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Started by Thilaga, Feb 19, 2008, 10:12 PM

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Thilaga

A report from the Wall Street Journal says that Yahoo has denied Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid to buy the company which operates the most frequented site/portal on the internet today. Yahoo's Board of Directors has determined that the $31 per share price that Microsoft offered "massively undervalues" the company. Yahoo's board seems to be looking for a bid no less than $40 per share, which would bump Microsoft's offer up an additional $12 million. Yahoo, over the last week since Microsoft's offer, has considered a partnership with the giant of this fine series of tubes, Google.

Personally, I think Microsoft is trying to take advantage of the fact that Yahoo has recently slipped, by lowballing (relatively) them. However, Microsoft's bid in the first place shows how low they stand in the web game, and the extra $12 billion they might have to pony up may not be too bad for them. Honestly, I think this is smart on Yahoo's part, seeing as how a Microsoft takeover would take quite a while to get approved, and wouldn't help either company all too much.

Loving someone that doesn't love U is like reaching for a star -U know you'll never reach it but you just got to keep trying

hari


Key officials from US software giant Microsoft and internet company Yahoo failed to reach agreement in talks over a multi-billion takeover bid, the Wall Street Journal newspaper reported Friday.
Microsoft had launched a takeover bid of originally $45 billon more than two months ago, which was rejected by Yahoo for being too low.

According to the paper, officials were unable to solve their differences of opinion during the meeting, which took place this week at Yahoo's headquarters in Sunnydale, California.

The meeting was the second in recent weeks, the paper said, quoting informed sources.

During the meeting, Microsoft ruled out increasing its offer, a precondition by Yahoo for entering formal negotiations. No bank representatives took part in the talks, the paper said.

Microsoft was seen as playing for time, hoping that the weakening US economy would increase pressure on Yahoo's management by its shareholders to accept the offer.

Microsoft aims at breaking the global dominance of its rival Google in online searches and internet ads by taking over Yahoo.
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sams.raghu

Microsoft Readies to Push Yahoo for Hostile Takeover

Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer has threatened directly Yahoo's board with a hostile takeover which may reduce the company's value below their initial takeover offer. In a letter, the software leader has said through its ruthless chief executive that it will take those measures if a deal will not be reached within three weeks.

"If we are forced to take an offer directly to your shareholders, that action will have an undesirable impact on the value of your company from our perspective which will be reflected in the terms of our proposal," Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer wrote in a letter sent to Yahoo's board yesterday.

The initial offer made by Microsoft on February 1 was $31 a share, adding up to a grand total of approximately $44.6 billion but after a downfall in Microsoft's shares, it is now worth about $42 billion, still making it, if finalized, the biggest-ever takeover in the high-tech industry.

On February 11, Jerry Yang rejected the Microsoft's bid saying that it undervalues the company. Yahoo asked for a $12 billion raise in Microsoft's offer, which has not happened so far. Rumors have it that Microsoft already turned to Bear Stearns Cos. Services in the Yahoo situation.

It is common knowledge that Yahoo has been searching for a backup option to Microsoft's offer, discussing different partnership scenarios with Google, AOL and the News Corporation. However, no deal has been struck so far.

Last month, Microsoft's Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie said the company is not in a hurry to merge its technology platform to that of Yahoo. Ozzie commented in an interview with the Financial Times that "technology companies, if they dive in and just smash things together for smashing them together's sake, it's reckless, it's just simply reckless," adding that Yahoo has its own technologies and corporate culture.

At the same time, Ozzie declared himself optimistic that Microsoft will be able to achieve its main goals if the deal with Yahoo will materialize, as long as they will focus on giving users and advertisers the same experience, rather than rushing into getting financial benefits from the deal.

source: eflux

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Thilaga

 Yahoo Inc. said in a letter sent to Microsoft Corp. on Monday that it is still open to possible negotiations with it or another company, but is standing firm that the $44.6 billion offer is not enough.

The letter from Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock came two days after Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer gave Yahoo's board three weeks to agree to a merger or face a hostile takeover.

Microsoft offered to acquire Yahoo on Jan. 31 for $44.6 billion, or $31 a share, in cash and stock. Yahoo's board rejected that offer, saying it was too low.

The value of Microsoft's offer as of Friday's close to $29.36 a share, or $42.25 billion, because of a drop in Microsoft's share price. Yahoo shares opened Monday at $27.80, down 56 cents. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) shares opened at $29.55, up 39 cents.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) said it considered its "global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential, as well as its substantial unconsolidated investments," as factors in its decision.

The letter added, "We consider your threat to commence an unsolicited offer and proxy contest to displace our independent board members to be counterproductive and inconsistent with your stated objective of a friendly transaction."

Yahoo also pointed to a new advertising management platform unveiled Monday, AMP, which it said is designed to "dramatically simplify the process of buying and selling ads online."
Loving someone that doesn't love U is like reaching for a star -U know you'll never reach it but you just got to keep trying

Kathiravan

Yahoo has rejected billionaire investor Carl C Icahn's accusations that the internet company's board of directors had acted irrationally in what he called the "botched" merger negotiations with Microsoft.

Icahn, who has amassed 59 million Yahoo shares in recent days, in a letter to Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock on Wednesday said, "It is clear to me that the board of directors of Yahoo has acted irrationally and lost the faith of shareholders and Microsoft".

He said he intended to wrest control of the board and return the company to the bargaining table, adding that Microsoft's final USD 33-a-share bid was a "superior alternative to Yahoo's prospects on a stand-alone basis".

Responding to the letter yesterday, Yahoo chairman told Icahn, "Unfortunately, your letter reflects a significant misunderstanding of the facts about the Microsoft proposal and the diligence with which our board evaluated and responded to that proposal".

He said that Yahoo board had turned down the Microsoft proposal because it significantly undervalued the internet company. A fair-minded review of the factual record, Bostock said, would lead to one conclusion that Yahoo board "remains the best and most qualified group to maximize value for all Yahoo stockholders".

"We do not believe it is in the best interests of Yahoo stockholders to allow you and your hand-picked nominees to take control of Yahoo for the express purpose of trying to force a sale of Yahoo to a formerly interested buyer who has publicly stated that they have moved on."

There was currently no acquisition offer on the table from Microsoft or any other party, Yahoo chairman said, adding the company was willing to consider any proposal if it offered Yahoo stockholders full and certain value.
Am Kathiravan
Care of Tamilnadu

magesh.p

Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock rejected charges by shareholder Carl Icahn that an employee retention package was designed to discourage a Microsoft takeover, in a response to Icahn released Wednesday night.

"To set the record straight, the employee retention program is designed to protect the Company's assets and value during a time of uncertainty. The claim that the plan gives each of Yahoo!'s employees 'the right to quit his or her job and pocket generous termination benefits at any time during the two years following a takeover...' is just plain wrong," Bostock wrote.

Yahoo adopted a new employee severance package after Microsoft announced its $44.6 billion hostile takeover bid on February 1. The package would have cost Microsoft up to an additional $2 billion, offering employees terminated or who resigned for "good reason" four months' to two years' severance pay depending on their position. Icahn saw the move as a "poison pill" -- usually a corporate maneuver designed to stave off a hostile takeover.

"In fact, the plan was adopted in order to protect the value of Yahoo in anticipation of a possible acquisition by Microsoft which would have resulted in a lengthy regulatory review and a significant period of uncertainty for our employees," Bostock wrote.

Bostock then fired a new salvo in the war of words between Yahoo's board and Icahn, who charges that the board hurt shareholders by not accepting Microsoft's acquisition offer. "Conspicuously absent from your letter is any credible plan for Yahoo other than a repetition of your insistence that the Company should sell itself to Microsoft. Indeed, your stated view that 'the only way to salvage Yahoo in the long if not short run is to merge with Microsoft' demonstrates that you have no other plan and causes one to wonder what exactly would happen to our Company if you and your nominees were to take control of Yahoo," he wrote.

Icahn seeks to oust Bostock, along with CEO Jerry Yang and other board members, and replace them with his own slate of directors,

"I have constantly complained about how far CEOs and boards will go in order to retain their jobs, yet even I am amazed at the length Jerry Yang and the Yahoo board have gone to in order to entrench their positions and keep shareholders from deciding if they wished to sell to Microsoft," Icahn wrote in his letter to Bostock early Wednesday.

Microsoft walked away from its acquisition attempt on May 3, after three months of negotiations to buy the Internet company. Since then, Icahn and other disgruntled shareholders have sought various means of redress, accusing Yang, Bostock, and the board of not protecting their interests.
- An Proud Acumen -

hari

Internet major Yahoo, which has come under attack for sabotaging any potential takeover of the company, on Thursday, said it is open to any deal, including a sale to Microsoft, if it benefits shareholders.

Responding strongly to investor Carl Icahn's allegations that Yahoo had sabotaged any takeover bid from Microsoft, the company's Chairman Roy Bostock in a letter yesterday said that the billionaire misinterpreted recent facts.

Icahn in a letter on Wednesday termed Yahoo's employment retention plan as a "poison pill".

Yahoo said that his letter seriously misrepresents and manipulates the facts regarding the recent events pertaining to Microsoft and the company.

"You rely on, as 'facts', a series of unsubstantiated allegations from a complaint filed in a Delaware court which grossly misstate the very clear record and position established by the Yahoo Board."

Noting that Icahn is under the impression that Microsoft would come back to the negotiating table for a full acquisition of the firm, Yahoo said it had reached out to the software giant in the last several weeks.

"During this period, their message to us and to the markets has been and remains that they are not interested in pursuing a full acquisition of Yahoo," the letter added.

Describing the claims made on the retention plan as "just plain wrong", Yahoo said the initiative is intended to enhance shareholder value by attracting and retain the best talent.

"Microsoft had indicated that it was prepared to spend 1.5 billion dollars on retention incentives indicating that they too recognised that the retention of Yahoo employees would have been critical if there had been an acquisition," the letter said.

Pointing out that Icahn does not have a credible plan for Yahoo; the letter said there is only a repetition of insistence to sell the company to Microsoft.

"... The only way to salvage Yahoo in the long if not short run is to merge with Microsoft demonstrates that you have no other plan and causes one to wonder what exactly would happen to our company if you and your nominees were to take control of Yahoo," it noted
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ganeshbala

Yahoo rejects joint proposal from Microsoft, Icahn

Yahoo Inc. has rejected Microsoft's latest attempt to buy its online search operations in a "take or leave it" proposal that Yahoo said would have dismantled its Internet franchise.

As described by Yahoo in a statement released late Saturday, Microsoft packaged its latest offer with activist investor Carl Icahn, a billionaire who is seeking to overthrow Yahoo's board of directors in a shareholder meeting scheduled for August 1.

Without providing many specifics, Yahoo said Microsoft renewed an earlier bid to buy the company's search engine and proposed turning over the remaining pieces to a board controlled by Icahn.

Yahoo said it received the complex proposal Friday and was given less than 24 hours to respond.

Backed into a corner, Yahoo lashed out in a blunt manner likely to inject even more bad blood into its already venomous relationship with Microsoft and Icahn.

"It is ludicrous to think that our board could accept such a proposal," Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock said in the statement. "While this type of erratic and unpredictable behavior is consistent with what we have come to expect from Microsoft, we will not be bludgeoned into a transaction that is not in the best interests of our stockholders."

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Saturday. Efforts to reach Icahn were unsuccessful.

Yahoo said it unsuccessfully reiterated its willingness to sell the entire company to Microsoft for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share -- a bid that the software maker dangled in early May before withdrawing it in a pique over Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang's demand for $37 per share.

The breakdown of those takeover negotiations infuriated many Yahoo shareholders who fear the company's stock price would plunge back below $20 -- a threshold reached just before Microsoft made its initial bid in early January. Yahoo shares finished Friday at $23.57.

Yahoo's squandered opportunity to sell to Microsoft in May prompted Icahn to lead a rebellion aimed at removing Yahoo's entire board so he could fire Yang and try to revive sales talks with Microsoft.

Icahn's attempted coup gathered more steam earlier this week when Microsoft publicly announced it might be willing to buy all or part of Yahoo if shareholders voted to remove the current board. Yahoo shares climbed 10 percent during the past week on hopes that Microsoft's backing of Icahn might pave the way for a deal.

Since it dropped its bid to buy all of Yahoo, Microsoft had focused its overtures on Yahoo's search engine -- the second most used on the Internet behind Google Inc.'s.

Microsoft in May offered to buy Yahoo's search operations for $1 billion and to spend another $8 billion to acquire a 16 percent stake in Yahoo's remaining operations.

Yahoo said the proposal that Microsoft submitted Friday "contains a number of improvements," but insisted it still wasn't good enough.

Yahoo offered no concrete details about what Icahn had proposed to do with the rest of the business, but indicated part of the plan included selling the company's Asian operations. The Sunnyvale-based company pooh-poohed the notion of entrusting its business to Icahn, noting his inexperience in the Internet industry.

Icahn, who has been challenging corporate boards for more than two decades, owns a roughly 5 percent stake in Yahoo and hopes to make a profit by pushing the company's stock price above $30.

Instead of selling its search engine to Microsoft, Yahoo opted to forge an advertising partnership with rival Google Inc. That represented a bit of irony because Google's dominance of the Internet search advertising market is the primary reason that Microsoft is pursuing Yahoo.

As Google has become more successful, both Yahoo and Microsoft have been regressing, a dynamic that many analysts believe make it imperative for the two companies to put aside their differences and combine forces.

Yahoo has estimated that it can boost its annual revenue by about $800 million by relying on Google's superior technology to show some ads alongside the search results on its Web site.

But Yahoo's alliance with Google is being closely vetted by antitrust regulators because the two companies together control more than 80 percent of the U.S. search advertising market. To accommodate the review, Yahoo and Google have voluntarily agreed to wait until late September to begin working together.

Microsoft has maintained its proposal is better than the Google partnership.

sajiv

#8
New Online, Radio Campaign Promotes "New Yahoo Search"

Yahoo is launching an "integrated, nationwide, on and offline marketing campaign" to promote the "new Yahoo Search."
It emphasizes online display and radio advertising. Animated banners link to actual Yahoo Search results.  The online display campaign is promoting Search Assist and Shortcuts (vs. Google: "don't get lost in the links"). The sample radio spot uses humor and emphasizes anti-virus protection. It also mentions Google by name.

Yahoo, Ask and Microsoft have all run past ad campaigns to try and eat into Google's market share, almost entirely without success. The message in this campaign (from what I could tell) is that Yahoo is more efficient than Google: answers vs. links.

Despite increasing discomfort within the industry regarding Google's size and power, there seems to be no indication from the public that they're ready to abandon Google. In fact, Google outscored other engines in the 2008 American Consumer Satiisfaction Index.

With the right approach, however, there may be an opening and opportunity for Yahoo to gain some incremental usage.



sajiv

#9
SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc. founder Jerry Yang has never concealed how much he cares about his Internet company.

His emotional attachment is one of the reasons he balked at a $47.5 billion takeover offer from Microsoft Corp. six months ago. The same devotion finally led Yang to conclude he should step aside as chief executive, as the company seeks to bolster its depressed stock price and sagging earnings in an economic downturn that might prove even more wrenching than the dot-com bust of eight years ago.

Yang's surrendering of the CEO reins, announced Monday, won't occur until Yahoo finds a suitable replacement. The Sunnyvale-based company said it is interviewing candidates inside and outside Yahoo in a search led by its chairman, Roy Bostock, and the executive recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles.

It didn't take long for analysts to conclude Yang's departure will clear the way for a major overhaul that could culminate in Yahoo's sale to Microsoft — something Yang refused to do in May, to the great irritation of shareholders."We still believe Microsoft will eventually own Yahoo," UBS analyst Benjamin Schachter wrote in a research note late Monday. "Jerry moving out of the CEO role may accelerate this."

Microsoft declined to comment Monday.Although Yang had publicly expressed his desire to remain at the helm, Yahoo's board faced intensifying pressure to cast him aside as the company's shares plunged to their lowest levels since early 2003. The stock fell 19 cents Monday to close at $10.63 — a fraction of Microsoft's last bid of $33 per share in early May.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer huffily withdrew the offer after Yang sought $37 per share. The negotiating breakdown triggered a shareholder revolt led by billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who called for Yang's ouster in July.Icahn reached a truce that put him and two allies on Yahoo's 11-member board, but he still has been lobbying for Yahoo to pursue a deal with Microsoft that would either involve selling the company in its entirety or just its search engine, which ranks a distant second to Google Inc. An Icahn spokeswoman said the financier had no comment Monday.

Monday's shake-up comes as no surprise, given the challenges facing Yahoo."The shareholders were ready to pick up pitchforks and torches," said technology analyst Rob Enderle. "If Jerry wasn't a founder, he already would have been gone" months ago.Bostock made it sound as if the change in command had been in the works for some time. "Jerry and the board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level," he said.

Yang, who started working on Yahoo with Stanford University classmate David Filo in 1994, will revert to "Chief Yahoo," a titular role he filled before replacing former movie studio boss Terry Semel as CEO in June 2007. He will also remain on Yahoo's board of directors."All of you know that I have always, and will always bleed purple," Yang wrote Monday memo to employees, referring to the company's official color.

Sue Decker, Yahoo's president, is expected to be among the candidates to succeed Yang, although she has been an integral part of the management team that has exasperated the company's shareholders.Dan Rosensweig, who resigned as Yahoo's chief operating officer, also could be lured back as CEO, or the board could turn to one of its own directors, such as former Viacom Inc. CEO Frank Biondi or former Nextel CEO John Chapple.

Investors appeared to be pleased with the decision to replace Yang, as Yahoo shares climbed more than 4 percent in Monday's extended trading.Yang, 40, had been pursuing a strategy that he thought would prove Yahoo was worth more than Microsoft was willing to pay, but the rapidly deteriorating economy made a comeback seem increasingly unlikely.After squandering the opportunity to sell to Microsoft, Yang tried to boost Yahoo's profit by forging an advertising partnership with Google.

But that backup plan fell through two weeks ago when Google walked away from the deal to avoid a court battle with the U.S. Justice Department, which had concluded the partnership would have throttled competition in the online advertising market.Just a few hours after the Google partnership collapsed, Yang publicly said he thought Microsoft should hook up with Yahoo. But Ballmer threw cold water on the idea the next day by declaring he doubted a deal could be worked out.

Yang had also been exploring a possible acquisition of another fading Internet star, AOL, but most analysts panned the idea as a desperation move that threatened to hurt Yahoo more than it would help.Although Yang's tenure as CEO is unlikely to be remembered fondly by shareholders, his legacy as an Internet visionary remains secure.

Yahoo's remarkable rise began in 1994 when Yang and Filo began compiling a directory of their favorite Web links while working on their engineering doctorates in a trailer at Stanford University. They initially called their site "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web," only to later decide to switch to an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle."Yang and Filo became two of the Internet's first billionaires not long after Yahoo went public in 1996 with fewer than 50 employees on the payroll. At the height of the dot-com boom, Yahoo's market value stood at $130 billion. It was less than $15 billion Monday.


sajiv

Yahoo's ultimate search: A new CEO (CNET)

With the announcement Monday that Jerry Yang would step down as its chief, Yahoo's search for a new CEO will not only be closely watched by its investors but also the folks at Microsoft, according to sources.

In part, two names that industry players and headhunters point to as having a possibly good fit already have Redmond running through their veins. One is former Microsoft online and Windows chief Kevin Johnson, who recently left to take a CEO post at Juniper Networks and the other is Brian McAndrews, senior vice president of Microsoft's Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group, who came by way of the aQuantive digital advertising acquisition.

"Take a sharp guy like a Brian McAndrews, who built up aQuantive and later sold it to Microsoft. He would be a good fit for Yahoo," said David Nosal, who heads up executive search firm Nosal Partners.Another digital media executive also pointed to McAndrews as an excellent fit for Yahoo's top job, given McAndrews' prior experience as a CEO in the digital media industry.One Microsoft source, however, pointed to Johnson as a good fit for Yahoo's CEO post.

"Kevin is the kind of guy that Yahoo needs. He has excellent execution, understands technology, is a hard worker and people like working with him," said the Microsoft source, noting it may be difficult to lure Johnson to Yahoo, given he only recently began serving as CEO of Juniper Networks.

Yahoo is seeking to replace its embattled CEO, who will be stepping down from his post after a successor is found. The company has hired executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles International to assist it in its search.Microsoft declined to comment on Yang's announced resignation plans.The Internet search pioneer also has an internal CEO candidate, its president and former chief financial officer Sue Decker.

"Sue received great press as Yahoo's CFO, but her president's role has not generated as much good press," noted the Microsoft source. This source added it will be interesting to see whether Yahoo will use the CEO search process solely as a means to validate its selection of Decker as the CEO, or use the process to undertake an extensive CEO search.One major Yahoo institutional investor hopes Yahoo will name an outsider as Yang's replacement."I hope she doesn't get it. She's been part of the problem. They need to clean house," said the investor, noting Yang's CEO resignation is long overdue.

Yahoo's investors have been incensed since Microsoft pulled its $33 a share buyout bid for the entire company last May. Yahoo had rejected the offer, countering with a proposal for $37 a share, before Microsoft broke off talks.The Microsoft source said it will be interesting to see whether Yahoo names a CEO with a strong marketing background, or one with a seasoned technology background, or one with an extensive business background.

Executive recruiter Nosal said he could think of several people from Google, four from Microsoft and some from multi-media advertising companies who could serve as Yahoo's CEO."There are about 15 to 20 people around the world who could do this role," Nosal said, adding that the search process could take approximately 50 days.


ganeshbala

Yahoo's chief executive Jerry Yang is to step down - news which sent the web search firm's shares up four per cent on hopes his resignation will allow for a deal with Microsoft.

Yang will leave as soon as Yahoo finds a replacement, and will return to his former role as 'Chief Yahoo', focusing on strategy and technology. He tried to carve an independent strategy for Yahoo and was blamed when Microsoft walked away from an offer to buy the company earlier this year.

Rival Google abandoned a search advertising partnership amid regulatory concerns, and Yang faced a growing chorus of criticism from investors and analysts as Yahoo's shares nosedived.

Yahoo's months-long talks with Time Warner about combining with its AOL unit - as yet another way to boost Yahoo's earnings - have also failed to produce a deal.

"The company is in desperate need of change and this is clearly one way to do it," said Ross Sandler, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, adding that Microsoft could enter the picture again. "Jerry was the roadblock for the last deal getting done."

Yang has consistently said that he would sell the company for the right price. Microsoft withdrew its $47.5 billion (£32 billion) buyout offer in May after Yahoo rejected the sweetened bid. It declined to comment on Yang's departure.

Yang, a co-founder of Yahoo, took on the chief exec role in June 2007, hoping to strengthen its position as an online consumer brand.

"From founding this company to guiding its growth into a trusted global brand that is indispensable to millions of people, I have always sought to do what is best for our franchise," Yang said in a statement.

Last month, Yahoo announced it planned to cut at least a tenth of its workforce, or about 1,500 jobs, as corporate brand advertisers scaled back spending on web marketing promotions amid a global economic downturn.

In an e-mail sent to employees, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, Yang said his decision to step down was taken jointly with Yahoo's board.

"All of you know that I have always, and will always bleed purple," Yang wrote, referring to Yahoo's corporate color.

Yang has been talking with the board, which includes activist investor Carl Icahn, about stepping down since before Google pulled out of the search deal in early November, said a person familiar with the talks.

Icahn did not return a call seeking comment.

Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock is leading the effort to find a replacement, said Yang, who will continue to serve as a director.

The process could take anywhere between four weeks and 12 weeks, a source said. Analysts listed several executives as potential candidates for the job, including former AOL chief Jon Miller, News Corp president and chief operating officer Peter Chernin, former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman, former Yahoo COO Dan Rosensweig and Yahoo president Sue Decker.

The source familiar with Yang's talks with the board said Decker, No. 2 at Yahoo, was among the candidates being considered.

sajiv

Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang to quit

Yahoo Inc's Chief Executive Jerry Yang, will step down from the his post as soon as the board finds a replacement for the Internet company, said Yahoo!

Yang, who is also the co-founder of Yahoo took on the CEO role in June 2007 in an effort to turn the company around, will return to his former role as Chief Yahoo once a successor has been found. In a statement released Yang said, "From founding this company to guiding its growth into a trusted global brand that is indispensable to millions of people, I have always sought to do what is best for our franchise."

Heidrick & Struggles is officially appointed by Yahoo to look for both internal and external candidates. Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock said, "Jerry and the Board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level."


sajiv

Yahoo! CEO to step down

New York: Co-founder of Yahoo! Jerry Yang will step down as the chief executive of the internet giant, ending a 17-month turbulent tenure, which saw him rejecting a takeover bid from Microsoft.

:agree

sajiv

Yahoo! Jerry quits

San Francisco: Jerry Yang, who, as chief executive of Yahoo, resisted a takeover bid from Microsoft only to later ask that merger talks resume, said he was stepping down.

In a memorandum sent to the company's staff Monday evening, Mr Yang, 40, said he would hold the post until the board names his successor, a process he said he would participate in. The Yahoo co-founder said he would then return to his previous job as "chief Yahoo," a corporate strategy role, and would remain on the board.

In a memorandum typed in his style using no capital letters, he wrote, "i strongly believe that having transformed our platform and better aligned costs and revenues, we have a unique window for the right ceo to take ownership over the next wave of mission-critical decisions facing the company." The announcement comes a year and a half after Mr Yang assumed control of Yahoo from Terry Semel, a Hollywood studio boss that he handpicked for the job.

Mr Yang's tenure has been marked by a precipitously declining stock price and the high profile collapse of a $44 billion acquisition offer from Microsoft last spring.

A Yahoo spokesman described the decision as "mutual" and "in progress for a while." "Jerry and the board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level," Roy J. Bostock, Yahoo's chairman, wrote in a statement.

"We are deeply grateful to Jerry for his many contributions as C.E.O. over the past 18 months, and we are pleased that he plans to stay actively involved at Yahoo as a key executive and member of the board." Yahoo has hired executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles to help look for candidates.

Some shareholders welcomed the move. "It's definitely positive from a shareholder perspective," said Ross Sandler, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. "Jerry has done less than a stellar job after taking the reins from Terry Semel last year, not just completely botching the Microsoft deal but with poor execution and multiple company restructurings that have done little to restore confidence of any of Yahoo's shareholders, employees or customers."

Mr Sandler also raised the possibility that Mr Yang's departure could rekindle interest by Microsoft in Yahoo. Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, has complained that Mr Yang had no real interest in the deal. A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment Monday.

Yahoo said it would look for possible replacements inside and outside the company. Potential candidates include Susan L. Decker, Yahoo's president; Daniel L. Rosensweig, the former chief operating officer of Yahoo who is now a principal at the investment firm Quadrangle Group; and Jonathan F. Miller, the former head of AOL.

After Mr Yang was named to take over the Internet portal, search and online advertising company in June 2007, he tried to develop a plan to help Yahoo compete against Google, the dominant company in search and online advertising. He made several major cuts in the staff. On Oct. 21, Yahoo announced it would lay off at least 10 per cent of its 15,000 employees, as it said that third-quarter net income fell 64 per cent and lowered its revenue projections for the year.

Mr Yang's most trying period began in February when Microsoft made an unsolicited bid for the company. He initially refused to accept Microsoft's bid of $31 a share, a 62 per cent premium to its then share price of $19.18. In the following months of negotiations, he showed some willingness to sell the company, but at a much higher price than Microsoft was willing to pay. Microsoft rescinded its offer in May. He then made an advertising deal with arch rival Google. Ho-wever, under pressure from regulators over antitrust co-ncerns, Google backed out of the deal this month. Many analysts and investors have suggested that without the deal, Yahoo would be forced to consider one of two opt-ions: a deal with Microsoft, or a merger with AOL.

"All of you know that I have always, and will always bleed purple," Mr Yang wrote, a reference to Yahoo's corporate colour.


sajiv

Week in review: Yahoo to replace Yang

Eighteen months after returning to the helm of the company he co-founded in 1994, Jerry Yang will step down as chief executive when a replacement is found, the company said. Yang will resume his position as chief Yahoo, the role he had before taking over in 2007 after former CEO Terry Semel departed.

Yahoo has been struggling for months to improve its financial performance, but things have gone from bad to worse for the company this year, and its stock has sunk to less than $10. First, the company thwarted Microsoft's unfriendly attempt to acquire Yahoo outright, and later just its search business, though Yahoo appeared to grow more interested in a deal even as Microsoft grew cooler. At one point, Microsoft offered to acquire the company at $33 per share.

After reporting a 64 percent drop in net income and warning that the advertising market is softening, Yahoo announced in October a layoff of at least 1,430 by the end of 2008. The cut follows another in which about 1,000 Yahoo employees lost their jobs in February.

But if Yahoo thinks it can get Microsoft back to the negotiating table, it would do well to try the lure of a search-only deal--regardless of whether Yang is CEO. That's the assessment from one influential Microsoft source.

"If Jerry was still CEO and called (Microsoft CEO) Steve (Ballmer) tomorrow and said, let's talk about a search-only deal, I think Steve would listen," said the source. "Microsoft is open to a mutually beneficial search deal. But people are still lusting after a Yahoo (buyout) and no one is thinking about that in Redmond. There's been no discussion of it for months and months."

And while Ballmer said the software giant might be interested in a search-only partnership, a buyout of the entire company is out of the question. His comments sent Yahoo shares into a free fall, plummeting 20.9 percent on Wednesday.

"We are done with all acquisition discussions with Yahoo," Ballmer said, adding that he has said this a bunch of times but that some people remain "confused."

"We did our best," he said. "We've moved on."


sajiv

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang To Step Down

Yes, ever since the Microsoft takeover bid was rejected in January and bankers decided to sell people mortgages they could never afford poor old Mr Yang has been on a hiding to nothing. That culminated last week when firstly Yahoo lost its Google AdSense deal and then Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer rubbed salt in the wounds by declaring his company was no longer interested in a buy-out and had Moved On.

Consequently, with Yahoo's value now drastically reduced and jobs on the line Jerry has stepped forward and offered up his. In a long (strangely capitalisation free) memo to employees Yang explained: "i wanted to address all of you on the news we've just announced. the board of directors and I have agreed to initiate a succession process for the ceo role of yahoo!... i will be participating in the search for my successor, and i will continue as ceo until the board selects a new ceo. once a successor is named, i will return to my previous role as chief yahoo and continue to serve as a director on the board."

His anti-upper case statement continued: "all of you know that I have always, and will always bleed purple. i will always do what I think is right for this great company. while this step will be an adjustment for all of us, i know it's the right one. i look forward to updating you on this process as soon as the board has developments to share, and will continue to do everything i can to make yahoo! fulfill its full potential."

Yang/yang (?) also said he believed Yahoo to be in a stronger position now than 18 months ago (that one's a real stretch) but with shareholders baying for blood the move was inevitable.

Of course this is all a million miles away from Yang's bullish declaration to Microsoft in April: ""We consider your threat to commence an unsolicited offer and proxy contest to displace our independent Board members to be counterproductive and inconsistent with your stated objective of a friendly transaction. We are confident that our stockholders understand that our independent Board is best positioned to objectively and knowledgeably evaluate our Company's alternatives and to maximize value."


sajiv

Chief Yahoo' Yang May Make New CEO's Task Difficult

Yahoo Inc, whose shares fell 60 percent since spurning Microsoft Corp.'s $44.5 billion takeover bid, may find hiring a replacement chief executive officer more difficult while "Chief Yahoo" Jerry Yang works down the hall.

Yang, 40, agreed to step down as CEO and resume his former advisory role on Nov. 17 after rejecting Microsoft's bid. The prospect of succeeding the Yahoo co-founder may not appeal to candidates fearful of second-guessing, said John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a Chicago executive- placement firm.

"There's certainly the potential for trouble," said Heath Terry, an analyst at Arlington, Virginia-based FBR Capital Markets Corp. who has an "underperform" rating on the shares. "In the minds of Jerry, most of the board and employees, this is still Jerry's company."

Taiwan-born Yang will serve as CEO until a new one is hired, said Kim Rubey, a company spokeswoman. He wasn't available for comment, she said.

Yang's full-time job as Chief Yahoo focuses on global strategy, products and technology, according to a company blog. He'll also continue as a Yahoo board member.

Mozilla Corp.'s Mitchell Baker, Quiznos Corp.'s Gregory Brenneman and Hasbro Inc.'s Alfred Verrecchia are among 216 CEOs stepping down this year and remaining with their companies in another capacity, according to a survey this month by Challenger's firm. That's 22 percent fewer than in 2007 and 40 percent under 2006, the study found.

CEO Shuffling

"Boards are more assertive," said Challenger, 53. "They want to move the person out."

More than 90 of those who stayed were named chairman or co- chairman. Challenger's study reported that 1,257 CEOs of publicly traded and closely held U.S. companies lost their jobs in 2008, 10 percent more than last year. The higher number reflects the economic slowdown and falling stock prices, Challenger said.

The possibility for interference increases when the top manager who stays on is also a founder such as Yang, according to Allen Geller, managing director of Raines International, a New York-based executive-search firm.

"Think of it as Big Brother watching," he said. "That's what it could be like."

The path to Yang's removal as CEO began in February after he rejected Microsoft's $31-a-share offer, a 62 percent premium to Yahoo's price at the time. Yang said the company was worth more.

Icahn Stake

Carl Icahn and other shareholders pushed for Yang's resignation as prospects for the deal waned. The Redmond, Washington-based software maker reiterated on Nov. 19 it wasn't interested in buying the company. Icahn bought 6.78 million Yahoo shares between Nov. 24 and Nov. 26, raising his total stake to 75.58 million shares, according to a regulatory filing.

Yahoo rose 93 cents, or 8.8 percent, to $11.51 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. U.S. markets were shut yesterday for the Thanksgiving holiday, and closed at 1 p.m. New York time today.

"Yahoo's problems are bigger than Jerry Yang," said James Friedland, an analyst with New York-based Cowen & Co. who rates the shares "neutral."

The next CEO may have to restructure the company for a sale, he said. That's "going to be a very un-Jerry Yang-like person."

News Corp. President Peter Chernin and former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller are among potential candidates for Yang's job, according to Laura Martin, an analyst with Soleil Securities Corp. in New York. Dan Rosensweig, a former Yahoo operations chief, may also be tapped, UBS analyst Ben Schachter said in a report this month.

Yahoo President Susan Decker is a candidate as well, according to Brad Williams, a company spokesman.

'Collaborative Relationship'

Any "strong successor" would require Yahoo to provide "a set of conditions to give him or her power," Challenger said. "If not, it will be hard for Yahoo to attract the very best people."

Yang was working as Chief Yahoo in 2001 when he picked Terry Semel, an ex-Warner Bros. executive he met at an Allen & Co. media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, to become CEO.

Company co-founder David Filo, 42, is the other Chief Yahoo.

The relationship between Semel and Yang was "collaborative," according to Soleil Securities' Martin, who rates the shares "hold." "I think that Jerry has already proven he can do this," she said.

While Semel presided over five years of more than 20 percent sales growth, the company lost its lead in Internet ads to Google Inc. He left in June 2007 after revenue fell to half that of its rival. The board asked Yang to succeed him.

Semel, 65, now chairman and CEO of Windsor Media Inc. in Beverly Hills, California, declined a request for an interview, said his assistant, Marisa O'Neil.

Clashes With Jobs

Yang isn't a hard-driving executive in the mold of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, said Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster at Stanford University's engineering school in Stanford, California.

Jobs, 53, clashed in the 1980s with CEO John Sculley, who didn't share his passion for technology, Saffo said. The chief executive and board ousted Jobs in 1985.

"John Sculley was trying to manage a company," Saffo said. "Steve Jobs was trying to change the world."

The Apple founder returned in 1997 and renewed growth with products such as the iPod music player.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt, 53, hasn't been stifled by founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin since he joined the company in 2001, Saffo said.

"Eric has actually done this better than anyone else I've seen in the valley's history -- he was like an indulgent parent," he said.

Yang has the right temperament to work with future CEOs, Saffo said.

"I think Yahoo would be hurt by Jerry departing entirely," he said. "Jerry is the touchstone. Yahoo needs to remember its origins, and it needs to remember its mythology."



nandagopal

The financier Carl C. Icahn and his entities bought about 6.78 million more shares of Yahoo stock last week, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday.

The filing said the companies bought the shares from Nov. 24 to Nov. 26 "because they believed that the shares were undervalued."

Mr. Icahn, who joined the Yahoo board in August after settling his proxy challenge to replace the directors, now holds a 5.45 percent stake in the company.

In a separate filing, Mr. Icahn said he had held talks with Microsoft this year about a purchase of Yahoo's Internet search business without reaching an agreement.

There are "no understandings" with Microsoft about a possible deal, the investor said in a regulatory filing.

Yahoo is evaluating its next move after rejecting Microsoft's bid of as much as $47.5 billion this year. Yahoo has been talking to Time Warner about buying that company's AOL business, and Jerry Yang, Yahoo's chief executive, has said he would be open to a new takeover bid from Microsoft.

Mr. Icahn, 72, and a Yahoo spokesman, Brad Williams, did not immediately respond to phone messages.



dwarakesh

Global internet major Yahoo is understood to have issued lay-off notices to three per cent of its India workforce due to the ongoing slowdown.

Sources close to the company said, "As part of Yahoo!'s strategy to perform competitively in the current economic downturn in India, less than 3 per cent of the total Indian workforce has been impacted and they were notified today."

Yahoo! has about 2,000-strong workforce in India and it is likely that a maximum of 40 people would be impacted by the decision, the sources said, and added that "a significant number of employees were affected due to poor performance and only a few of them due to the slowdown".

The Yahoo! notification, according to sources, read: "Yahoo! is grateful for the important contributions made by the employees affected by this reduction and that is why, consistent with our past practices, we are making every effort to support impacted employees with severance packages and outbound placement services."

Yahoo! has a R&D centre in Bangalore where a large number of its India employees are located.

About 1,500 Yahoo! employees -- about 10 per cent of its workforce -- are likely to be laid off globally, to enable the company survive the deteriorating financial turmoil.

Chief Executive of Yahoo! Jerry Yang had said in November that he would leave the company, after facing strong criticism for his leadership.

dwarakesh

Yahoo to cut 1,500 jobs

After announcing earlier in October there will be  layoffs before the end of the year, Yahoo is most likely to tell its employees about job cuts this week.

According to All Things Digital, a blog covering Silicon Valley, the layoffs will hit the layoffs will hit hardest in the labor intensive areas of human resources and finance. The blog speculates that the number of employees losing jobs might be over 1,500, i.e about 10 per cent of Yahoo total work force.

Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen said in October Yahoo would be prepared to cut jobs and other expenses further in 2009 if the economy continued to deteriorate. The layoffs will happen in high-cost markets and further hiring process will be carried in places such as Eastern Europe, India and Southeast Asia, the company has said.

However, the cost cutting process will be carried once Yahoo names replacement for Chief Executive Jerry Yang, who announced last month that he would leave the company, following criticism about his leadership.

sajiv

Heads begin to roll at Yahoo

Yahoo is making good on an early announcement that it would cut 10 percent of its staff by year's end by laying off 1,500 workers

As a bookend to a tumultuous year, Yahoo has begun handing out pink slips to about 1,500 employees, acting on an earlier announcement that it would cut at least 10 percent of its staff before year's end.

The "at least" part of the announcement had left open the question of how many people would be let go, but Yahoo confirmed Wednesday that it will be a 10 percent reduction of its about 15,000 employees.

"Better aligning costs with revenues now and in the future is an essential part of Yahoo's strategy to perform competitively given the current economic downturn and to position us for growth when the economy strengthens," Yahoo said in a statement.

The staff reduction is part of a plan intended to cut more than $400 million in costs on an annualized basis. "This is part of an ongoing effort to foster a culture of efficiency and cost discipline," the statement reads.

When it announced the layoffs in October, Yahoo also said that it plans to save money by relocating operations to places where it's cheaper to do business, consolidating its real estate, improving procurement, and seeking efficiencies in its technology platform.

The affected employees will be supported with severance packages and other services. This round of layoffs is the second one this year for Yahoo, which cut 1,000 jobs in February.

Yahoo began 2008 with high hopes for a turnaround, after co-founder Jerry Yang took over as CEO from Terry Semel in June 2007.

Yang vowed to restore Yahoo's innovation edge and to boost its finances, but despite setting in motion a number of ambitious business and technology initiatives, he failed to deliver the expected results.

Last month, Yang announced his intention to give up the CEO post as soon as a replacement is found, although he will remain a board member and reclaim his "Chief Yahoo" title.

The year was marked by Microsoft's attempt to acquire Yahoo, a corporate soap opera whose last chapter has yet to be written.

Yang got loudly criticized by large Yahoo shareholders and influential financial analysts for, in their opinion, his unwillingness to give fair consideration to Microsoft's offers.

Now, Yahoo's stock is in much worse shape than at the beginning of the year, and its financial performance has been disappointing.


dwarakesh

Yahoo lays off 45 people in India

Global search engine and web services provider Yahoo! laid off 45 people from its India operations as part of its worldwide firing policy due to global meltdown, a company spokesman confirmed here Thursday.

"Around three percent (45 people) of our India headcount, which is 1,500, has been asked to go Wednesday as per the directive from our headquarters at Sunnyvale in the US," a spokesman of Yahoo India subsidiary told IANS here.

The pink-slips were in line with the company's guidance given in October for the fourth quarter of 2008, which hinted at terminating the services of about 1,500 employees worldwide during the current quarter.

"We completed the termination process within a day of receiving the notification from our parent company. Majority of those laid off were from Bangalore operations, while the rest are from Mumbai. The layoffs were based on two parameters - performance and business realignment," the spokesman said, but declined to be named.

Admitting the company had begun to consolidate its business by shutting some non-performing divisions and clubbing other operations into new entities, the spokesman said the realignment was being done in view of the impact the global meltdown had in the space it has been operating over the years.

"Some business activities have been shut and their staff redeployed in strategic operations. We are exploring newer areas to sustain the growth momentum," the spokesman said.

Interestingly, those who have been sacked were given an attractive severance package and some of them were referred to other firms as part of its outplacement service.

In an e-mail to employees, outgoing chief executive Jerry Yang said though the layoffs were very hard to make, they were unavoidable so as to focus on the long-term health of its business.

"This is a tough time for all of us," Yang quipped.

This is the second time in the last 12 months when Yahoo! India laid off after a similar exercise led to the exit of 40 people from its research and development and web services divisions in Bangalore and Mumbai.

Source: IANS

sajiv

The axe falls on Yahoo India workforce

BANGALORE: Finally the axe fell on the Yahoo India workforce also. As part of the decision to cut its workforce globally the Internet major issued pink slips to 1500 people globally and nearly 40-50 are from India, according to reports.

Though Yahoo declined to make any official confirmation about the number of people sacked from India, it confirmed that it has completed the process of lay off on Wednesday itself.

"The decision to lay off some employees was part of the announcement made while announcing the Q2 results and we have got it notified yesterday," said a Yahoo India spokesperson.

Yahoo has more than 1500 employees in India, mainly in its R&D center in Bangalore. Though it has been reported that most of the employees were given pink slip on the ground of being non-performers, the Yahoo spokesperson declined to make any comment on that front too.

According to a notification, "Yahoo! is grateful for the important contributions made by the employees affected by this reduction and that is why, consistent with our past practices, we are making every effort to support impacted employees with severance packages and outbound placement services."

Previously it was reported that the layoff would not affect the Indian workforce.

The burning smell of the 'axe effect' in the Indian IT horizon?  What do you think?


sajiv

Yahoo to cut 3% India jobs, Sony none

New Delhi:
Global internet major Yahoo is understood to have issued lay-off notices to three per cent of its India workforce due to the ongoing slowdown while Japanese electronics major Sony, which has announced a massive layoff of 16,000 employees across the world, today said it has no plans to cut jobs in India given the strong business growth in the country.

Sources close to Yahoo said, "As part of the company's strategy to perform competitively in the current economic downturn in India, less than 3 per cent of the total Indian workforce has been impacted and they were notified today." Yahoo has an about 2,000-strong workforce in India and it is likely that a maximum of 40 people would be impacted by the decision, the sources said, and added that "a significant number of employees were affected due to poor performance and only a few of them due to the slowdown".

Sony's Indian business is unlikely to see any job cuts given a "healthy business growth", said Sony India Managing Director Masaru Tamagawa.


dwarakesh

Yahoo layoffs hit India

Global search engine and web services provider Yahoo! laid off 45 people from its India operations as part of its worldwide firing policy due to global meltdown, a company spokesman confirmed.

"Around three percent (45 people) of our India headcount, which is 1,500, has been asked to go Wednesday as per the directive from our headquarters at Sunnyvale in the US," a spokesman of Yahoo India subsidiary told IANS here.

The pink-slips were in line with the company's guidance given in October for the fourth quarter of 2008, which hinted at terminating the services of about 1,500 employees worldwide during the current quarter.

"We completed the termination process within a day of receiving the notification from our parent company. Majority of those laid off were from Bangalore operations, while the rest are from Mumbai. The layoffs were based on two parameters -- performance and business realignment," the spokesman said, but declined to be named.

Admitting the company had begun to consolidate its business by shutting some non-performing divisions and clubbing other operations into new entities, the spokesman said the realignment was being done in view of the impact the global meltdown had in the space it has been operating over the years.

Interestingly, those who have been sacked were given an attractive severance package and some of them were referred to other firms as part of its outplacement service.

In an e-mail to employees, outgoing chief executive Jerry Yang said though the layoffs were very hard to make, they were unavoidable so as to focus on the long-term health of its business.

sajiv


sajiv

Yahoo unveils new toolbar for Web browsing

SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo unveiled a new toolbar on Monday that will give Web users access to their e-mail as they surf the Web, the latest step in its strategy to make its products more open to users and third parties.

Firefox, Yahoo, Microsoft and others make toolbars -- small strips that sit atop Web browsers -- to give users quicker and easier access to Internet functions.

The Yahoo toolbar available later this week will allow users access to a selected group of programs from the toolbar without leaving the page they are on.

For example, users get notifications of new e-mails on the toolbar and can open them. The Internet company also showed off a newly styled in-box, which combines social networking functions and also allows users access to third party programs.

Yahoo has about 275 million users of its e-mail. Its portal relies on advertising and the company says it has an audience of more than 500 million consumers.

As is usual with Yahoo, the changes are being phased in slowly and later will be rolled out for all of its users.

The company is continuing to pursue its open strategy as it is in the middle of a transition. It is looking for a new chief executive to replace Jerry Yang, who has resigned. It also has notified 1,500 employees that they are being laid off.


sajiv

Yahoo throws down data gauntlet

Search engine Yahoo is to cut the time it stores personal data from 13 months to three.

It is hoping its decision will provide a benchmark for industry. Currently Google stores data for nine months and Microsoft for six months.

International data protection officials have been urging firms to do more to protect the data of users.

Privacy advocates have welcomed the move and challenged rivals to go even further.

"I would challenge industry to move to 30 days across the board. People should demand that their information is expunged as rapidly as possible," said Simon Davies, head of Privacy International.

Business needs

A recent rash of data leaks has left users concerned and organisations embarrassed, he said.

"The less time data is online means less risk that rogue companies can establish dangerously comprehensive profiles on users," he added.

Yahoo said its decision to cut the time it stores information gathered from web surfing came about following a "review of its data practices".

"This policy represents Yahoo's assessment of the minimum amount of time we need to retain data to respond to the needs of our business while deepening our trusted relationship with users," said Anne Toth, Yahoo's head of privacy.

As well as anonymising user log data, the policy will also apply to page views, page clicks and ad views and clicks.

But the search giant has reserved the right to keep data for up to six months if fraud or system security are involved.

Privacy campaigners have argued that firms are currently keeping data unnecessarily. Mr Davies is sceptical about what he described as "mixed messages" from industry.

"Only last year, firms were saying that they couldn't go below 15 months but the logic of what Yahoo has done suggests there is no reason why they can't go even lower," he said.


dwarakesh

Yahoo cuts data retention times

In an attempt to bolster trust with its users, Yahoo has revamped its global data retention policy, promising to anonymise user log data within 90 days, half the period stipulated by the EU.

The company added that the new policy will apply to page views, page clicks, ad views and ad clicks as well as search log data, but also said that there would be exceptions when forced to keep the information for fraud, security or legal reasons.

"In our world of customised online services, responsible use of data is critical to establishing and maintaining user trust," said Anne Toth, vice president of policy and head of privacy at Yahoo.

"We know that our users expect relevant and compelling content and advertising when they visit Yahoo, but they also want assurances that we are focused on protecting their privacy."

Recently Microsoft announced that it would fall in line with EU regulation and reduce the retention time of search information to just six months, while Google still holds on to the data for nine months.

According to Yahoo, the move follows a comprehensive review of its data practices across the globe working with privacy and data governance teams to examine the data needs for global products and services.

The company reckons the new limit will still allow it to provide the same level of service to users and advertisers while maintaining the ability to fight fraud, secure systems, and meet legal obligations.

"This policy represents Yahoo's assessment of the minimum amount of time we need to retain data in order to respond to the needs of our business while deepening our trusted relationship with users," added Toth.

However, there are a few provisos added to this new policy. In the case of potential fraud and system security issues, Yahoo will retain system specific data in identifiable form for no more than six months, and the search engine admits it may have to retain some data for longer periods to meet other legal obligations.

sajiv

Yahoo to shorten logs of user activity to 3 months

WASHINGTON : Yahoo Inc. said Wednesday that it will shorten the amount of time that it retains data about its users' online behavior - including Internet search records - to three months from 13 months and expand the range of data that it "anonymizes" after that period.

The company's new privacy policy comes amid mounting concerns among regulators and lawmakers from Washington to Europe about how much data big Internet companies are collecting on their users and how that information is being used. Yahoo's announcement also ratchets up the pressure on rivals Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. to follow its lead.

In September, Google said it would "anonymize," or mask, the numeric Internet Protocol (IP) addresses on its server logs after nine months, down from a previous retention period of 18 months. And Microsoft, which currently keeps user data for 18 months, said last week it would support an industry standard of six months.

Under Yahoo's new policy, the company will strip out portions of users' IP addresses, alter small tracking files known as "cookies" and delete other potential personally identifiable information after 90 days in most cases. In cases involving fraud and data security, the company will anonymize the data after six months.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo also said it will expand the scope of data that it anonymizes to encompass not only search engine logs, but also page views, page clicks, ad views and ad clicks. That information is used to personalize online content and advertising.

Yahoo will begin implementing the new policy next month and says it will be effective across all the company's services by mid-2010.

Anne Toth, vice president of policy and head of privacy for Yahoo, said the company is adopting the new policy to build trust with users and differentiate it from its competitors. Yahoo also hopes to take the issue of data retention "off the table" by showing that Internet companies can regulate themselves, Toth said.

European Union regulators have pressured Yahoo, Google and Microsoft over the past year to shorten the amount of time that they hold onto user data. And Congress has begun asking questions about the extent to which Internet and telecommunications companies track where their users go online and use that information to target personalized advertising.

Edward Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, praised Yahoo for setting a new standard on privacy protection and said Google, Microsoft and other companies will now be compared against that standard.

Ari Schwartz, vice president of the Center for Democracy & Technology, a civil liberties group, agreed that Yahoo's new policy is "step in the right direction." He added, however, that he would like to see more clarity - and more standardization - from the industry about what it does with Internet users' data. He noted, for instance, that while some companies delete full IP addresses, other delete only parts of IP addresses or simply encrypt them.


sajiv

Yahoo Limits Retention of Personal Data

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo, the Internet search company, said Wednesday that it would limit the time it holds identifiable personal information related to searches to 90 days to address the growing concerns of privacy advocates and government regulators.

Yahoo's new data retention policy is the most restrictive among major search engines in the United States and is certain to put pressure on rivals like Google and Microsoft to shorten the time they keep information about their users.

Previously, Yahoo kept search logs for 13 months. In September, Google began to strip out portions of the personally identifiable information related to searches after nine months. Microsoft keeps the information for 18 months.

European regulators had been asking major American Internet search engines to reduce the time they hold identifiable personal information to six months. Microsoft said recently that it would agree to such a standard if its rivals also went along.

Anne Toth, vice president for policy at Yahoo, said that the company chose an even shorter time period to "take the issue of the table." Ms. Toth said she hoped that the new policy would make Yahoo more attractive to users who were concerned about privacy.

"We certainly hope that taking a leadership position in this will differentiate us even further," Ms. Toth said.

But it is not clear that stronger privacy protections are enough of a selling point with consumers to make then switch search engines. Last year, Ask.com introduced a new feature called AskEraser, which allows users to search anonymously, and which the company said would help it increase its audience. However, Ask.com's share of the search market has remained relatively stagnant. Google is the dominant search engine.

Under the new policy, Yahoo will delete the last eight digits of the numeric Internet Protocol address associated with a search query after 90 days. It will also alter so-called cookie data related to each search log and strip out any personal information, like a name, phone number, address or Social Security number, from the query. Yahoo also said that its new policy would extend to other types of data it collects, like page views, page clicks, ad views and ad clicks.

Major search engines have said they need to retain personal data, in part, to provide better services, like more customized ads and more personalized searches. Ms. Toth said Yahoo determined it could begin deleting certain data after 90 days without affecting the quality of services is provides to users, advertisers and publishers.

Privacy advocates said that the new policy was a step in the right direction and credited the change to pressure from European regulators.

"As much as the U.S. search firms talk about how they are improving their practices, I think they are really afraid that the Europeans are going to bring an enforcement action under European privacy laws," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy and Information Center. "That's where the push is really coming from."

Mr. Rotenberg also said that stripping out eight digits from the I.P. address would not guarantee that queries would be anonymous. He compared it with stripping out the last two digits of a telephone number.

Under pressure from advocates and regulators, American search companies over the last 18 months have been gradually shortening the time they retain personal data. Still, they remain behind others. In the Netherlands, a small search engine called IXQuick has promised to delete I.P. addresses after 48 hours and was commended for doing so by European regulators.

Microsoft and Google could not immediately be reached for comment.


VelMurugan

Yahoo to store data only for 90 days

Search engine Yahoo Inc will cut to three months the time it stores personal data gathered from Web surfing, making its retention policy the shortest among peers, the company said.

The company will "anonymise" the computer addresses of its users within three months in most cases, from a prior standard of 13 months. It is reserving the right to keep data for up to six months if fraud or system security are involved.

Internet search companies have come under pressure from European and other data protection officials to do more to protect the privacy of users.

Earlier this year, industry leader Google Inc halved the amount of time it stores personal data to nine months. Microsoft Corp has said it will cut the time to six months if its rivals did the same.

"Google first went to 18 months and started this competition," said Ari Schwartz, vice president at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a privacy advocacy group.

Yahoo's pledge is "significant because they are getting rid of some data after 90 days and they actually have an implementation plan to get this done," he added.

The company is also expanding the scope of the data it is making anonymous, to include page and advertisement clicks and views, from just search log data alone.

The European Union has recommended that companies keep data no more than six months and urged the sector to adopt an industry-wide standard.

"This was our attempt to put a stake in the ground" on the issue, Yahoo vice president of policy and privacy chief Anne Toth said.

Internet search engines get their revenue by matching advertisements to searches, so advertisers can peg their ads to what is on the searcher's mind.

Rivals weigh in

Microsoft said it welcomed the move, but made a distinction between the timeframe and the method of making data anon
ymous.

Yahoo will delete the final segment of the Internet Protocol (IP) address, which it said makes it no longer unique or identifiable.

Microsoft is deleting all of the Internet address, which it said will break any potential link to a particular set of search queries, according to Brendon Lynch, director of privacy strategy at the software giant.

"The best anonymisation is to get rid of all the identifying information," Schwartz said. "We are still not there on an industry standard."

Google reiterated in a statement its current policy of nine months and said it is "continually evaluating" its policies with respect to privacy.

Ask.com, owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, recently offered customers the ability to "opt out" of having their information stored for more than a few hours.

Yahoo's Toth said the company is not considering such a policy.

Once the companies make commitments on data retention, they are enforceable under federal and state laws in the United States, Schwartz added.

Source : IndiaTimes

ganeshbala

Yahoo cuts browser data retention to three months

Earlier this year, industry leader Google halved the amount of time it stores personal data to nine months. Microsoft has said it will cut the time to six months if its rivals did the same.

"Google first went to 18 months and started this competition," said Ari Schwartz, vice president at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a privacy advocacy group.

Yahoo's pledge "is more significant because they are getting rid of some data after 90 days and they actually have an implementation plan to get this done," he added.

The European Union has recommended that companies keep data no more than six months and urged the sector to adopt an industry-wide standard.

"This was our attempt to put a stake in the ground" on the issue, Yahoo vice president of policy and privacy chief Anne Toth said.

Internet search engines get their revenue by matching advertisements to searches, so advertisers can peg their ads to what is on the searcher's mind.

sajiv

Yahoo! picks up 30% in Chennai firm

Internet search firm Yahoo! has acquired around 30 per cent stake in Chennai-based tele-information service provider Info Network Management Company (INMAC), for an undisclosed amount.

With this investment which has been done through Yahoo!'s Dutch subsidiary, Yahoo! will have representation in INMAC's board, the company officials said today.

INMAC is known for its consumer brand, Call Ezee, a telephone directory search service available across 14 cites in India, including Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata. Consumers can call the local Call Ezee number from their mobile or fixed line phones to get the contact details of any business establishment or for any kind of service.

INMAC intends to strengthen its manpower and technology so as to triple its reach across India over the next two years, by upgrading its existing technology.

"We are happy to be a strategic investor in INMAC as the Call Ezee business seeks to establish itself as a national player in the voice-based local search space. The Indian local search market is seeing significant changes, as more and more consumers are using mobile phones to search for and find local businesses," Keith Nilsson, senior vice president and head, emerging markets, Yahoo! said.

Added T S Narayanaswamy, Founder and CEO, INMAC: "We believe the funds provided by Yahoo! will help us scale our business. The funding will be used to increase coverage of Call Ezee, make technology improvements as well as build a world-class team."


Kalyan

Yahoo Inc announces strategic investment in INMAC

Yahoo Inc on Thursday announced that it had acquired approximately 30 per cent stake in the Chennai-based Info Network Management Company, a large tele-information service provider

The strategic investment in INMAC which runs the popular consumer brand, 'Call Ezee' also enables Yahoo Inc to have a representation on INMAC's board.

"The funding raised will be used to increase coverage of Call Ezee, make technology improvements as well as build a world class team. We aim to gain market share by reaching out to untapped markets and advertisers in India", said T S Narayanaswamy, Founder and CEO, INMAC.

"The Indian local search market is seeing significant changes as more and more consumers are using mobile phones to search for and find local business. The investment also re-affirms our commitment to the Indian market", said Keith Nilsson, SVP and Head, Emerging Markets, Yahoo Inc.

Call Ezee is a telephone directory search service currently covering 14 cities across India, icnluding their mobile or landline number and request the contact details of any business or list of businesses that offer the product or services they are looking for.

According to Keith, the partnership provides Yahoo Inc the opportunity to expand its local reach and complement its current web service through the voice service. The partnership will enable the duo to share data and support each other on mutual basis.

dwarakesh

Yahoo to Delete Your Searches After 3 Months

Yahoo is to anonymise most of the data it collects about people's web searches after three months, a move that could put further pressure on competitors Google and Microsoft to do the same due to privacy concerns.

Yahoo, which previously kept the data for 13 months, will now retain it for the least amount of time compared to its rivals.

Google said in September that it would anonymise data after nine months, down from 18 months. Microsoft keeps data for 18 months, although it said earlier this month it would reduce the period to six months if its rivals did the same.

A European Union group has recommended that search engines discard data after six months. The recommendation has been endorsed by data protection officials from the 27 countries in the European Union. Countries could eventually choose to enforce the recommendation, which will be discussed further next year.

Privacy campaigners have expressed concerns that web users could potentially be identified on the basis of search terms and other data. An IP (Internet protocol) address can identify a person's ISP (Internet service provider) as well as their approximate geographic location. It also has been shown that a person can be identified on the basis of search terms they've entered.

Technology companies have maintained they needed to keep the data to observe how people use their search engines in order to improve their search services, such as increasing the relevancy of results.

Yahoo said it would anonymise its "user log data", although the company did not define exactly what data it collects. Other data that will be scrubbed include page views and clicks on ads.

Yahoo said it will keep some data for up to six months for security and fraud reasons, as part of some "specific and limited exceptions", it said in a statement. It may also be required to keep some data longer to meet legal obligations, it said.

dwarakesh

Yahoo! buys stake in Chennai firm

Yahoo! has picked up 30% stake in Chennai-based search service provider Info Network Management Company.

Info Network owns the voice search brand Call Ezee, and has an annual turnover of Rs 8 crore. It has about 1,000 employees out of which 400 work for Call Ezee.

The service is currently avaialble in 14 cities, and will add the voice platform to Yahoo's India search service. This is the third stake buy in an Indian company by Yahoo! after Bharat Matrimony and ad network Tyroo.

Keith Nilsson, head (emerging markets), Yahoo!, said: "The primary idea of the partnership is that Yahoo! offers a web-based local solution, Call Ezee offers a voice-based solution... we are jointly looking to expand the number of small businesses coming online and expand the reach of consumers using local search solutions in India."

sajiv

Yahoo! India says hiring plans on track

The Indian arm of the global search engine and web provider, Yahoo, on Tuesday said that it had not put a freeze on hiring and that campus recruitment plans were still on.

"There is no freeze on hiring and campus recruitment is going ahead as per plan," Yahoo India's Vice President and Head of Emerging Markets, Gopal Krishna, said in Mumbai.

However, Krishna did not give any specific numbers that the company planned to hire through campus recruitments.

The company had recently laid-off three per cent of its total work force in India as a part of its cost-cutting drive in the wake of the global economic meltdown. Globally, Yahoo has cut down its workforce by 10 per cent.

In India, the impact of recession was minimal, Krishna said, adding that, "in the coming year, we will be focusing more on catering to the needs of the local market."

The company was also working on exclusive pages for the metro market, which would serve the specific requirements of people living in the metros, he said.

"The pages will serve as a dash board for the end-user and will be tailor-made to his needs," Krishna said.

To a question whether there was any cut in the outsourcing of contents, Gopal said, "over the last few years, we have witnessed an increase in the supply of content.


sajiv

New Yahoo chief to get compensation of $19mn

NEW YORK: Yahoo Inc's new Chief Executive Carol Bartz will receive a compensation package of about $19 million in 2009, in addition to a bonus and stock options, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday.

Bartz's appointment, confirmed earlier this week, is seen paving the way for the Internet company to make decisions on major issues including a sale or search deal with Microsoft Corp.

Yahoo will pay Bartz an annual base salary of $1 million, as well as a $10 million equity-and-cash payment to make up for benefits that she will forfeit from her previous employer Autodesk Inc, according to its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

She will also receive an annual equity grant, which in 2009 will be around $8 million to be granted in February, it said.

Bartz will also receive stock options for 5 million Yahoo shares, with a strike price to be determined on Jan. 30. She is not allowed to exercise the options until the end of a four-year agreement, and they will only begin to vest when the share price is increased by 50 percent for a minimum of 20 consecutive trading days, the company said.

The new CEO also is eligible for a yearly bonus of around $2 million to as much as $4 million. The annual bonus will be determined by the board's compensation committee based on the company and Bartz's performance.

Under previous CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang, Yahoo rejected a $47.5 billion buyout offer from Microsoft nearly a year ago.

Yahoo's shares fell 80 cents, or 6.45 percent, to close at $11.61 on Thursday.

dhilipkumar

Yahoo joining Internet with TV

The Internet and the television have circled each other for years, but the timing was never right for them to form a serious relationship. Now with Yahoo playing matchmaker, their union promises to flower in a big way.The Sunnyvale Web portal, with the help of Intel, made one of the bigger splashes at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month with the full unveiling of its Yahoo Widget Channel, a new platform for Internet content that will be embedded in TVs from a number of major manufacturers.

The initiative takes the flirtation that companies like Sony and Samsung have had with watching Internet content on the TV and gives it a profound boost, helping users consume a robust version of the Web through one of their most beloved consumer electronics devices.Sony, Samsung, LG, Toshiba and Vizio have announced plans to deploy the channel on upcoming Internet-connected TVs starting this spring. Their TVs will feature at least 20 TV-optimized widgets or applications including MySpace, eBay, YouTube, CBS and - of course - a number of Yahoo properties like Yahoo News, Weather, Video, Finance and Flickr.

"We think we can make TV watching better," said Patrick Barry, vice president of Yahoo's connected TV.

Yahoo has worked several years on the system, which is powered by the Yahoo Widget Engine. Users can view their selected widgets along the bottom of their screen and can expand it so it takes up one-third or all of the screen. Users will navigate using their remote control.To ensure that Yahoo's widget channel is the preferred platform for Internet TVs, the company has partnered with Intel in releasing a widget development kit that will allow Internet companies and independent developers to create widgets made for TV.Barry said this open environment, which Yahoo will manage to maintain quality assurance, hopefully will prompt a host of applications and widgets. Widgets won't be one-to-one ports of existing Internet sites but will be tweaked to work in a TV setting. New applications could be created that help connect Internet content to what a viewer is watching on TV at the time.

Manufacturers see the widget channel as a new way to bring content and value to consumers. Samsung, for example, is adding the function to about one-third of its televisions starting with new models this March."TVs can only get so big, and the pictures can only get so good so at some point you need to differentiate from the competition through features," said Dan Schinasi, senior marketing manager of product planning for Samsung North America.For content providers, the TV presents a new way to engage users and expand their access to online services beyond the PC and mobile devices."MySpace for TV... enables us to deliver MySpace directly to our users in a way that complements their TV viewing experience and allows them to always stay connected to their social network," said Max Engel, product lead for MySpaceID.

Tim Alessi, director of new product development for LG, said consumers are ready for more of a "lean forward" experience that is more interactive than they're used to. He said the popularity of LG's first Blu-ray DVD player with Netflix support last year showed consumers are eager to engage more with their televisions.He said the key is playing up how TV can be a more logical way to consume some of the content found online."You don't want to sit at a desk or in your office to watch a Netflix episode but bringing it to the TV can make it enjoyable," Alessi said.

He said while pricing hasn't been set for connected TVs, he expects it will only add a small premium. LG is starting with four models this year but Alessi expects connectivity to eventually spread to most sets.Allen Weiner, an analyst with Gartner, said a big obstacle is the fact that Yahoo's Widget Channel will only work on new TVs. He said it would be good for the engine to work in other set-top boxes to address the needs of TV owners who aren't prepared to buy a new TV soon.But he said Yahoo enjoys a nice first-mover advantage and has the chance to fashion an innovative platform that transforms the television.

"This is an opportunity to create, innovate and make interesting things happen," Weiner said. "This fulfills a lot of pent-up demand for the interactive TV market."Not only can Yahoo revolutionize the TV, Barry said, it can also endear itself to consumers who might be more aligned online with rival Google.The move also has the potential to make money for Yahoo through advertisements. Barry said Yahoo hopes its expertise will translate into better, more targeted and interactive ads that will snag a premium from advertisers.But ultimately, the success of the channel and connected TVs overall relies on users seeing the boob tube as more than just a device for passive consumption. Barry said he expects users will embrace a television that is ready to evolve into an Internet machine.

"People might say they want a passive TV-watching experience, but you'd miss out on TiVo, a seminal device in history, if you thought that way," Barry said. "You just have to get over the barrier that I have to click a few more buttons. We think this is a similar kind of leap that users can handle."

dwarakesh

Yahoo freezes salaries

Yahoo said it is freezing employee pay as it works to curtail costs and improve the pioneering Internet firm's fortunes. 

The news comes five days before Yahoo announces its earnings for the final quarter of 2008. "The executive team decided that providing annual salary increases would not be in the best interests of the company or shareholders," said Yahoo spokeswoman Kim Rubey.

Some analysts are predicting that newly-appointed chief executive Carol Bartz will shake-up Yahoo. Veteran Silicon Valley executive Bartz took over the helm of Yahoo last week, vowing to revive the ailing Internet giant and calling on critics to give it room to breathe.

Bartz, 60, replaces Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, who stepped down on November 18 after a rocky tenure as chief executive of the Sunnyvale, California, firm that lasted a little over a year.

Yang, who founded Yahoo in 1994 with Stanford University classmate David Filo, will remain at Yahoo and the board said his "iconic stature in the industry makes him an invaluable resource."

Yahoo has been outshined by Internet-search star Google and stumbling in the wake of a failed courtship with Microsoft, which offered last year to buy Yahoo for nearly $47 billion.

Yang's rejection of Microsoft's 33-dollar-a-share takeover bid was met with disapproval by many shareholders including billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who led a revolt against Yang and was eventually named to Yahoo's board.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said on Thursday that the US software giant remains interested in a search business partnership with Yahoo and welcomed the appointment of Bartz.

"I've been quite public about the fact that there are advantages for advertisers and consumers, for Microsoft and for Yahoo through a search partnership, and we'd like to do one," Ballmer said. "I know Carol Bartz well from Autodesk days, and I like to see her at the helm of Yahoo. If it's appropriate I'm sure we'll have the right discussions."

Google dominates online search with more than 60 per cent of the market. Yahoo has around 20 per cent while Microsoft is a distant third with under 10 per cent.

Source: Indiatimes

sajiv

Yahoo's quarter: All eyes on Bartz

Brand-new Chief Executive Carol Bartz deserves exactly zero blame or credit for the fourth-quarter financial results Yahoo will announce Tuesday afternoon, but the judgment of her abilities will begin in earnest when she bears the Internet pioneer's tidings.

That's because Bartz so far has spent only 20 minutes on the phone with analysts as Yahoo's CEO, much of that spent setting a straight-talking, no-nonsense tone while avoiding any real discussion of Yahoo's position. The post-earnings call will be her opportunity to share her first assessment of the company and any plans she has for it.

However, one source familiar with Yahoo's plans for the call cautions against expecting some detailed recipe for turning around the company. Yahoo may have hired Bartz with relative alacrity, but the source said it's still "way too early" for her to reveal more than a few hints at what she has in mind for the company.

Bartz has the formidable task of rebuilding Yahoo before her. Former CEO Jerry Yang worked at it for a year and a half, laying some foundations such as Yahoo Open Strategy and the Apt system for handling display ads, but Yahoo now must show progress in actually improving revenue, net income, and share price. Worse, the company must do it during a recession.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect gloomy news. Revenue, excluding ad commissions called traffic acquisition costs paid to publishing partners, should drop 2 percent to $1.37 billion. Earnings per share, excluding various items, are expected to drop 14 percent to 13 cents per share.

One of the big trends to check is how well Yahoo is doing with its two kinds of advertising. First is search ads, the sponsored text that appears next to search results and the market Google dominates. It was a relative bright spot in Yahoo's third quarter, Google was relatively unaffected, and Microsoft reported its search-ad revenue grew double digits in the fourth quarter, so this could offer some modest grounds for optimism.

Second is display ads, the typically graphical variety that Yahoo relies on much more heavily. Unlike search ads, which advertisers pay Yahoo for only when users click them, display ads cost money when they're shown. That makes it harder to attribute revenue directly to them, so advertisers who depend on a provable return on investment get cold feet faster during tough economic times.

"We think display performance will be weak, but estimates already reflect this," said J.P. Morgan analyst Imran Khan and his colleagues in a research note Monday.

And things just get worse in the future: The outlook for the first quarter of 2009 is "likely to be poor," Khan said. "With so much uncertainty surrounding fiscal 2009, we think advertisers will be most conservative with ad spend in the first quarter."

Analysts, shareholders, and press won't be the only ones looking for signals Tuesday. Yahoo employees also likely will be eager to watch the show. So far, Bartz's internal mass communications haven't been too revealing. The only really meaty part of a memo sent after Bartz's first week, according to a copy posted by Kara Swisher at All Things D was this edict: "I wasn't too happy to see some 'inside sources' quoting my all-hands comments to the outside press--STOP IT!"

Employees got a taste of fiscal discipline early in Bartz's tenure: Yahoo suspended pay raises last week. Work on that plan began before Bartz arrived, but she was involved in signing off on it, according to a source familiar with the situation. Freezing salaries rarely helps morale, but neither do diminishing profitability, commercial irrelevance, and more layoffs, so the move isn't a surprise under the circumstances.

The biggest unknown for Yahoo is the extent to which the company will go it alone. Here, again, don't expect much guidance from Bartz yet.

Yahoo famously spurned a $33-per-share acquisition offer from Microsoft last year, and having Bartz now in charge could well facilitate some sort of Microsoft deal. But don't bet on any news in this department Tuesday. Microsoft has moved more toward acquiring just Yahoo's search assets, and The Wall Street Journal quoted Bartz during an employee meeting as saying her "gut" leaned against it. In any event, there are plenty of board members at Yahoo who were also disinclined last year to sell the search asset, so Bartz isn't the sole factor.

Having the Microsoft possibilities gives Yahoo investors something of a security blanket, if not a guarantee of a big return. And Bartz's arrival notwithstanding, some believe it's still how the Yahoo saga will end.

"While fundamentals remain challenging for the company, the possibility of a merger or accretive deal with Microsoft keeps a floor in the stock," said American Technology Research analyst Rob Sanderson. "We continue to believe this is the ultimate outcome."

sajiv

No pay hikes for Yahoo employees in '09

To cope up with the global economic meltdown, internet major Yahoo! has decided to freeze salary hikes of its employees this year.

Kim Rubey, Yahoo's spokesperson based in United States said, "Based on the current economic environment and our focus on keeping costs in line with revenues, we have decided that providing annual salary increases would not be in the best interests of the company or our shareholders."

He noted that the freeze on salary hikes would would be 'in place through 2009'. The latest move came in less that two weeks after Carol Bartz took over as new Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo. She tookover the post from Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang.

In 2008, Yahoo!'s global headcount stood at 15,000 and of them, around 1,500 employees are in India. "This decision is consistent with our broader focus on strategically reducing Yahoo!s costs, an effort that has been underway for some time now. The decision was based on the current economic environment and our focus on keeping costs in line with revenues," Rubey said.

On Tuesday, Jan 27 Yahoo! is set to announce its fourth qyuarter and full year results. To cope up with ongoing recession many companies worldwide are holding back pay hikes. Even US President Barack Obama, soon after assuming office, ordered to freeze salary hikes for White House employees earning over 1,00,000 dollars.

In 2008 October, Yahoo! announced reduction of about 10 pc of its workforce to slash expenses.

Earlier Jerry Yang, Yahoo! ex-CEO came under fire for rejecting Microsoft's 47.5 billion takeover deal. Also the much talked-about proposed advertising deal with Google also collapsed. Appointment of Bartz, the ex-CEO of software maker Autodesk is widely expected to help boost Yahoo's business.

"There is no denying that Yahoo! has faced enormous challenges over the last year, but I believe there is now an extraordinary opportunity to create value for our shareholders and new possibilities for our customers, partners and employees," Bartz said after taking over as Yahoo! CEO.

OneIndia News

sajiv

Despite net loss, Yahoo beats the Street

Yahoo handily cleared Wall Street's pessimistic earnings expectations for a grim fourth quarter and matched anticipated revenue, but charges swung the Internet pioneer to a net loss for the quarter.

The company reported a net loss of $303 million for the quarter ended December 31, compared with net income of $206 million from the year-earlier quarter. The loss was a goodwill impairment charge of $488 million and restructuring charges of $108 million. Revenue, excluding commissions to partners dubbed traffic acquisition costs, dropped 2 percent, to $1.38 billion.

However, excluding various items, the company reported net income of 17 cents per share, compared with the 13 cents that analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected. Yahoo essentially matched the revenue expectation of $1.37 billion.

New Chief Executive Carol Bartz looked on the bright side.

"Despite the challenging economic environment, Yahoo delivered adjusted operating cash flow above the midpoint of guidance for the fourth quarter," Bartz said. "The company also made important investments while aggressively managing costs, leaving us better positioned to weather the economic downturn and emerge stronger, when advertiser spending improves. We have work to do, but I am excited by Yahoo's opportunities, and encouraged by the tremendous innovation and momentum I've seen since joining the company as CEO."


sajiv

Yahoo losses not as bad as Wall Street expected

SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc. stumbled to a fourth-quarter loss of $303 million, but the Internet company withstood the recession better than analysts had expected.

The results that were released Tuesday closed the books on Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang's fruitless 18-month stint as CEO. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company hired a new leader, Carol Bartz, two weeks ago in its latest attempt to orchestrate a turnaround.

Yahoo's loss translated into 22 cents per share. It compared with a profit of 15 cents per share in the prior year, when Yahoo earned $206 million.


dwarakesh

Yahoo posts net loss of $303 million in Q4

Internet major Yahoo! has reported a net loss of $303 million in the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2008 on restructuring costs amid global downturn.

For the full year ended December 2008, Yahoo! posted a profit of $424 million against $660 million in the previous year, a company statement said here.

It added that the company during the quarter had incurred a restructuring cost of $108 million and "good will impairment" charge of $488 million among other costs.

Analysts said the expense of about 1,500 layoffs, along with the slackening advertisement spends, may have impacted the earnings.

Yahoo! had announced laying off about 1,500 employees in its efforts to save the company from the impact of the global downturn.

Yahoo! Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen said: "We are encouraged by our results for 2008. The company's aggressive cost management and strong balance sheet helped us navigate this unprecedented economic environment."

In its outlook for the first quarter of the next year, the company expects its revenue to range from $1.53 billion to $1.73 billion, a decline from 1.82 billion at the same period last year.

Source: Businessstandard

dwarakesh

Yahoo to Shut Down Briefcase Service

The company has cited low usage and popularity of the service when compared to its other services like Flickr and Mail as reasons for pulling the plug.

Yahoo, as a part of trimming down excess baggage, has decided to shut down its 10-year-old online storage program -- the Yahoo Briefcase.

The company has cited low usage and popularity of the service when compared to its other services like Flickr and Mail as reasons for pulling the plug.

Users have been provided a March 30 deadline to retrieve their data stored online. Yahoo adds that discontinuing the service will allow them to focus their efforts on more broadly used products.

This comes days after new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz took charge and is on a mission to save the Internet giant with a series of tough measures that included even more lay-offs, pay cuts and salary freezes.

Those of you who still use the service might as well save all your files back to your PCs before the March 30 deadline - lest you lose your data permanently.

Source: Techtree

dwarakesh

Yahoo Inc is panning for gold in waters that Google Inc abandoned. Yahoo said in a blog post that it was testing a new tool to help people better organize the bounty of information that crops up while doing research on the Web.

Search Pad is similar in concept to Google Notebook- a product the Web-search leader opted to halt development on last month. But the fact that Google threw in the towel on a product does not mean Yahoo is wasting its time, say some analysts.

The companies' differing financial and competitive positions mean what is right for one might not make sense for the other.

Google, which controls roughly 63 percent of the U.S. search market, is taking a hard look at its operating expenses to preserve its operating margin in a slowing economy, including the slew of non-essential projects it traditionally supported.

Yahoo, whose 2008 revenue rose 3 percent to $7.2 billion, is in dire need of a new growth strategy, say analysts. Investors might be more tolerant of projects that pressure profit margins at Yahoo if there is a chance of a payoff, said Sandeep Aggarwal an analyst at Collins Stewart, speaking in general terms and not of Search Pad specifically.

"Yahoo cannot give up on other projects," he said. Yahoo, which recently hired Carol Bartz as chief executive to revive its fortunes, is in a "transformation phase" after turning down a $47.5 billion buyout offer from Microsoft Corp last year and seeing a search advertising partnership with Google fall apart under antitrust scrutiny.

Search Pad predates Bartz's arrival, said Yahoo Search Senior Director of Product Management Tom Chi. It stems from a realization that Web surfers use search engines not just to find the link to a particular site, but to conduct research on everything from buying a new car to learning about a medical condition.

The product detects when a person appears to be doing research on a specific topic and offers to catalogue the findings in a special window within the Yahoo search page.

A person can use Search Pad to clip a portion of a website, such as a book review on Amazon.com Inc, add notes to various clippings and save the results as part of their online profile. Yahoo will begin offering Search Pad to a limited set of Web surfers on Wednesday.

Google continues to support Notebook for existing users but no longer updates the product with new features and will not allow new users to sign up for the service. According to Pacific Crest Securities analyst Steve Weinstein, Yahoo's best prospect for taking market share in the search business is increasingly about the user experience.

"As it stands right now, no one would shift from using Google, or any other site, just because (a different search engine is) one basis point more relevant," said Weinstein, who has a "sector perform" rating on Yahoo and whose firm makes a market in Yahoo shares.

"They really need to find some kind of experience that will make people think Yahoo is unique," he said.

Source: Economictimes

dwarakesh

Yahoo offers iPhone-like Web for masses

Yahoo announced a new mobile service on Tuesday that will deliver an iPhone-like experience for people who cannot or will not splash
out for the iconic but pricey Apple device as times get hard.

Yahoo Mobile will launch at the end of March in a form downloadable to any phone with a Web browser and from May in custom versions for hundreds of smartphones.

"There is a growing number of consumers out there who are not Apple iPhone users but want a rich starting experience," Marco Boerries, the head of Yahoo's mobile division, told Reuters in an interview.

Yahoo will also launch a version of Yahoo Mobile, designed to be a starting point for users to access the Internet, for the iPhone itself at the end of March. A test version for a limited number of public users is going live this week.

Yahoo Mobile offers a front page with colorful, boxy icons resembling the iPhone's for launching popular applications such as a Web browser, mail, news, weather and social network sites like Facebook.

Users also have the option to easily add any software or Web sites they choose to download on their phones.

The company plans in coming months to promote Yahoo Mobile via a series of 70 major operator partnerships it has struck to reach 850 million mobile subscribers around the globe.

Fifty of those partnerships already offer Yahoo services and the company expects the rest to adopt Yahoo Mobile in coming months, Boerries said.

Yahoo has developed versions that work on hundreds of mid-range and high-end mobile phones from BlackBerry maker RIM, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Motorola, as well as phones running Microsoft Windows.

Boerries defines the universe of phones that can effectively run Yahoo Mobile as "every phone that's shipped in the last two years that has a decent HTML-capable browser." He added: "We don't want to make lowest common denominator stuff."

A more general version of the service downloadable from the Web will also work on older phones but will not be tailored to those phones' specifications. Boerries demonstrated it on an old Sony Ericsson model.

Boerries said last year's on-again off-again talks with would-be buyer Microsoft had not significantly distracted his team, and said he had kept his key staff together for years.

After some prior delays in introducing services such as Yahoo Go, Boerries professed relief that his fuller vision of putting the Web on phones had arrived on time: "It is really, for me, making it all come together."

Source: Economictimes