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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

MySpace Poised to Hire New Ad Sales Head as It Preps Music- and Entertainment-Centric Strategy and Redesign

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In a week, the entire advertising sales staff of MySpace will gather at a swanky new seaside resort about 20 miles south of Los Angeles to get a first glimpse of the fresh direction the company is preparing to take under its new management.

The beleaguered social networking site has been in the midst of an effort to reinvigorate its image, spur innovation in its product and–most of all–pull itself out of a too-long slump, even as longtime rival Facebook has seen explosive growth.

On the possible agenda: A new strategy aimed at music and entertainment; a new look; and, perhaps, a new boss for the ad sales team.

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Monday, September 21, 2009

Adobe’s CTO Kevin Lynch Talks–But Not Omniture!

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BoomTown went to visit the HQ of Adobe in San Francisco several weeks ago to have a chit-chat with its CTO, Kevin Lynch, for a lovely discussion about the future of its Flash online video technology and more.

But he somehow did not mention the then-pending purchase of Omniture by Adobe for $1.8 billion. Go figure.

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Thursday, February 26, 2009

One Last Yahoo Reorg Missive: Bartz Tells Employees What She Already Said. Again.

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Goodness gracious, make it stop!

You must know by now how much BoomTown loves internal Yahoo memos. But this is getting ridiculous.

It’s been like a flash flood after a long drought at Sunnyvale HQ today, as Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz turns on the firehose of a whole lot of communicating.

“I know you guys have reorg fatigue,” wrote Bartz in the latest email to employees about the management reorganization finally announced this morning.

Also memo fatigue at All Things Digital HQ, if you can believe it.

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Monday, February 23, 2009

The Yahoo Management Structure: Who Is In and Who Is Out?

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On Friday, BoomTown first reported that new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is likely to be announcing a sweeping new management structure soon, which can only mean the possibility that some existing top execs are likely to be broomed out, even as some new ones are ushered in.

“This is going to be a full-scale peanut butter recall,” joked one exec, referring to the infamous “Peanut Butter Manifesto,” which was sent around the company several years ago by former exec Brad Garlinghouse. It laid bare the problems at Yahoo, most especially a decided lack of decision-making and lugubrious levels of managers.

Here is the sticky skinny.

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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Where in the World Is America’s CTO?

With the naming of Oracle President Charles Phillips to President Barack Obama’s 16-Member Economic Recovery Advisory Board a few days ago, another Silicon Valley tech mandarin fell off the list to become America’s first chief technology officer.

The job–which was promised by President Barack Obama during his campaign and underscored when he released a memorandum on transparency and open government that outlined some of the CTO duties the day after he was sworn in–remains unfilled.

While everyone is rightly focusing on the economic crisis, inquiring minds still want to know who is getting the job as head geek.

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Sunday, November 16, 2008

Obama YouTubes and Techies Swoon (BoomTown Will Only Do So When There Is a National Broadband Policy)

Is it just me or does the fact that President-Elect Barack Obama is broadcasting his weekly address on YouTube not seem like it should be the very biggest deal in the world?

While it is a first for the Commander-in-Chief, I am more depressed that it is a first–after all, skateboarding cats made it to YouTube eons ago–than utterly thrilled that he is doing it.

But, when it come to the glacial movement related to politicians and tech issues, disappointment seems to be a better stance than hope.

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Friday, June 27, 2008

Kara Visits GigaOm’s Structure 08

With all the Yahoo reorganization noise this past week–full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, if you want to go all literary!–BoomTown had little time to post our video on GigaOm’s Om Malik’s Structure 08 conference on Wednesday.

Held at the spanking new Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco, it was high-wonk, packed with CTOs and those involved in building the guts of the Internet and its infrastructure, whose jobs are becoming more complicated than ever as Internet usage booms.

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Thursday, June 26, 2008

More on Yahoo’s Reorg: Dietzen Is Garlinghouse Replacement

As BoomTown reported last night, the Yahoo reorganization will be unveiled later this morning, with the slate of execs that this column outlined last week in its gory–oops, I mean, glorious–detail.

Sources said a more substantial public announcement has been pushed by Yahoo’s board–apparently, an internal email to employees was considered too–to show Yahoo’s new team and that the company still has a strong bench, despite a lot of exec departures of late.

Some more news: Yahoo will name Scott Dietzen to take over the job of SVP Brad Garlinghouse, running all communications and community properties and products under Patel.

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Monday, May 12, 2008

I Can’t Hold Her Together, Cap’n Zuckerberg…

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Our good friends over at GeekCulture, whose very funny comics we publish regularly in Voices, sent us a link to this fine spoof picture of now-former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo, depicted as Scotty in the classic sci-fi series “Star Trek.”

It is an apt goodbye for the 23-year-old D’Angelo, who is leaving Facebook to boldly go where few other geeks have gone before (that would be away from one of Silicon Valley’s hottest start-ups before its much-anticipated IPO).

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Sunday, May 11, 2008

Facebook’s CTO D’Angelo to Leave

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Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo will leave the company.

BoomTown called Facebook PR last week about the rumor of D’Angelo’s departure, but did not get a response. The company confirmed the departure by D’Angelo (pictured here) tonight.

The 23-year-old D’Angelo, the top tech exec for the social-networking site, will be leaving the company to take some time off.

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About Kara

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 »

Ethics Statement

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.

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