Search News Desk

SilkRoad Rakes in More Funding Ahead of IPO

Fri, 18 May 2012 14:42:00 EDT

SilkRoad Technology, the aptly named competitor of, say, the up-and-coming Workday that peddles cloud-based social talent management solutions, has topped up its funding with another reportedly oversubscribed $35 million round. That makes an incredible $162 million since 2003. The latest money comes from new investors Keating Capital and NTT Finance along with existing investors Intel Capital, Crosslink Capital, Foundation Capital, Azure Capital and Tenaya Capital, among others. It’s supposed to support worldwide expansion and product innovation ahead of a potential IPO this year or next.

Facebook: $38 to $38 in 20 Minutes

Fri, 18 May 2012 12:35:00 EDT

Facebook, which had jaundiced New Yorkers congregating in Times Square to see what would happen, opened a half-hour late Friday at around 11:30am at $42.05, up around 11%, hovered there briefly and then proceeded to drop back to its $38 IPO price within 20 minutes. It then started to get a little support and, without going negative (yet), at noontime in New York the stock was trading at $39 and change. Its execution leaves Linux Systems’ phenomenal record IPO rise untouched. The open was reportedly delayed because of trouble canceling and changing orders and after the open the Nasdaq was having trouble delivering execution confirmations, which may be impacting the stock’s performance. More broadly it’s a terrible day on Wall Street.

Defining Hybrid Cloud at Cloud Expo New York

Fri, 18 May 2012 09:45:00 EDT

Hybrid is an end state for most customers as it balances choice and the needs of the business against cost, flexibility and risk. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Mark Clifton, Director Cloud Solutions at Dell Commercial Business Unit, will discuss Hybrid cloud adoption as well as the issues around data portability, integration and security that need to be proactively addressed.

Google’s Knowledge Graph Bringing Semantics to the Masses

Fri, 18 May 2012 08:30:00 EDT

With Facebook’s IPO upon us, the timing of Google’s latest press blitz should probably be regarded with a healthy dose of suspicion, but the unveiling of the Knowledge Graph is an important step in Google’s journey — and a reaffirmation of values diluted by recent dalliances in social networking. Writing for The Atlantic, Alexis [...]

Facebook IPO Likely at $38 a Share: WSJ

Thu, 17 May 2012 16:10:00 EDT

Facebook decision makers and their bankers were reportedly closeted together shortly before the markets closed in New York Thursday trying to decide whether to price Facebook’s IPO at $38 or $39 a share, according to the Wall Street Journal, which evidently had a glass – in the way of a source – pressed to the conference room door. Although nothing is definite yet, evidently the $39 price might break the camel’s back. They reportedly tried it on investors and got told no. At $38 Facebook would be valued at a record $104 billion for an IPO and raise $18.4 billion. It would take $41 a share for the social networking site to best Visa’s record-setting IPO in 2008. Of course Visa had a proven business model. Facebook doesn’t.

Speech and Sound: The Next "Killer Paradigm Shift"..?

Thu, 17 May 2012 10:15:00 EDT

There was a time, not so very long ago, when IT directors and chief information officers dismissed the Internet as something of a passing fad. Somehow though, things took off pretty well with the whole web thing didn't they? Mobile telephony has also grown to a level of dominance that we could never have predicted when it first started appearing around 30 years ago. Then came the tablet... just another fad right? Well, the first few were, but then "Magic Steve" produced the tablet we all love and cherish didn't he? (OK yes - I know Android is doing well in this space too, you don't need to write in)... so what's coming next?

Facebook Tickles Its IPO Again

Thu, 17 May 2012 08:45:00 EDT

Facebook Wednesday upped the number of shares that will be sold when it IPOs Friday by almost 25% or 84 million shares to about 421.2 million shares of Class A common stock. The overallotment has also been increased from 50.6 million to 63.2 million. If all 484.4 million shares move, it’d estimated $18.4 billion could change hands, up from $14.7 billion. The added shares will be coming from early investors. The move, which gains Facebook nothing, will also cut CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s dominant voting power from 57.3% to around 55.8%. Pricing remains, at least for the moment, at between $34 and $38 a share. It won’t be locked down until Thursday night when it could be increased again. The range was between $28 and $35 until Tuesday and the stock has traded as high as $44 in the secondary markets recently.

Java Jury Deliberating Google’s Patent Infringement

Wed, 16 May 2012 08:15:00 EDT

Oracle’s Java patent infringement case against Google and Android went to the jury Tuesday afternoon. The jury, which delivered only a partial verdict on copyright infringement last week, deciding that Google infringed but unable to say whether that infringement made “fair use” of the IP, is now down to 11 jurors. One juror reportedly called in from the San Francisco Bay Bridge with car trouble, unlikely to make court at all. The judge excused her from ever coming back, ZDnet said, and pushed on. Only two patents are at issue. In its closing statement Oracle accused Google of being reckless and willful and told the jury that words like fair use, open source and clean room had no meaning in this phase of the trial, only the fact that Google’s Dalvik virtual machine works just like Oracle’s Sun-inherited Java virtual machine and that Google lacked a license. Google continued to maintain that it designed Android from scratch – though that’s not a defense in patent infringement cases – and different from the claims of the two patents. Over the weekend the judge told Oracle the damages phase of the trial couldn’t wait for a retrial of the fair use issue. Oracle, in turn, said it wouldn’t accept a bench verdict on damages and is insisting on asking for disgorgement of infringer’s profits on a few lines of copyright infringement although the judge has tried to disabuse Oracle’s lawyers of the notion that that theory is going to translate into a finding worth billions or even hundreds of million of dollars. It’s unclear when the judge will decide if APIs are copyrightable or not – but currently it won’t be in time for part three of the trial on damages – and until he does there’s no possible liability. According to Law.com Oracle lawyer David Boies tried to strike a deal with Judge Alsup. “He said Alsup should put off the damages phase of the trial until after the judge resolves the burning legal questions, chiefly whether the 37 API packages are copyrightable. And should Alsup rule against Oracle then Boies said he would agree to forgo a jury award on infringer’s profits and would let Alsup award any statutory damages on those two lines of infringed code. But should Oracle prevail in the legal finding that the API packages are copyrightable material then Oracle wants a shot at the more lucrative damages in a jury trial….Alsup seemed to indicate Boies’ idea might be doable if Google agreed. He asked for more briefing.”

Facebook Ups Its IPO Price

Wed, 16 May 2012 07:00:00 EDT

You knew this was gonna happen, right? Facebook has repriced its IPO upwards from $28-$35 a share to $34-$38 a share giving it a valuation of $92 billion-$104 billion, a neighborhood more to its liking than the original $77 billion-$96 billion. The actual price won’t be set until Thursday night. Bloomberg claimed the company’s IPO roadshow was producing less institutional demand for the stock than expected because of less-than-rosy revenue forecasts last week – though the increase in the price would seem to belie that statement – and the AP and CNBC did a survey that found half the people polled thought the original asking price was too high – more among active investors.

Charting the Adoption of Cloud at Cloud Expo New York

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:00:00 EDT

In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Marvin Wheeler, Open Data Center Alliance Chairman, will discuss the success the organization has had in charting the requirements for broad-scale enterprise adoption of the cloud and how 2012 is forecast to be the tipping point for adoption of cloud resources based on ODCA requirements. He will highlight the progress of usage model publication, discuss the prioritization of member requirements and provide insight into Alliance tools to drive POC solution testing and RFP adoption. Delegates will walk away with insight into the organization’s value and real world knowledge that will help shape organizational cloud planning.

Thompson Told Yahoo Board He Has Cancer: WSJ

Tue, 15 May 2012 07:45:00 EDT

Departed Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson, 54, told the board before he resigned over the weekend that he was just diagnosed with thyroid cancer and was starting treatment, the Wall Street Journal said overnight. It isn’t clear exactly where this piece is supposed to fit in the puzzle but if it’s a sympathy bid it may not have worked. All Things Digital says Yahoo is claiming he’s gone for “cause” over ethics violations because of his phony computer science degree – which appeared in Yahoo’s regulatory filings – and won’t be getting much in the way of severance. Heidrick & Struggles apparently didn’t vet his resume when it placed him at eBay years ago but kept a copy of the resume he submitted back then and was able to shoot down his claim that the great headhunting firm had introduced the fabrication. It appears that was Thompson’s last possible defense.

Yahoo’s New CEO is Toast: WSJ

Mon, 14 May 2012 07:00:00 EDT

Yahoo’s so-called ResumeGate has reportedly claimed its short-lived CEO Scott Thompson. In the midst of Mother’s Day – when, as she says, everybody’s at brunch – All Things Digital’s ace reporter Kara Swisher, who seems to know everything that goes on at Yahoo, said Sunday – based on what she’s been told by “multiple sources” – that Thompson’s stepping down after a mere four months on the job.

Windows RT Raises Antitrust Specter & It Isn’t Even Out Yet

Mon, 14 May 2012 07:00:00 EDT

This sound familiar? Mozilla is complaining that Microsoft is impeding its Firefox web browser from getting on the devices being designed to carry the unseen next-generation Windows for ARM chip, now officially called Windows RT. RT, which has a Metro environment for tablets and phones, as well as a classic Windows interface, won’t support legacy apps like the x86 version of Windows 8 and programs that run on it will only be available Apple-like from Microsoft’s store. Developers who support RT will only be able to use the Windows runtime stack and standard APIs. Microsoft claims that’s for reasons of security, performance and battery life. It’s supposedly typical of ARM. But it means third-party browsers, which need more than the standard APIs, won’t be supported in the classic desktop mode.

Yahoo Pushed to Name New Interim CEO

Thu, 10 May 2012 09:00:00 EDT

Dissident shareholder Daniel Loeb, head of the Third Point hedge fund that uncovered Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson’s resume lie, sent the Yahoo board another letter Wednesday saying it was “farcical” for them to be spending more time deciding whether to fire him than it had deciding to hire him. He wants Thompson out and recommends that Yahoo CFO Tim Morse or global media head Ross Levinsohn replace him on an interim basis – unless they were privy to Thompson’s little deception – lest Yahoo “flounder under a discredited leader for an undefined period.” Loeb also wants his slate installed on the Yahoo board, one of whom would lead a search for a new CEO. Meanwhile, eBay CEO John Donahoe, Thompson’s former boss, lent Thompson some support but noted that eBay’s filing were always accurate even if its web site and PR material weren’t. He said, “Our legal filings were taken care of by our legal department.” So it would seem then that Yahoo legal department does shoddy work too.

Cloud Expo New York: Leverage Cloud Technology to Power Your Office

Thu, 10 May 2012 05:30:00 EDT

Want to save your business money? Of course you do. What if we could show you a way to use the cloud in and around your office, get your workforce mobile, make communication faster and easier, and reduce OPEX? We can. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Jason Silverglate, CEO of Fortress ITX and its subsidiaries, will present a “how to” analysis of what cloud technology can do for the modern office, of any size. He will show how incorporating hosted PBX, hosted email, and even hosted desktop (virtual desktop infrastructure) methodologies can help optimize office efficiency and save your enterprise money.

Google Adds More Semantic Smarts to its Search Engine

Thu, 10 May 2012 05:30:00 EDT

Google seems to be eking out a major new tweak to its search results. Reportedly spotted by several users, the search pages are now displaying semantic data nestled to the right of the regular results. Such information tries to tie in relevant facts related to the subject of your search rather than just providing links [...]

Yahoo Has Until Noon to Fire Its CEO - or Else

Mon, 07 May 2012 11:33:00 EDT

The Yahoo board has until high noon today (Monday) to fired CEO Scott Thompson for cause and to can his confederate in the now infamous “ResumeGate,” board member Patti Hart, or else. Yahoo’s biggest shareholder Third Point, which is also engaged in a proxy fight with the company over the composition of Yahoo’s board, delivered this ultimatum in a letter to that board Friday. It didn’t say what the “or else” would be merely that if it didn’t fire the pair of them Third Point “will consider it grounds for further action.” Third Point said blowing off “years of inaccurate SEC filings, web site biographies and, most likely, D&O questionnaires and curriculum vitae” as “inadvertent errors” – an expression it ascribes to Thompson – was the “height of arrogance” and “insulting to shareholders.”

Google Wins the Battle of the Interior Department

Mon, 07 May 2012 06:00:00 EDT

The US Department of the Interior has moved its e-mail business to Google, which sued when the agency gave Microsoft a five-year $59.3 million cloud-based e-mail contract in 2010 claiming the department’s research was “stale” and Microsoft’s security wasn’t certified for government use. It’s going with Google Apps for Government and Gmail instead. It will cover upwards of 90,000 seats. The agency’s been reconsidering its original decision since late last year. The deal is worth $34.9 million over seven years to Google and its reseller Onix Networking. Microsoft said it “will engage with our partners and DOI to review and understand the reasons for this decision.”

Activist Shareholder Finds Yahoo CEO Fudged His Resume

Fri, 04 May 2012 09:15:00 EDT

Ah, it seems that Yahoo’s new master Scott Thompson fudged his resume and claimed that his bachelors’ degree from Stonehill College was in accounting and computer science when it was really only in accounting. The college didn’t even offer a computer science degree when he was there. Yahoo has confirmed the “inadvertent error” which was made in the filings it sent to the SEC. According to All Things Digital, the “error” goes back 10 years to eBay where he became president of PayPal and could become a real problem for Yahoo. Third Point, the major Yahoo investor that has started a proxy fight to seat its own people on Yahoo’s board, is circulating the letter it wrote Thursday to the Yahoo board saying the padded credentials undermine Thompson’s credibility as a technology expert and reflect poorly on his character. It says, “Now more than ever Yahoo! investors need a trustworthy CEO.”

The Web – Changing the Way We Work

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 06:00:00 EDT

The web is fundamentally changing the way we work – is your company ready? Intrigued by how more than 4 million businesses are using Google’s cloud to work in the future? Join us as we bring Google’s highly anticipated annual gathering of business leaders together to hear: Industry experts shed light on emerging business models Customers share stories of business transformation Our product experts unveil new products Our executives answer your questions

Twitter Starts an Anti-Patent Suit Crusade

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:00:00 EDT

With the dint of the patent wars in its ears Twitter has turned pacifist. It figures engineers and designers should control the decision to use their work in infringement suits. It’s put together a draft Innovators Patent Agreement (IPA) that commits it to using patents only for defensive purposes. It won’t use them in offensive litigation without the inventor’s permission. That obligation, however, doesn’t apply for some reason to companies that have sued anyone over patents in the last 10 years, leaving a lot of companies Twitter could up and sue without anybody’s blessing. It also doesn’t apply in cases of a pre-emptive strike.

New Analytics Opportunities for Smart Systems & Cloud at Cloud Expo NY

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 15:15:00 EDT

In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Schahram Dustdar, Advisory Board member at Pacific Controls, will discuss how smart systems and machine-to-machine communications will evolve in the era of cloud computing and the critical role analytics will play in value creation. Schahram Dustdar is an Advisory Board member at Pacific Controls, one of the leading information and communication technology (ICT) enabled machine-to-machine (M2M) automation and control solutions providers globally.

Cloud Expo NY: New Business Models for End-to-End Smart Cloud Solutions

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 13:00:00 EDT

In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Glen Allmendinger, Advisory Board member at Pacific Controls, will discuss the new business models and profit models that the convergence of cloud computing and smart systems are informing. Glen Allmendinger is Advisory Board member at Pacific Controls, one of the leading information and communication technology (ICT) enabled machine-to-machine (M2M) automation and control solutions providers globally. Cloud Expo 2012 New York, June 11–14, 2012, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.

AWS Offers Un-Google Search

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 05:45:00 EDT

The Amazon cloud now has a beta Amazon CloudSearch and it’s notably not Google or anybody else’s search. It leverages the A9 technology that powers search for Amazon.com so it’s described as fast, fully managed and highly scalable. Amazon says businesses can integrate it into their AWS-hosted web sites and applications. According to AWS VP Adam Selipsky, “For many organizations, search plays a major role in how their customers experience their product or service – businesses need a sophisticated search capability to help their customers find the right information quickly. Implementing rich search functionality has traditionally been very expensive and time consuming due to the complexity of the technology required. Amazon CloudSearch frees customers from worrying about all of these complexities so they can easily launch powerful search functionality and pay only for the resources they use.”

Google’s Stock to Split 2 for 1

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:45:00 EDT

Rather than pay a cash dividend, which is culturally repugnant to so-called growth stocks, Google said late Thursday, after posting better-than-expected results, that it would repay its stockholders, who must be dizzy from all its up and down movement, by giving them more non-voting stock, effectively a two-for-one stock split. In a letter on the Google web site Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin restated their control over the massive company because they own the only voting stock, which won’t be part of the split. Google has its eye on Apple’s recent unthinkable move to institute a dividend because of its gargantuan cash hoard.

OK, So Here’s the Plan: Yahoo’s CEO

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 08:20:00 EDT

Yahoo’s still wet-behind-the-ears CEO Scott Thompson, who just laid off 2,000 Yahoos to save $375 million a year, has laid out the gist of the expected reorg he has in mind for the joint, and naturally his internal memo escaped into the wild. Whether there’s a redemptive strategy in it to stop Yahoo’s revenues from being chipped away by Facebook and Google rather than just an exercise in moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic isn’t clear. In the memo Thompson confirmed what is already widely known: Yahoo’s Chief Product Officer Blake Irving is leaving and taking the centralized products group with him. The company is supposed to be reorganizing around customers and starting May 1 it will be divided into three operating groups – Consumer, Regions and Technology – “charged with delivering the best customer experiences.”

How to Make Your Chrome Browser Work Faster

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 05:00:00 EDT

Any Web browser has local cache, and everyone knows that its goal is to minimize the number of network requests by caching locally some resources like images or even the program code. The google.com home page opens blazing fast? Sure, because the browser loads it from your disk cache, not from the network. host=yakovfain.com&blog=16177610&post=7282&subd=yakovfain&ref=&feed=1" width="1" height="1" />

Yahoo to Can 2,000

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 08:00:00 EDT

Yahoo said Wednesday morning that its restructuring would cost an initial 2,000 Yahoos their jobs. That's ~14% of its workforce. The pink slips are just going out and further cuts are thought to be in store for the company. In a statement CEO Scott Thompson said, "Today's actions are an important next step toward a bold, new Yahoo! - smaller, nimbler, more profitable and better equipped to innovate as fast as our customers and our industry require. We are intensifying our efforts on our core businesses and redeploying resources to our most urgent priorities. Our goal is to get back to our core purpose - putting our users and advertisers first - and we are moving aggressively to achieve that goal. Unfortunately, reaching that goal requires the tough decision to eliminate positions. We deeply value our people and all they've contributed to Yahoo!."

Cloud Expo NY: The Growth and Consolidation of Big Data in the Cloud

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 07:45:00 EDT

IT departments are experiencing storage capacity needs doubling every 12-18 months, 50x the amount of information and 75x the number of files.** IT managers are dealing with growing constraints on space, power and costs to manage their data center infrastructure. Intel is helping businesses and users realize the benefits of cloud computing technology by working to develop open standards that operate across disparate IT infrastructures and by delivering cloud-based architectures that enable federated, automated and client-aware cloud services. The foundation for this vision will be defined by an open approach that delivers best of breed technologies + flexibility + choice from data center infrastructure to client devices. Intel is bringing together a broad network of leading hardware and solution providers to build and enhance cloud solutions that are interoperable, multi-vendor and embrace open standards. **Source: “Digital Universe Study,” 2011, IDC.

HP’s Big Data Toys Not Playing Well Together?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:30:00 EDT

Hmm, that’s curious. Fortune noticed that Vertica, the analytic database management software that HP bought early last year for ~$350 million, has been quietly shifted out from under Autonomy and its boss Mike Lynch, who was given information management to run when HP closed on the $10.2 billion Autonomy acquisition in October. In November HP announced its Next Generation Information Platform, a Big Data analytics platform based on Autonomy’s unstructured data analytics engine, IDOL 10, and Vertica’s analytics database. The platform combines structured and unstructured data into a unified workflow. Vertica is now under ex-Microsoftie Bill Veghte, who’s running HP’s software unit. Wonder what that says for Mike Lynch.

Yahoo Investor Pegs Company as ‘Illogical Alice in Wonderland’

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 07:45:00 EDT

Yahoo said late Sunday that it has named three independent board members in an attempt to foil Third Point, its largest stockholder, from staging a proxy fight at the next stockholders meeting whenever that is. Third Point said it offered “several significant compromises to strike a deal and avoid a proxy contest. Today, the board has shown yet again that they are unable to execute deals that are in the company’s best interests. Sadly for shareholders – who will once more bear the costs – the consequence of the board’s refusal to accept Third Point’s shareholder-friendly proposals will be a time-consuming and distracting proxy contest that the company can ill-afford….In the absence of independent shareholder oversight, the Yahoo boards of the past five years have given shareholders five CEOs and strategic plans in as many years and seriously damaged the value of the core business, a fact masked only by the increasing value of Yahoo’s Asian assets. Since the board has left us with no choice but to take our case directly to our fellow shareholders.”

Zetta.net Announces Appliance-Less Online Backup

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:32:21 EDT

Zetta.net, a provider of enterprise-grade online backup and disaster recovery solutions, has unveiled the next generation of its flagship cloud service. Zetta DataProtect 3.0 brings enterprise-grade cloud data protection for small and mid-size enterprises in a single managed service that requires no appliances and can be deployed within minutes. It simplifies and automates backups of critical IT assets and enables businesses to access and instantly recover critical files, directories or entire file systems from anywhere via the Web. Advanced security, high redundancy and a high-performance architecture deliver true enterprise-grade data protection that scales to meet customers' business requirements.

Opscode Gets $19.5 Million Round

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 07:15:00 EDT

Open source cloud infrastructure automation specialist Opscode has gotten a $19.5 million C round from new backer Ignition Partners with follow-on investments from existing financiers Battery Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The new money means the not-yet-four-year-old start-up has seen a total of $33 million in funding. It says the round was oversubscribed. Ignition partner and former Microsoft CFO John Connors will join the Opscode board. CEO Mitch Hill said the start-up is seeing rapid enterprise adoption and attracting Fortune 500s at an “unprecedented rate for a company at our stage.”

Deep Job Cuts in Store for Yahoo: All Things Digital

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 09:30:00 EST

The Dow Jones blog All Things Digital, which is known to have the very best Yahoo sources, said Monday that the company’s new CEO Scott Thompson is going to massively restructure the joint, slashing thousands from the payroll in search of growth. Thompson has hired the Boston Consulting Group to help figure out how to make Yahoo, well, less of a yahoo. The blog thinks Yahoo’s large products organization could be decimated along with PR, marketing, research, marginal businesses, weaker regional efforts and, it suggests, its army of software contractors. It says it was told, “It is going to be deep.”

Yahoo Demands Facebook License its Patents or Else

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST

Another front opened in the mushrooming patent wars late Monday when Yahoo accused Facebook of infringing its patents and threatened to sue if Facebook doesn’t pay licensing fees. Facebook is in the early throes of a giant $75 billion-$100 billion IPO, which is supposed to explain Yahoo’s timing. It’s thought Facebook may be pliable enough to settle up to avoid publicity right now. The AP remembers that Yahoo made a killing on a patent settlement with Google worth hundreds of millions of dollars right before Google went public. Facebook says it’s evaluating the claims. The companies reportedly spoke on Monday.

Yahoo-Alibaba Talks Reportedly Collapse

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST

Yahoo’s critical negotiations with Alibaba to sell part of its stake in Alibaba back to the Chinese company have collapsed according to All Things Digital, a report later confirmed by CNBC. Apparently the collapse includes Yahoo’s parallel and intertwined negotiations with Softbank to dispose of Yahoo’s piece of Yahoo Japan. Yahoo’s position in the two operations is valued at around $17 billion. Yahoo’s stock dropped 6.5% on the news. CNBC said it heard Yahoo lacked the resolve to get the complex deal done, impeded perhaps by fears the IRS would ultimately shoot it down. It was trying to cut a tax-free deal that would save it $4 billion in US taxes by trading operating assets as well as cash.

Yahoo Co-Founder Jerry Yang Decides "To Pursue Other Interests"

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:15:00 EST

After the market closed Tuesday, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, who’s been generally considered a pimple on the ass of progress since turning down Microsoft’s handsome $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo four years ago, resigned from the Yahoo board and “all other positions with the company.” That includes his board seats at Yahoo Japan and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Yahoo’s prized Asian assets, as well as his quixotic title of “chief Yahoo.” Yahoo owns 40% of Alibaba, a position valued at around $14 billion, the bulk of its current $19 billion market cap. It’s unclear what provoked the surprise but popular move. A beleaguered Yahoo, which has been steadily losing to Google and Facebook, is supposed to be in the middle of strategic review that could see it dispose of its Asian interests and sell a minority stake in its core business to private equity. Alibaba has said it would like to buy the whole company. Yang may have tried to torpedo the company’s progress with these transactions. Activist shareholder Third Point LLC has wanted Yang gone and has been threatening a proxy fight. In a letter to Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock, Yang, 43, wrote, “The time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo.” He owns about 3.8% of the company. His departure, which may also signal the departure of Bostock and other board members, may give Yahoo’s new CEO Scott Thompson, two weeks in the job, room to maneuver. It would be really interesting if Thompson’s taking the job was contingent on Yang leaving. Thompson was president of PayPal. Yahoo’s stock price jumped 3% to $15.90 after-hours on the news.

Google Buys More Patents Off IBM

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 06:15:00 EST

IP-short Google has gone back to the Big Blue well again for another 217 patents and patent applications. The transaction turned up in a search of the US Patent and Trademark Office’s patent assignment database the other day by SEO by the Sea, the blog that has been keeping tabs on the IP transfers that have been going on between IBM and Google for at least the last eight months. The PTO’s records show that Google has bought over 2,300 patents from IBM on undisclosed terms. The latest deal includes patents related to wireless phones and JavaScript widgets. Bill Slawski, who writes SEO by the Sea, says the 188 patents and 29 patent applications cover a “broad range of topics, such as presentation software, blade servers, data caching, server load balancing, network performance, video conferencing, e-mail administration, and instant messaging applications. A number of the patents cover specific Internet, phone and mobile phone technologies as well.” Florian Mueller, who’s been following Google’s patent travails, figures Google, with IBM’s connivance, may be building up to file suit against Oracle using IBM’s database and enterprise software IP in retaliation for Oracle’s Java suit and its recently revised (upwards) demand for $2.7 billion in patent damages alone and that’s before trebling. No figure has been put on its copyright claims. For a selected list of patents in the latest cache see www.seobythesea.com/2012/01/ibm-assigns-patent-filings-to-google/. The December 28, 2011 deal was recorded by the PTO on December 31.

Return on Information: Improving Your ROI with Google Enterprise Search

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:45:00 EST

As organizations consider the benefits of bringing high-quality search to the workplace, it’s critical to assess the various factors influencing the ROI they seek. Google search solutions can add to your ROI and boost your bottom line when searching intranets, content systems and applications.

Yahoo Reportedly Entertaining Offers for Minority Stake

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:00:00 EST

Yahoo is reportedly moving ahead with the idea of selling off a minority stake to a private equity company. The Wall Street Journal claimed Tuesday that Yahoo wants to have a deal in place by Christmas. Otherwise it will pursue other alternatives. The paper said Yahoo has gotten offers for a 20% stake from TPG Capital and a consortium consisting of Silver Lake Partners, Microsoft, and others. It said Andreessen Horowitz may join. The price is supposed to be between $16 and $18, but Yahoo wants a few bucks more and is anticipating other bids. Its shares closed Tuesday at $15.70. Its board will meet Wednesday after dinner together Tuesday. As previously reportedly Yahoo also wants to sell off its Asia holdings in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan. It's reportedly had a joint offer from Alibaba and Yahoo Japan's co-owner Softbank who would also like to buy all of Yahoo perhaps in concert with other private equity houses. Yahoo owns 40% of Alibaba and 35% of Yahoo Japan.