets.
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Email, IMs keep employees available and distracted
New York Times Jun 14, 08 11:25 AM CDT
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Google, Microsoft, Intel, and IBM are partnering are on a new initiative to help workers distracted by emails and instant messages improve their productivity, the New York Times reports. The Information Overload Research Group, a nonprofit launching next month, will devise cultural and technological solutions to reduce the digital deluge that’s costing firms $650 billion a year in productivity.
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analysis
CEO must pave way
for struggling company as investors look on
CNET Jun 13, 08 10:08 AM CDT
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As Yahoo and Google prepare for a new search-ad deal, it’s all up to CEO Jerry Yang, writes Charles Cooper for CNET. Will Yang be the next Steve Jobs, pulling a struggling company back to the spotlight—or will he fade like his Yahoo predecessors? The afreement "may turn out to be a clever move if it fosters the two companies' respective strength in search and display advertising," Cooper writes.
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