Even in the midst of the economic meltdown as prices for acquisition goodies decline, tech companies are keeping their mega-billion-dollar cash hordes warm and dry.
When will they open the purse strings? Or will Oracle’s Larry Ellison be the only hey-big-spender out there in the months ahead?
And when do you think tech companies should commence to gobbling?
It looks like Carol Bartz will be taking on the thankless role as new Yahoo CEO.
Sources close to the situation told BoomTown–which had first named the former Autodesk CEO the top pick for the top job at the troubled Internet company last week–that Bartz has been approved for the job by the Yahoo board and has accepted it.
The Wall Street Journal is also reporting the move.
But can the experienced tech exec turn Yahoo around?
Following on BoomTown’s report earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal has also named former Autodesk top exec Carol Bartz as a contender for Yahoo CEO in a report today.
Since my post on Wednesday, I have been getting a lot of intense reaction from inside and outside of Yahoo to the idea of an old-line tech CEO–such as Bartz–with little Internet or online advertising experience, taking on the difficult role at Yahoo.
What’s most interesting about the reaction to Bartz is that the kudos and the knocks track very closely.
BoomTown is not saying it’s going to be like watching grass grow.
But 2009 is not exactly getting off to a rousing start this week–with two underwhelming blockbuster tech events taking place that already have more of an air of whimper than of bang to them.
That would be the Consumer Electronics Show, the annual egregious gadgetfest in Las Vegas, and the final appearance by Apple at Macworld.
Of course, while CES tries to fend off the spate of no-one-is-going-to-CES stories–well, I am!–the absence of his digital Holiness and Apple CEO Steve Jobs at Macworld has really generated most of the glumness.
Earlier this week, in a piece about Yahoo layoffs, BoomTown reiterated the notion that Yahoo would pick its next CEO to replace its current leader Jerry Yang from its own board or some dark horse CEO, rather than one of the Web’s more high-profile players.
The Wall Street Journal raised such a name in a piece today–former Vodafone Group CEO Arun Sarin.
It’s an intriguing idea, to be sure, since Sarin meets the list of six key criteria the board has created, including having public company CEO experience.
But there are other dark horses who fit that bill.
Obviously, the dream CEO for Yahoo is News Corp. President and COO Peter Chernin.
And, no surprise, he is the No. 1 choice of most inside and outside Yahoo in the wake of the news late yesterday that its current CEO and Co-Founder Jerry Yang is stepping down.
Well, Yahoo would certainly be a challenge for Chernin, in terms of a corporate cleanup challenge, especially compared to figuring out how to make bank on plush toys from “The Simpsons.”
But there are many other contenders for the job, despite the slog it could be. Here’s BoomTown’s list…
Another week, another nonpick for the still-outstanding position to lead Microsoft’s digital business.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has cast about for more than three months, both internally and externally, for the person who will turbocharge Microsoft’s Web efforts, but no one has emerged a favorite.
Nonetheless, new prospects include former Cisco exec and current Joost CEO Mike Volpi, sources said.
In advance of tomorrow’s elections, here’s a pair of videos of the two presidential candidates, Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, talking about tech.
While Obama has many more supporters in the tech and Internet sectors in terms of overall numbers, including Google CEO Eric Schmidt, McCain’s tech fans include Cisco CEO John Chambers, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and former H-P head Carly Fiorina.
Here’s an interesting video from The Vote Hour, which is trying to get CEOs to let employees take off an hour from work to vote.
But while the group is independent and bipartisan, it is also an effort that started at Google.
The video includes the search giant’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, along with a panoply of well-known execs, including a lot from tech.
Also included, apparently for comic relief, is real estate mogul Donald Trump.
Well, here’s a good reason not to write off Joost quite yet:
When it officially debuts its new Web-based service in mid-October, the London-based company will have some pretty hot content with its half-dozen seasons of the former NBC hit, “Friends.”
Also, there will finally be no more irksome plug-ins.
There will also be cooler social-networking elements.
While all this is not going to make up for the lost time the online video service has wasted with its annoying P2P-based desktop client download, going to a Web-based, all-Flash service with more robust content is certainly the right way to stop rival service Hulu from continuing to clean Joost’s clock.
One of AllThingsD.com’s greatest friends–integral to its creation, in fact–has been Gordon Crovitz, former publisher of The Wall Street Journal and former president of the Dow Jones Consumer Media Group.
Crovitz knows a thing or two about the transition mainstream media has been making to new media and, more importantly, was never scared of the change. [...]
I like Mike. Volpi, that is, Joost’s new CEO. The 40-year-old longtime tech exec is a nice choice to run the moderately hyped online video television site. But I will admit it–I have not been gung-ho on the prospect of Joost–which I have called a potentially “messy control freak of a service.”
Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers came to talk about consumers, a shift from a company better known for selling the plumbing of the Internet rather than its bells and whistles.
With a number of consumer-facing acquisitions of late and the Web 2.0 buzzword on his lips, we talked about a range of things for the [...]
Interoperate’s Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose: Here is that video from MarketWatch about the joint interview PBS’s Charlie Rose did with John Chambers of Cisco and Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, where they trotted out that old saw about coopetition. In other words, how the tech giants might compete, but also …
Now, in living color, the entire historic joint interview with Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Steve Jobs of Apple.
D: All Things Digital, the annual tech and media conference Walt Mossberg and I host, has been sold out with a long wait list every year we have put it on.
That has meant only a few hundred people [...]
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. Read more »
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.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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