Right Media was acquired by Yahoo! for $680 million in April 2007. Ever since then Yahoo! has not done much with the acquired company. Clearly former Right Media CEO Mike Walrath got fed up because he decided to quit Yahoo!
Walrath was the SVP of advertising strategy when he decided to quit. Walrath said that it was time to move on with his career and he was looking forward to taking time off and working with smaller and innovative companies. Bill Wise, another Right Media executive will be filling in for Walrath.
Wise said that Yahoo! is currently trying to rebrand Right Media to focus on higher quality display advertisers. “We always thought there would be a maturation phase where Right Media would move more up market and Carol (Bartz) has come in and accelerated the road map,” stated Wise.
On October 26, 2009 Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) decided to shut down GeoCities. This took place about 10 years after Yahoo! bought GeoCities for $4.7 billion. GeoCities had gone public about one year before and was profitable. GeoCities had a bit of sentimental value for everyone that created a website in the 1990’s. I remember the first time I designed a website, I made it through GeoCities. It was around 1998 and it was South Park fan page when I was in 10th grade. Anyway GeoCities is no longer with us… or is it?
GeoCities has returned in the form of Reocities. A man named Jacques decided to download the content and websites. Then he republished the content on Reocities. About 600,000 GeoCities websites were rescued before shutting down and put on ReoCities. “On the 20th of October 2009, about a week before GeoCities was really going to close, someone else posted a link, pointing to some interesting pages. These were on an old GeoCities account, about to be erased. It wasn’t what I would call a masterpiece, and I didn’t agree with all of it, but it seemed like it was worth keeping,” wrote Jacques in a detailed post about how he pulled off the endeavor.
It is pretty fun to check out the top level “neighborhoods” listed on ReoCities and selecting random numbers. This way you can check out a piece of Internet history.
Carl Icahn joined the Board of Directors at Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) in July 2008. This was shortly after Icahn highly criticized the Yahoo! Board of Directors for their negligence in making an acquisition agreement with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). Icahn bought and sold many Yahoo! shares ever since.
The reason why Icahn is leaving the Yahoo! Board of Directors is because he wanted to spend more time on other investments he made. “I don’t believe that it is necessary at this time to have an activist on the board of Yahoo and currently my attention is focused on other matters,” stated Icahn. Carol Bartz is “doing a great job” added Icahn.
Yahoo! and Microsoft recently struck a deal too. Microsoft Corporation’s Bing.com search engine will power Yahoo!’s various online properties including the homepage Yahoo.com. The deal is still under the regulatory approval process. Icahn owns 4.5% in Yahoo! financially based on stock.
Glam Media has hired Yahoo! VP and General Manager Advertising Technology Platforms Josh Jacobs. Jacobs ran the Yahoo! display ad platform and the publisher network. At Glam, Jacobs will be working as the SVP of Brand Advertising Products & Marketing. Glam grew about 50% in display advertisement revenues over in 2009 thus far. Yahoo!’s display ad revenue actually dropped about 15%.
Glam CEO Samir Arora said that their growth is because of high engagement rates. Visitors tend to spend more time on Glam than websites such as iVillage or Conde Nast. Glam was profitable as of this past September. The company will remain profitable through the rest of the fourth quarter too.
Glam raised $125 million in funding from Information Capital LLC, Accel Partners, DFJ, DAG Ventures, Walden Venture Capital, GLG Partners, Hercules Technology, Growth Capital, Hubert Burda Media, and Mizuho Venture Capital. Glam was founded in September 2003.
Yahoo! Connected TV is a service that adds widgets to television services. Patrick Barry, the head of Connected TV has decided to leave Yahoo! because there is “too much opportunity out there not too.” Barry helped manage the partnerships that Yahoo! had with Samsung and Sony. Below is the e-mail that Barry sent as his resignation.
From: Patrick Barry
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:01:01 -0700
To: Connected Team
Cc: Tapan Bhat, XXX
Subject: Moving on
Connected TV Team,
After 5 great years here at Yahoo, it is time for me to move on to new projects and aspirations. I am tremendously proud of all we have accomplished together, from defining the world’s best user experience for interactive television, to shipping our technology platform on millions devices with some of the biggest brands in the industry. You have been an amazing team, and I will treasure the great times we have had working together to overcome challenges and make an impact for Yahoo. I remain a big believer in our vision for the future of television, and I would not be leaving now if I didn’t have faith in your ability to continue to achieve our goals and extend that vision.
Thank you for the hard work, passion and commitment over these several years. I will miss you all.
I will continue to be here through the end of the month to help make sure our plans and partnerships stay on track. Please join Tapan and I on Monday morning at 9:30 in Chutes so we can answer any questions you might have about my transition.
According to sources with AllThingsD, Yahoo! has been considering selling off Zimbra. Zimbra is an open source e-mail company that Yahoo! bought for $350 million back in 2007. Yahoo! seems to be cutting loose a lot of their assets and properties on the open market including Zimbra. Another property Yahoo! is selling includes HotJobs.
Rumor also has it that Yahoo! M&A exec Greg Mrva is responsible for selling the property. Before Yahoo! bought Zimbra, the open source e-mail web start-up was backed by Benchmark Capital, Redpoint Ventures, and Accel Partners. Zimbra founder and former CEO Satish Dharmaraj left Yahoo! left the company earlier this year to join Redpoint.
Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) is spending as much as Microsoft for their marketing campaign. Microsoft spent $100 million to reinvent their brand in order to get people to accept Windows Vista. Now Yahoo! is spending the same amount to launch a campaign called “It’s Y!ou.” The new advertising campaign was announced at the Advertising Bureau’s Mixx Expo by Yahoo! EVP and Chief Marketing Officer Elisa Steele.
It’s Y!ou is intended to focus on “My World” and “The World.” My Work will focus on an individual’s friends and interests. The World will focus on a broad interest information. The $100 million marketing campaign will also have a heavy focus on making web, news, and e-mail easier to use for current and future Yahoo! users.
“I think what happened with Yahoo is that people just decided to put a cloud over its head,” stated Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz. “Now, it’s like, if we’re going to remove the cloud, then there has to be something shiny and different. [But] Yahoo has a fantastic company, a billion dollars a year free cash flow, 600 million users around the world. When you get out of New York City and Silicon Valley, everybody loves Yahoo.”
Jim Schinella is currently the SVP for Corporate Sponsorships at Yahoo! Schinella plans to remain at the company for the rest of the year but will be stepping down after. Schinella works out of the Yahoo! New York office and has worked on several major partnerships such as a Verizon deal. Schinella joined Yahoo! in 2003, left in 2005 after becoming Global VP of Business Development, and then returned in 2007. The announcement was made internally according to AllThingsD.
This past week former Yahoo! SVP of Communications & Communities Brad Garlinghouse joined AOL as the President of Internet and mobile communications. One of Garlinghouse’s core strengths at Yahoo! was voicing his opinion about the company’s flaws. Ever since Yahoo! had their IPO, the company went on a buying binge and struggled to properly integrate companies into their properties. While Yahoo! was busy integrating companies, they lost focus on their search engine. Google quickly sprang up and took over a huge chunk of Yahoo!’s market share.
As a result, Garlinghouse wrote The Peanut Butter Manifesto while working at Yahoo! The memo can be read after the jump. At AOL, Garlinghouse will be in charge of ICQ and AIM. Garlinghouse was mulling over offers from VC firms and other start-ups since he left Yahoo! about a year ago.
Before joining AOL, Garlinghouse worked as an in-house senior advisor at Silver Lake Partners. Silver Lake was one of the investors that bought Skype from eBay for $1.9 billion. Garlinghouse supposedly participated in the Skype deal.
Garlinghouse will run AOL’s operations from the Mountain View, California campus. The Mountain View AOL office used to be the headquarters of Netscape Communications. AOL has a few hundred employees in Silicon Valley.
Yahoo! ex-President Sue Decker had stepped down back in January shortly after Yahoo! co-founder hired Carol Bartz as the new CEO. It was uncertain what Decker would do next because her dealings with Microsoft were considered to be a series of missteps. When Decker was on Yahoo!’s board, Microsoft offered the company $31 per share as part of a buyout. Decker and Yahoo! decided against the offer and now Yahoo!’s stock price is below $15 per share.
Now it has been revealed what she plans to do next. Decker will become an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Harvard Business School. At Harvard, Decker will work with students that are interested in starting their own companies. Decker will work with Professor Tom Eisenmann and Senior Lecturer Michael Roberts. She will also deliver presentations for HBS’ Immersion Experience Program (IXP).
Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) board member Carl Icahn has unloaded 12.7 million Yahoo! shares. Now his ownership in Yahoo! went from 5.4% to 4.5%. Icahn said he was taking advantage of a window period where directors and officers can sell shares.
The sale of the shares are not intended to reflect upon the long-term views Icahn has of the company. He said he was optimistic about the company’s prospects according to a filing. Icahn continues to support the Microsoft and Yahoo! deal along with the performance of Carol Bartz.
Supposedly Bartz was angry with Icahn for selling the 12.7 million shares and sent out a company e-mail. In the e-mail, Bartz tells Yahoo! employees to “get out of the sugar low – we have work to do. Stop staring at our navels, stop arguing with each other. Stop debate, debate, debate, and let’s focus on the competition.”
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has filed arbitration with the National Arbitration Forum to gain ownership of the domain name Yahoo.tel. Yahoo.tel is currently owned by a man in Spain named David Blanco.
This is the first time that a major technology company has tried to get a .tel domain name through arbitration.
Google registered their .tel domain name during their “sunrise period” for roughly $300. Arbitration of the .tel domain name will cost Yahoo! over $1,500 plus legal expenses.
Currently Yahoo.tel has a link to David Blanco’s blog, his location on Google Maps, and lists his hobbies and interests. Google.tel currently links to Google.com.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has made an agreement to acquire Maktoob.com. Maktoob is based in the country of Jordan and is one of the biggest Arab portals on the Internet today. The fee was undisclosed, but the acquisition is pegged to be about $75-$80 million.
The acquisition should be completed by the fourth quarter. Maktoob.com itself will become a Yahoo! property but assets under the Maktoob Group will be rolled into a new name called Jabbar Internet Group. Jabbar will continue to own properties such as cashU.com and Araby.com.
“With the acquisition of Maktoob.com and our investment commitment to the region, the Arab world will soon get the entire Yahoo! experience in Arabic with relevant local language content, programming and services,” stated Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz in a press release.
Maktoob started in 2000 and is in the top 10 for most Arabic-speaking countries according to Alexa.com. Maktoob holds the number one spot in many countries too. This will help boost Yahoo!’s market share in an area that is heavily untapped by Google and Microsoft.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has won a case in an appeals court that may help protect Internet radio stations from having to pay higher music royalties. This ruling is a blow to music labels such as BMG Music and Arista Records. The labels will not be given the right to demand Yahoo! LAUNCH Media to pay licensing fees for songs.
“It brings a great clarity to an area that has vexed innovators for a long time,” stated Digital Media Association Executive Director Jonathan Potter. “There’s been 10 years of litigation over this. Companies have been put out of business because of this issue.”
The appeals court determined that LAUNCHcast, the streaming music service through LAUNCH Media is not “interactive” enough to be considered for licensing fees. The appeals court said that LAUNCHcast does not have the predictability of songs that would cause listeners to stop buying music.
“LAUNCHcast’s listeners do not even enjoy the limited predictability that once graced the AM airwaves on weekends in America when ‘special requests’ represented love-struck adolescents’ attempts to communicate their feelings to ‘that special friend,’” stated the appeals court.
This decision came about eight years after Sony Music subsidiary decided to sue LAUNCH. A federal jury in Manhattan ruled in favor of LAUNCH in 2007 that rejected the music labels from receiving $100 million in damages.
Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corporation, and Yahoo! Inc. are joining several nonprofit groups and other library associations to oppose a class-action settlement that would give Google the rights to digitize millions of books.
The settlement is still waiting on court approval. The Department of Justice has also opened an antitrust investigation to explore some of the agreement terms.
The coalition against the Google Book project is called the Open Book Alliance. The Alliance is led by Gary L. Reback, an antitrust lawyer working out of Silicon Valley.
