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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Photobucket Layoffs Today: One-Third of Staff Let Go; Other FIM Units Also Impacted

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The layoffs at Fox Interactive Media moved on to Photobucket today, as one-third of its staff of about 120 were let go, sources close to the situation said.

The photo- and video-hosting service was bought for $250 million in mid-2007 by News Corp.

A FIM spokesperson confirmed the layoffs after being contacted by BoomTown, but declined to give specific numbers. But sources told me a total of about 75 people were fired.

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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Confirmed: Travis Katz Remains at MySpace as International Head (Though With 66.7 Percent Less Staff)

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Earlier today, there was an odd little news kerfuffle around the status of MySpace international head Travis Katz, as the troubled social-networking site laid off 300 of its non-U.S. employees.

Last week, MySpace announced it was reducing its U.S. staff by 420 workers in what has been a major restructuring for the News Corp. unit.

Well, to clear up the is-he-is-or-is-he-ain’t question, it turns out Katz is definitely not leaving in the current shake-up.

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Monday, June 22, 2009

Another Top Exec Gone From FIM, as It Readies a Name and Structure Change

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Mike Angus, EVP and General Counsel of Fox Interactive Media, is leaving that job for another in New Corp., as new digital head Jon Miller continues to reshape the division.

Last week, BoomTown reported that FIM CFO Ed McKenna was leaving his post and the company, part of many changes taking place related to News Corp.’s digital properties.

It’s all part of a major rejiggering of the News Corp. digital unit, which came into being almost four years ago, although not an elimination of the unit, as has been reported.

More likely, it will likely include a name change–perhaps to the Digital Media Group–as well as a much streamlined organization that gives more autonomy to FIM’s Web, online advertising and publishing technology units.

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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

MySpace: After the Layoffs, Here’s What’s What and What’s Next

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Now what?

The party-all-night social-networking site that has been MySpace so far got a massive morning-after shock yesterday when 30 percent of its workforce was laid off.

And today, MySpace, which is still 1,000-strong, has to face the cold, harsh light of day in the aftermath of the restructuring and get busy quickly figuring out a way to reinvigorate a brand that has suffered after a stunning rocket of a start many years ago.

So, based on many sources I have spoken to over the last week, here’s a rundown of the next steps MySpace will likely be taking and who’ll be making them.

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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Flickr Co-Founder Butterfield and Chief Architect Henderson Working on Stealth Start-Up

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Yesterday, several Flickr engineers posted news of their layoffs from the Yahoo photo-sharing unit on Twitter, which caused GigaOm’s Om Malik to notice that Flickr architect Cal Henderson was also no longer on its About page.

According to several sources I spoke to, Henderson was actually not laid off at Yahoo, but is leaving to start a new company–in the social-gaming arena, I am told–with Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield.

He and several other of the original core development team for Flickr transitioned out or have been transitioning out for quite some time, sources said.

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Thursday, April 23, 2009

Liveblogging the Microsoft Earnings Call: Glum Chris at the Recessiondome

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Well, despite the news being as bad at Microsoft as it was at Yahoo earlier this week, the conference call after the software giant released its third-quarter earnings was 100 percent less naughty and 200 percent more glum.

In other words, while there were no F-bombs dropped, there were lots of E-bombs–as in econalypse.

Here’s BoomTown’s liveblogging of the call–featuring the software giant’s semi-apocalyptic CFO, Chris Liddell.

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Microsoft Gets Hit by the Econalypse: Earnings and Revenue Slide (Plus the Full Press Release)

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Microsoft’s earnings and revenue took a hit in its third quarter, as expected, with profits down 32 percent from a year ago on a six percent sales decline.

Before one-time charges, the software giant earned $2.98 billion, or 33 cents a share after one-time charges, on revenue of $13.65 billion.

The weak results were relatively in line with analysts’ estimates of 39 cents a share on $14.1 billion in revenue.

The culprit for the bad news was the decline in consumer and business spending on computers since half Microsoft’s operating income comes from sales of its Windows operating system.

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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Liveblogging the Yahoo Earnings Call: It All Depends on Your Definition of What “Wow!” Is

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A major Yahoo investor yesterday told me that he liked what he saw so far from new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, but he was wary.

“I like the sizzle,” he said, referring to Bartz’s decisive take-no-prisoners style. “But I am still waiting to see if steak is there too.”

Well, Bartz sizzled at its first-quarter earnings conference call today, tossing off some ribald words as she also handed over some tough news to chew on, announcing Yahoo’s much-expected weak first-quarter results. The company also said it would cut five percent of its staff of 13,600, which is close to 700 employees.

BoomTown liveblogged the call with Bartz, who noted about Yahoo: “The most important takeaway was the importance of having a ‘Wow!’ experience.”

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Yahoo First-Quarter Results Are as “Meh” as Expected; Company Will Cut Five Percent of Staff (Plus the Full Press Release)

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Yahoo announced its first-quarter earnings today and results were in line with weak expectations and said it would cut five more percent out of its workforce.

The company reported an eight cent per share profit, down from 37 cents a year ago. It is a 78 percent drop, though last year Yahoo had unusual investment gains in the previous quarter.

Revenues in the current quarter was $1.6 billion, a 13 percent decline from last year’s $1.8 billion. Excluding sales Yahoo shares with its partners, the revenue was $1.16 billion, below the $1.2 billion estimates.

The company also announced it would lay off five percent more of its workforce, or almost 700 employees.

Yahoo later held a conference call, where it discussed the results and more.

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Monday, April 20, 2009

Make Way for Tech Earnings: IBM, Yahoo, Apple and Microsoft on Deck

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Here come more tech earnings this week, as investors hope the industry can help goose a still shaky economy.

But while the tech industry is healthy, relatively speaking, they probably should not hope too hard to be soaring anytime soon on Silicon Valley’s digital flying carpet.

In other words, down is still the new up.

In any case, on deck this week: IBM, Yahoo, Apple and Microsoft.

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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One: Yahoo Management and Staff Set on Shuffle Again

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Yes, more layoffs are indeed coming to Yahoo, sources confirmed to BoomTown, but perhaps even more than have been reported.

But that’s not all, as even more top-level managers are either leaving or being moved around the ever-changing organizational structure at Yahoo.

That includes a longtime top sales operations exec, Dan Foehner, who is about to start at Facebook next week, as well as others contemplating leaving, on their way out or being reshuffled.

In other words, business as usual at the tumultuous company, whose nickname should be “Reorg.”

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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Rock, Meet Hard Place: More Details of AOL Layoffs–But Are There More to Come?

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Earlier today, Silicon Alley Insider reported that layoffs at AOL, which had been announced in January, were finally taking place.

Actually, said an AOL insider, about 10 percent of the layoffs, or 70 people, have been let go since the announcement. The pace just got ratcheted up today, adding another 300 to the pyre at the troubled Time Warner online division.

But, said several sources, the slashing of staff might go well beyond what has been announced. With the ever-weakening economy, there is still fat to be cut out, especially since Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes either has to sell AOL off or make it work a whole lot better.

And working better most likely means more cuts–and a whole lot more of them.

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Friday, February 6, 2009

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer Bubble-Pops at Democratic Policy Confab: The Full Speech

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made an appearance at the three-day U.S. House of Representatives Democratic Caucus Retreat today to talk about innovation and, let’s be real, the very bad economy and the impact on businesses like the tech giant.

The confab has already seen an appearance by President Barack Obama yesterday and one by Vice President Joe Biden this morning. Ballmer got the lunch spot today.

Ballmer’s message was a bummer, appropriately: “In my view, what we now have will be a fundamental economic reset.”

Here’s his whole speech.

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Tuesday, February 3, 2009

AOL Ad Head Clarizio Out–Being Replaced by Former Yahoo Sales Head Coleman

The game of executive musical chairs among Web companies keeps on going, with sources telling BoomTown that AOL ad head Lynda Clarizio will be departing the online service and be replaced by former high-ranking Yahoo advertising exec Greg Coleman.

The move at AOL, which has been in the works for only a week, could be announced as early as today, although I have been hearing rumors of such a development since late last week.

Both AOL’s content and communications units have been getting an overhaul of late, and now it seems it is time for its lackluster ad business.

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

AOL CEO Randy Falco’s Entire Memo to the Troops on Layoffs

Here is the letter AOL CEO Randy Falco has penned to the entire staff about its layoffs of 10 percent of its workforce–or 700 people–and other cost cuts, which the online service is announcing today.

“We’re at a pivotal point in AOL’s transformation, and need to be even more strategically focused and operationally efficient as we weather the economic storm,” wrote Falco, in part, about the move.

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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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