Темы
Разделы
Интересы
Top 20
 |
| 181 |  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The chief executives of Oracle Corp and Google Inc took the stand in court on Tuesday but delivered no bombshells as Google's lawyers argued Oracle is trying to hitch a ride on Google's success after abandoning the idea of building its own smartphone.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 182 | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sanjay Jha, the chief executive to Motorola Mobility, was awarded a total compensation package of about $47 million in 2011, almost four times his 2010 pay, according to a regulatory filing.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 183 | Apple CEO Tim Cook has long seen as the humorless and unemotional guy running the show from behind the scenes. But he is beginning to reveal a more assertive and eloquent side, hinting that he's learning to shoulder more of Steve Jobs' role as a front man and leader.
On a conference call with journalists and financial analysts late Tuesday, Cook showed some fire when talking about competitors, echoing the combative Jobs. He also spouted a vivid metaphor that spread like wildfire over Twitter before the call was over.
Most Apple watchers have sized up Cook as a competent caretaker of the machine that Apple founder and late CEO Steve Jobs created, but if Cook has latent charisma that can be thawed out further, he may turn into the kind of leader some people think is essential for the company.
In a blog post Wednesday, George Colony, the CEO of Forrester Research, predicted that Apple Inc. will go the way of Sony, fading away now that Jobs is not around to inspire.
"Without the arrival of a new charismatic leader it will move from being a great company to being a good company," he wrote.
Even while Jobs was alive, Cook handled appearances in front of Wall Street analysts. He spoke precisely and calmly, and his language wasn't very quotable. At a Goldman Sachs investors meeting in February, for instance, he said "our high order bit is we want to please customers." A "high order bit" is a computer science term for the most important piece of data in a set.
But on Tuesday, when asked if PCs and tablets might someday blend into one device, like rival PC manufacturers hope, Cook extemporized this response:
"I think anything can be forced to converge. The problem is that products are about tradeoffs, and you begin to make tradeoffs... newsfactor.com » | | 184 | (Reuters) - Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said there was a need to raise organ donation awareness and he encouraged the social network's members to speak up if they are donors.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 185 | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Activist hedge fund Third Point on Thursday accused Yahoo Inc's new chief executive, Scott Thompson, of padding his educational record, and Yahoo called the discrepancy an "inadvertent error."
Reuters: Internet News » | | 186 | (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc's board of directors will review a discrepancy in the educational record of its chief executive, Scott Thompson, a spokesman told Reuters, after activist hedge fund Third Point accused Thompson of padding his academic credentials.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 187 | A Yahoo shareholder is calling out CEO Scott Thompson for a puffed-up resume -- and the search engine company has come clean.
Yahoo's board named Thompson to replace Carol Bartz as chief in January and he has made some major moves, including restructuring, layoffs and filing patent suits against Facebook.
But Daniel Loeb, CEO of Third Point, is taking issue with Thompson and the board. Loeb's fund owns a 5.8 percent stake in Yahoo and he is reportedly trying to shake up the board with the revelation that Thompson doesn't have a bachelor's degree in computer science as is indicated on his resume.
Thompson's degree is in accounting, though he does have tech industry experience as the former president of eBay's PayPal division. Still, the college he attended near Boston, Stonehill College, didn't even start offering computer science degrees until four years after he graduated.
"We inquired whether Mr. Thompson had taken a large number of computer science courses, perhaps allowing him to justify to himself that he had 'earned' such a degree," Loeb wrote in a letter to Yahoo's board. "Instead, we learned that during Mr. Thompson's tenure at Stonehill only one such course was even offered -- Intro to Computer Science. Presumably, Mr. Thompson took that course."
Shareholder Wants Answers
As Loeb sees it, if Thompson embellished his academic credentials it undermines his credibility as a technology expert and reflects poorly on the character of the CEO who has been tasked with leading Yahoo. Now, more than ever, he said, Yahoo investors need a trustworthy CEO.
"Shareholders must also question how the board of directors, specifically the Search Committee chaired by Ms. Patti Hart, could permit the company to hire a CEO with this discrepancy in the public record," Loeb said. "Should our concerns about Mr. Thompson's record be accurate, that would call... newsfactor.com » | | 188 | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Activist hedge fund investor Third Point demanded that internet company Yahoo Inc fire its chief executive, Scott Thompson, by Monday for padding his resume.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 189 | (Reuters) - Activist hedge fund investor Third Point, which has called for Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Scott Thompson's ouster over resume padding, sent a legal letter to the internet company demanding it provide access to all documents relating to the hiring of the CEO.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 190 | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc's board convened on Monday afternoon to discuss the mounting upset surrounding Chief Executive Scott Thompson, who has apologized to employees after being accused last week by activist investor Daniel Loeb of padding his resume, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 191 | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc director Patti Hart will not seek re-election to Yahoo's board, according to a source familiar with the matter, as the Internet company's board moved forward with an investigation of its new chief executive's educational background.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 192 | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc's largest outside shareholder said the Internet company should make its finance chief or head of media the interim chief executive because of the controversy surrounding CEO Scott Thompson's educational background.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 193 | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Scott Thompson never provided a resume or incorrect information to Yahoo, he told top executives at a meeting on Thursday, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 194 | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc is replacing its CEO for the third time in as many years, and giving three board seats to a hedge fund led by Daniel Loeb, putting him in a strong position to influence strategy at the struggling Internet company.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 195 | After the revelation that his resume was puffed up with unearned educational credentials, Yahoo on Sunday announced the resignation of CEO Scott Thompson. Thompson replaced the ousted Carol Bartz as chief just four months ago, in January.
The controversy began earlier this month when Daniel Loeb, CEO of Third Point, took issue with Thompson and the board. Loeb, whose fund owns a 5.8 percent stake in Yahoo, was reportedly trying to shake up the board with the revelation that Thompson doesn't have a bachelor's degree in computer science as is indicated on his resume. If that was his intention, it worked.
In addition to Thompson resigning, Ross Levinsohn moved from non-executive chair to interim CEO, and director Fred Amoroso will become chairman, replacing Roy Bostock, the non-executive chairman, who is leaving the board immediately.
Those moves helped Yahoo reach an agreement with Third Point to settle a pending proxy contest related to its 2012 annual meeting of shareholders.
Was Thompson Too Impolitic?
Under the board's settlement agreement with Third Point, three Third Point nominees -- Loeb, Harry J. Wilson, and Michael J. Wolf -- will join the Yahoo board. As interim CEO, Levinsohn will manage the company's day-to-day operations.
We caught up with Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, to get his thoughts on Thompson's resignation. When news of the resume issue first arose, Sterling, among many others, didn't think it would derail Thompson's role at Yahoo.
"I think there are a number of things going on in Scott Thompson's resignation-termination, or forced resignation, if you prefer. The scandal over his resume wouldn't go away," Sterling said.
"That was in part because it was being used by hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb as part of a proxy fight with Yahoo. Loeb helped create and fueled the PR crisis to gain leverage in negotiations. He now... newsfactor.com » | | 196 | He famously wears a hoodie, jeans and sneakers, and he was born the year Apple introduced the Macintosh. But Mark Zuckerberg is no boy-CEO.
Facebook's chief executive turned 28 on Monday, setting in motion the social network's biggest week ever. The company is expected to start selling stock to the public for the first time and begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday. The IPO could value Facebook at nearly $100 billion, making it worth more than such iconic companies as Disney, Ford and Kraft Foods.
At 28, Zuckerberg is exactly half the age of the average S&P 500 CEO, according to executive search firm Spencer Stuart. With eight years on the job, he's logged more time as leader than the average CEO, whose tenure is a little more than seven years, according to Spencer Stuart.
Even so, the pressures of running a public company will undoubtedly take some getting used to. Once Facebook begins selling stock, Zuckerberg will be expected to please a host of new stakeholders, including Wall Street investment firms, hedge funds and pension funds who will pressure him to keep the company growing.
Young as he may seem -- especially in that hooded sweatshirt -- Zuckerberg will be about the same age as Michael Dell and older than Steve Jobs when those two took their companies, Dell Inc. and Apple Inc., public. In his years as Facebook's CEO he's met world leaders, rode a bull in Vietnam while on vacation, started learning Mandarin Chinese and as a personal challenge, wore a tie for the better part of a year.
Facebook, of course, got its start in Zuckerberg's messy Harvard dorm room in early 2004. Known as Thefacebook.com in those days, the site was created to help Harvard students -- and later other college students -- connect with one another... newsfactor.com » | | 197 | Журнал Forbes назвал Стива Баллмера «без сомнения, худшим CEO из тех, кто управляет современными крупными компаниями в США». По мнению Forbes, Баллмер упустил развитие рынка мобильных платформ и планшетов, что отрицательно сказалось не только на прибылях Microsoft, но и на бизнесе компаний, образующих «экосистему», таких как Dell, Hewlett Packard и даже Nokia.
Читать дальше → habrahabr.ru » | | 198 | The newest chief of Yahoo, interim CEO Ross Levinsohn, has carved a career out of making deals. Now, as head honcho at the embattled Internet icon, he needs to make plenty.
Levinsohn inherits an unenviable to-do list from a conga line of recent former Yahoo CEOs. Like Scott Thompson, who was pushed out Sunday over inaccuracies on his resume, Carol Bartz, Jerry Yang and Terry Semel, Levinsohn has to unravel Yahoo's knotty issue with Chinese Internet firm Alibaba Group, of which it owns a stake.
He also needs to shore up relations with Facebook, with whom Yahoo has traded patent-infringement lawsuits. And he must figure out what to do with a quasi-successful search deal with Microsoft.
To be fair, the situation isn't entirely dire. The portal attracts about 700 million visitors a month, which helped it generate nearly $1 billion in ad sales last quarter.
But that business is under siege from Google, Facebook and an armada of start-ups vying for eyeballs and revenue. Yahoo's slice of the nearly $40 billion U.S. online ad market -- at 16% in 2009 -- was 9.5% in 2011 and could slide to 7.4% this year, according to eMarketer.
Levinsohn, who was running Yahoo's Americas business, is familiar around Internet circles. He was president of Fox Interactive Media, when News Corp. acquired Myspace, and helped Myspace land a $900 million ad deal with Google. While in control of Yahoo's U.S. sales operations, he restaffed the team and eliminated middlemen to increase yield on ads sold.
"Ross Levinsohn makes a lot of sense as CEO, because he has a lot of experience in Internet media," says Scott Kessler, analyst at S&P Capital IQ. "A lot of people are hoping he becomes the permanent CEO."
Whether the new CEO and fresh board are the fix remains an open question. Analysts will be closely... newsfactor.com » | | 199 | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc completed its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc and named a new chief executive for the cellphone maker, who vowed to focus on "fewer, bigger bets."
Reuters: Internet News » | | 200 | It's official. Google has closed on its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility. But what does this mean for the merged company? There are still more questions than answers.
In a Tuesday morning blog post, Google CEO Larry Page opined about how the phones in our pockets have become supercomputers that are changing the way we live. He pointed out how it's now possible to do things we used to think were magic -- or only possible on Star Trek. Things like getting directions on the spot, watching a video on YouTube or taking a picture and sharing it instantly with friends all over the world.
"Motorola is a great American tech company that has driven the mobile revolution, with a track record of over 80 years of innovation, including the creation of the first cell phone," Page wrote. "We all remember Motorola's StarTAC, which at the time seemed tiny and showed the real potential of these devices. And as a company who made a big, early bet on Android, Motorola has become an incredibly valuable partner to Google."
Motorola Gets New CEO
Although Page didn't offer much insight on what Google will do with Motorola, he did announce that Sanjay Jha, who was responsible for building the company and placing that big bet on Android, has stepped down as CEO. Long-time Googler Dennis Woodside has taken the reins.
After extolling Woodside's virtues in the blog he turned his attention back to technology, indicating that Motorola would still make mobile phones, saying: "It's a well-known fact that people tend to overestimate the impact technology will have in the short term, but underestimate its significance in the longer term.
"Many users coming online today may never use a desktop machine, and the impact of that transition will be profound -- as will the ability to just... newsfactor.com » | | 201 | Best Buy Co. said Tuesday that its fiscal first-quarter profit dropped 26 percent on restructuring charges as the struggling electronics retailer began implementing a turnaround plan.
Its adjusted earnings and revenue both topped Wall Street's expectations. That's sorely needed good news for the electronics chain as it attempts a restructuring to update its increasingly outmoded "big-box" store model. At the same time, the company is seeking a new CEO after the former top executive left amid scandal. Still, the results show the chain has a long way to go to improve results in a sustainable way.
Best Buy said U.S. sales growth in tablets, mobile phones, e-readers and appliances helped offset declines notebooks, gaming, digital imaging and TVs during the quarter. But revenue in stores open at least 14 months, which excludes the impact of stores that open and close during that period, fell 5.3 percent during the quarter. They were dragged down by weakness in Europe and China.
Best Buy has been shrinking store size and focusing on its more-profitable products such as mobile phones. It's also trying to combat the so-called "showrooming" of its stores -- when people browse at Best Buy but purchase electronics goods elsewhere. In April, it announced a major restructuring that includes closing stores, cutting 400 jobs and trimming $800 million in costs.
In a call with investors, interim CEO Mike Mikan said those are just the "first phase" of major changes the chain needs to make in order to survive in a changing retail landscape.
"Today's marketplace is different," he said. "From my perspective it is a marketplace we weren't prepared for. Best Buy's customer experience is no longer unique as it once was."
Mikan, who is in the running to be named permanent CEO, said he hopes to give details on changes in the next few months.
"We... newsfactor.com » |
|
| |
|