Everybody remain calm.
While it might have looked like it was the rapture for major Internet players yesterday–what with everyone and his mother getting sucked up into the Yahoo-Microsoft takeover tussle and disappearing into the ether of confusion that now reigns over the situation–it is best to keep moving toward the light of harsh reality for illumination.
Our email box was full today with missives from Yahoos, ex-Yahoos and others, all of whom wanted to weigh in on the latest changes at the company.
All are insightful (and some are even funny, too).
No one is identified, but here are some of my favorite observations, since most of them say it better than I ever could.
No Experience Necessary
(I added the names in parentheses.)
Now we’ve got a CEO who has never been CEO before (Jerry Yang). A COO with limited operations experience (Sue Decker). A CFO who has never been a CFO in his life (Blake Jorgensen) and an EVP of ad sales with no sales experience (Hilary Schneider). Next, I think we’ll hire a CTO who is well versed in arts and culture with no prior tech experience. (Still a mystery.)”
Wasting Away in Margaritaville
I read your latest post and even though I am not at Yahoo anymore, I am going to go outside and use my newest gift to myself, my margarita blender, get brain freeze from too much ice being consumed too quickly, and try to get the confusion of their reorg out of my mind!
“If I was working at Yahoo reading this, I would not know what I am supposed to do tomorrow when I come back into the office! Therefore, I would instead go home tonight, get out my list of headhunters and start sending out the next stack of resumes I did not send out over the weekend!”
Will Work for Free
I’d actually like to be a Yahoo! As would many other people who care. You’d think they’d be looking for the passionate people who’d like to be there. You’d think any of these Internet companies would. But that is a long story.”
Kara Is Hilarious
The Yahoo posts were laugh-out-loud funny, but your coolness factor just went way up for having Jill Sobule at your house!”
Kara Is Mean
You are downright nasty…hard to believe you worked for The WSJ and not the NY Post. Maybe it’s time to lay off for a while? You must be able to write something more intellectually interesting.”
Note to that emailer above: More intellectually interesting than corporate high jinks? I think not!
And given the recent events at Dow Jones, what with our pending acquisition by News Corp., BoomTown and Page Six are about to be related by marriage. So we’re The WSJ and the NY Post!
For those who enjoyed Jill Sobule singing onstage at D5, the witty singer-songwriter who has graced many tech conference stages will be at the Red Devil Lounge this Sunday in San Francisco.
If you need an inkling of what a talent she is, here are her four performances at D5. Sometimes she is funny, sometimes silly, sometimes deeply poignant (the last video here is a heartbreaker) and always amazing.
Do not miss these videos:
PART 1
We’re all in Carlsbad, Calif., now, getting ready for our fifth D: All Things Digital conference, which will begin tomorrow night.
So here’s one of my movies to show you how we prepare for the annual conference, which is highlighted this year by a joint interview with Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs, the twin icons of the tech industry.
We’ll kick off the conference tomorrow night with an interview with Sen. John McCain, who is in the race to become the Republican nominee for president of the United States. We will talk to him about that, as well as the war in Iraq, but also hope to discuss a plethora of digital issues with him. McCain is one of the few politicians who knows a thing or two about the media, telecom and Web sectors.
Other interviewees on Wednesday and Thursday include: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer; CBS CEO Les Moonves; News Corp. President Peter Chernin; Cisco CEO John Chambers; former AOL CEO Steve Case, who will talk about his new company, Revolution; famed director and producer George Lucas; Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore; Google CEO Eric Schmidt; YouTube founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley; Philippe Dauman, CEO of Viacom; and space tourist (and former Microsoft exec) Charles Simonyi.
We’ll also have demos from tech players like Palm legend Jeff Hawkins and others. And we are also excited to have singer/songwriter Jill Sobule, who will perform several times throughout.
We’ll have full coverage of D5 on our site, starting tomorrow night, including liveblogging by Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski, pictures, video excerpts and more.
A DonorsChoose.org Miracle: My Dinner With Jerry (and BoomTown Plans to Vanquish the Naked Scoble!)
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Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
