Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is making the most substantive changes in her exec ranks since she did a massive restructuring of its staff in late February, according to sources close to the situation.

“She is continuing to clean the place up,” said one top exec about the moves, which are likely to be announced internally tomorrow.

Among the shifts in management will be filling the slot left by the departure of North American Audience head Jeff Dossett in May.

UPDATE: Sources say Yahoo’s head of mobile, David Ko, will get the job of top Audience exec, although it is not clear if he will have the same portfolio has former media heads at Yahoo.

Since Dossett left, his job has been split between Jimmy Pitaro, who runs Vertical Audience Experiences, and Tim Mayer, who is in charge of Search & Social Applications. They both currently report to U.S. EVP Hilary Schneider.

The job of Audience head is a key role, given that Yahoo’s powerful media properties are among its most valuable assets. In recent months, Yahoo has made some major changes in the way it creates its juggernaut News property.

Also to be filled is the job being done by Corporate Partnership SVP Jim Schinella, who, as BoomTown previously reported, is set to leave at the end of the year.

I could not determine who will take Schinella’s job, inside or out.

Interestingly, Yahoo has yet to name an international head.

Sources said the company had filled the position, using a headhunter, but the London-based media exec candidate backed out at the last minute. That meant Yahoo had to restart its search.

There might also be other top exec changes, all part of Bartz’s consolidation of power at Yahoo. She has named a spate of new top execs from outside, but has also kept some from the regime of former CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang.

These staffing moves have come even as a stream of execs continued to depart the Silicon Valley Internet giant, including, most recently, Mike Walrath, who was SVP of advertising strategy. Walrath had led Right Media, the online ad exchange Yahoo bought for $680 million in 2007.

Walrath was widely expected to leave Yahoo in July, at the completion of his earnout from the acquisition, sources said, so the move was more sudden than expected internally.

Sources noted that Bartz moved Walrath’s departure forward in order to announce a new strategy for Right Media focused on premium publishers and to dump those ad networks and publishers of lesser ilk.

Whether this will stop the competitive onslaught in the ad exchange space is an open question given that Google has entered the fray significantly and that Facebook is widely expected to bolster its efforts.

Lastly, several sources said that there are also likely to be more changes on Yahoo’s board, which has seen the departure of two members recently.

In September, Maggie Wilderotter said she would leave the board by year’s end. And former Yahoo nemesis and investor Carl Icahn left the board in late October.

Whether Yahoo will replace them or keep its current size of 10 directors is not clear.

Also possible, several sources said, would be Bartz taking the chairman title, which is currently held by Roy Bostock. Bostock, along with Yang, played a key role in its botched takeover battle with Microsoft (MSFT).

Bartz finally successfully struck a sweeping search and advertising partnership with the software giant this summer, which is moving closer to being launched.

If spinning is an intense political skill, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman is doing her very best at trying to create a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

As Om Malik reports on GigaOm, Whitman–who is trying to nab the Republican gubernatorial nomination in California–told a radio interviewer recently that “actually I think Skype will prove to be a good acquisition for eBay.”

Well, good if you mean the $2.6 billion purchase of the Internet telephony company that never worked as Whitman had effusively promised in 2005.

She noted then: “By combining the two leading e-commerce franchises, eBay and PayPal, with the leader in Internet voice communications, we will create an extraordinarily powerful environment for business on the Net.”

That fabulous-sounding synergy did not happen, of course, eventually causing new eBay (EBAY) management to sell a huge chunk of Skype to an investor group.

Best of all, that sale included an ugly and expensive legal fight over software technology licensing issues with its co-founders, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, given that Whitman neglected in the competitive bidding to secure them properly.

That resulted in Zennström and Friis forcing eBay to include them just last week in the deal for a big chunk of Skype in exchange for those rights.

As the sick political joke goes: Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

Nonetheless, Whitman has not let the facts get in the way of a good story!

She kind of had to, I guess, responding to an allegation by one of her rivals in the race, tech entrepreneur Steve Poizner, who has tried to chip away at her blue-chip business reputation by attacking the Skype deal.

Whitman was right to defend a lot of other great acquisitions she made as leader at eBay, such as PayPal; and she can be, as she said in the interview, “proud of my tenure at eBay.”

She should be, given that she was key to building a huge and profitable company that is a clear Silicon Valley Internet icon. While eBay did start to creak near the end of her decade-long stint there, many of Whitman’s accomplishments are nonetheless impressive.

But not all of them and definitely not the Skype buy, so she might want to stop making laughable declarations like this one in the interview:

“You probably read that the company just sold about two-thirds of the interest in Skype to an investor group, kept a portion, and got almost all the money back, and I think Skype will be very effective.”

Well, maybe so, but only because new management had to do clean-up and pay-up for her error, and new owners in charge of Skype could possibly better take advantage of what most consider a terrific property.

So, in the end, Whitman might be right.

And it might not even matter. In a recent poll, Whitman has pulled far ahead of ex-Congressman Tom Campbell, with 34 percent support from Republican primary voters compared to 13 percent for Campbell. Poizner clocks in third at six percent.

In what should come as a shock to almost no one, the detailed negotiations to complete the Microsoft and Yahoo search and online advertising final agreement are more complicated than its authors anticipated and are taking longer than expected to complete.

Relax, folks–they’ll get done.

But here’s a more important thing that should wrap up sooner than later: Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz’s seemingly never-ending gibes about former CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang’s tenure.

First, let’s deal with the issues around the agreement, which is a monster document.

That’s why MicroHoo missed the deadline yesterday to execute its definitive agreement on the transaction struck in July.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Yahoo (YHOO) said:

“The Letter Agreement specified that the parties would execute definitive agreements by October 27, 2009, but given the complex nature of the transaction, there remain some details to be finalized.”

Added Microsoft (MSFT) in a long statement:

“Microsoft and Yahoo! are committed to this agreement and believe this is a highly competitive deal that is good for consumers, advertisers and publishers. We have made good progress in finalizing the definitive agreements. Given the complex nature of this transaction there remain some issues that need some additional clarity and definitive details. So, the teams at Yahoo! and Microsoft are continuing to work on the remaining details, and we have mutually agreed to extend the period to negotiate and execute the agreement. We plan to do this as expeditiously as possible. Both companies are optimistic that we will be able to close this deal by early 2010.”

Thus, the deadline has been pushed back indefinitely, which is very common in such larger and complicated deals.

Yahoo and Microsoft had already done a pretty hefty binding letter agreement (here is a picture of Yahoo’s Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer holding it, in fact).

Getting approval from regulators is also part of the deal, and it is likely to happen in the U.S. just after the new year.

International regulatory approval is another story, especially in Europe, which could further delay the implementation of the partnership, since it is unlikely the pair would move forward without clearance globally.

But perhaps most of all, what seems more likely to never end and probably should is the proclivity of Yahoo’s Bartz to use sharp-tongued analogies to talk about just how bad Yahoo had been doing and how it is now poised to make a comeback.

In her very first press conference when she got the job, in fact, she noted that Yahoo, “frankly, could use a little management.”

Bartz was right then and even more correct to say it out loud, but she has not stopped the criticism.

And, like clockwork, at an analyst day at Yahoo HQ in Sunnyvale, Calif., today, Bartz trotted out a yet another in a long series of backhanded insults to former CEO Jerry Yang and his crew.

Said Bartz at the event about the Silicon Valley icon:

“We have fallen and we really want to get back up. If you haven’t had good times and bad times, you don’t know what you’re doing. We prefer the good times. We have passion to get back there. Today is the start of that.”

Today is the start? Didn’t Yahoo declare a version of the same theme when the MicroHoo deal was announced in July? And at the the launch of the new homepage in September? And the more recent rollout of its massive marketing campaign?

It seems to me that since she has been there almost a year, much like the Obama administration, Bartz should not be looking backward anymore and keep announcing that it is time to get back on track.

Because she is most definitely in charge now at Yahoo and should be the one to get all praise and all blame from here on out.

So, as someone who has definitely been very tough on Yang while CEO, it’s time to stop knocking him over now, because it is starting to feel like a very cheap shot.

Yahoo has hired a new head of mergers and acquisitions–former General Electric (GE) M&A exec Andrew Siegel, who will now be VP of corporate development.

Yahoo (YHOO) CFO Tim Morse dropped the news with exactly no details about that title in an interview with The Wall Street Journal about the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s third-quarter earnings.

Another question apparently not answered was what exactly is the status of its current top M&A exec, Greg Mrva–who has had the title Siegel has now posted on his LinkedIn profile–as well as that of VP of mergers and acquisitions more recently.

In other words: Where the heck is Greg?

BoomTown was considering a search party–get it?–if Yahoo hadn’t outsourced that to Microsoft (MSFT). Thus, Plan B: Mrva milk cartons!

On Facebook, Mrva is still listed as being in the Yahoo network, although there was a report floated recently by Silicon Alley Insider that he was asked by Morse to leave his M&A job at Yahoo and find a new one at the company.

Whatever the situation–either Mrva running it with Siegel or being hipchecked out by him–helming M&A at Yahoo can’t be a fun job right now, given that the company has been looking to sell quite a few of its assets, including its Zimbra open-source email business, its personals unit, its HotJobs online classified business and many more to come, said sources.

In fact, in a recent post, BoomTown wrote: “Mrva’s new job title should be: VP of un-mergers and de-acquisitions.”

The effort to unload big swathes of Yahoo is part of an aim by new management to slim down its diverse portfolio, even as it strives to redefine itself with a new, pricey marketing campaign that seeks to position the company primarily as a consumer offering.

Mrva has been the main exec shopping Yahoo properties around, according to many sources, a job that will now apparently be Siegel’s.

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has said the company is also looking for acquisitions, mostly small, so perhaps there will be more to do for the company’s dealmakers than running an Internet garage sale.

I contacted Yahoo to find out what’s up with Siegel and Mrva, a well-liked exec in Silicon Valley, and also have reached out to him. When either responds with anything of note, I will update here.

It’s not likely the announcement of Yahoo’s third-quarter earnings later today will be quite as exciting as its Open Hack Day in Taiwan this past weekend, but BoomTown will try to make those numbers and the conference call afterward with CEO Carol Bartz as entertaining as possible.

Still, while recent results from both Google (GOOG) and, especially, Apple (AAPL), have been pretty impressive, no one is expecting Yahoo to blow the roof off.

So, here’s what to look for:

Wall Street is estimating that Yahoo (YHOO) will earn just under seven cents a share, with revenue of $1.12 billion. This compares with nine cents and $1.33 billion in the same period a year ago.

Some whisper numbers peg the results at close to 10 cents a share, which would be a sensation, especially given the still-recovering state of display advertising, which is Yahoo’s bread and butter.

Also likely to be asked about is the recent decline in Yahoo’s search share. According to comScore (SCOR), its share in the important U.S. market dipped to 18.8 percent in September, even as both Google and Microsoft (MSFT) saw small gains.

Yahoo is set to start an online search and advertising partnership with Microsoft, as soon as regulators give it the thumbs up, as seems likely.

And analysts will likely ask about the effectiveness of Yahoo’s $100 million marketing campaign, designed to revitalize its image, which it is ramping up.

But Bartz has also been cutting costs and streamlining staff and operations–her strong suit–which could improve the bottom line.

Yahoo shares, while up 39 percent for the year, are down 2.7 percent for the month, even as other tech firms are up.

The stock is down 1.7 percent today, hovering just under $17 a share.

Whether the results and what Yahoo has to say about the year ahead will affect the share price remains to be seen.

Until then, here is a link to a very good Q&A interview Bartz did with the New York Times about her management style, which was posted over the weekend.

Money quote, from the ever-quotable Bartz:

“I have the puppy theory. When the puppy pees on the carpet, you say something right then because you don’t say six months later, ‘Remember that day, January 12th, when you peed on the carpet?’ That doesn’t make any sense.”

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.

Now, with a new team of execs, the News Corp. (NWS) property is putting the finishing touches on a master plan, which will include a new redesign of its hopelessly messy interface and doubling down on a product strategy that will center on, said one source, “what we own”–namely, music and entertainment.

On the agenda, aptly enough, for the 150 ad sales employees, who will gather at Terranea in Palos Verdes, is Ben Sherwood, author of “The Survivors Club: The Secrets and Science That Could Save Your Life,” and founder of a Web site of the same name that describes itself as “the place for surviving and thriving.”

Also coming to the meeting will be several bands that have successfully leveraged MySpace as a platform, to talk about their experiences and to play for the crowd.

And, perhaps most importantly, the group might also get to meet its new boss by then, as several sources close to the situation said that MySpace has settled on an exec to fill the key job of running its ad business.

While it is unclear if the deal is completely done, sources said MySpace management will announce the pick this week.

Sources added that MySpace has been particularly interested in one exec from Viacom (VIA) and another from Microsoft (MSFT).

While the sources would not name the Viacom exec, several pointed to Keith Lorizio, Microsoft VP of U.S. sales, as someone MySpace has been targeting.

In late August, MySpace sales and marketing head Jeff Berman left the company as MySpace hired MediaLink, a New York- and Los Angeles-based media consultancy, to help get its ad sales business back on track.

That effort has been led by MediaLink President Wenda Millard, who is well known in the ad industry and was longtime leader of the ad sales force at Yahoo (YHOO).

Getting an experienced top ad exec in place will round out a recent spate of new hiring by MySpace, including a new CTO, Alex Maghen, who moved over from its MySpace Music joint venture, and a new CFO, Mark Rosenbaum.

This has been part of a wholesale flushing out of most of the top execs who worked under co-founder and former CEO Chris DeWolfe by new CEO Owen Van Natta.

Van Natta, along with COO Michael Jones and Chief Product Officer Jason Hirschhorn, have been squirreled away since late April, working at cleaning up the company by replacing management, restructuring its various units and cutting costs, including massive layoffs.

They have also been trying to come up with a plan to differentiate MySpace from Facebook, a good strategy since it is now well-nigh impossible for the Beverly Hills-based MySpace to catch up with the Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook’s galloping growth.

While the whole new offering will not be rolled out prominently until at least the first quarter of next year, said several sources, some changes will begin sooner, including a gradual redesign of the site.

Under the new plan, said several sources, the main idea will be to shift the focus to engagement over sheer audience numbers. While MySpace is still huge, with about 70 million monthly U.S. visitors, increasing how much time they spend on the site is the goal.

“It’s not like numbers are not important, but the better metric for MySpace will be how involved users are,” said one person close to the situation. “MySpace needs to win on minutes.”

And, rather than the wider and more scattershot approach of past years, the new direction being stressed is more scalable and focused.

“It is not about getting everyone and their mothers on MySpace,” said a source, “but about being a better site to those here.”

That will include stressing “ownership” of online categories, which for MySpace are music and entertainment, with the hope that advertisers will be attracted to more engaged users.

Unlike Facebook, which is often described as a utility platform for communications between friends, sources said MySpace will be aimed more at being a platform for communities of interest.

That includes using tools from other companies, such as MySpace’s recent two-way synch with Twitter, the hot microblogging service, to link those communities.

Presumably, the company’s August purchase of iLike, the social music start-up, is also part of that plan.

“Instead of the ability to just connect friend to friend in a single social graph, this will be about connecting a person to their communities of passion and interest and to others like them anywhere,” said one source.

Music is the obvious key leverage point, the still-bright spot of MySpace, followed by adding big entertainment categories like movies, television, gaming, video and other pop culture arenas.

(BoomTown request: Become the HQ for “Gossip Girl” addicts, um, fans, and I am so there.)

“MySpace should represent pop culture online to customers and advertisers,” said one source. “The core strength has always been music and that is where the site will really excel, because it binds customers to the service.”

The even heavier music focus on the main juggernaut site, noted several sources, does create an odd situation with MySpace Music, the separate joint venture the site has with music labels to create a massive music community.

While sources do not think News Corp. will attempt to suck MySpace Music back into the main site, due to the complex partnership issues, the idea is to make them even more deeply integrated and to sell them to advertisers as one powerful marketing message.

In any case, several sources noted that one of the most successful parts of the new plan has been to convince News Corp. leaders that MySpace does not have to beat Facebook to be successful.

Sooner than later, of course, MySpace has to do just that.

Will it work? Who knows, but said one source close to the situation quite correctly:

“There is no silver bullet for MySpace–it just has to climb back step by step.”

(Full disclosure: News Corp. also owns Dow Jones, which owns this site.)

The board of iLike planned a meeting earlier tonight to go over a buyout offer by MySpace, several sources close to the situation said. But it was suddenly canceled because of some thorny tax implications related to the talent-retention part of the deal to purchase the social music start-up.

This does not mean the pending acquisition is in jeopardy, sources said, and it could be on track to be signed as early as today, barring any more complications.

That is what both iLike and MySpace execs are hoping, said sources, one of whom described the outstanding issues as a “technicality.”

What’s also been unclear is the actual price the social networking giant is paying for iLike, which has been reported as about $20 million.

In fact, only $13.5 million will be paid upfront in cash, with about $8 million of that money likely going to one of its major shareholders, Ticketmaster Entertainment (TKTM), due to its preferred shares.

Another $6 million has been promised by MySpace in forward payments to retain some key employees–including iLike co-founders and twin brothers Ali and Hadi Partovi.

Although those employees can remain in Seattle, where iLike has its HQ, they must stay employed at Beverly Hills, Calif.-based MySpace for two and a half years to get their money.

It’s that talent part of the deal that caused the Partovis to cancel the iLike board meeting, which they explained to key investors was necessary due to some confusion over how the money paid to these employees would be taxed.

A person briefed on the issue said that if it was taxed as compensation, it would have a much higher tax rate than if it were considered long-term capital gains.

The Partovis said in the email that they were working on the problem with their advisers on the sale, Allen & Co., as well as with lawyers and accountants.

Tax snafus in the middle of a sale are not exactly the way the entrepreneurial Partovis envisioned it was going to go for iLike (see my various video interview related to iLike below) when they created the compelling music sharing and recommendation service in 2006.

After only a few years, the innovative start-up claims it has 50 million registered users overall.

A lot of that growth was due to iLike quickly becoming one of the most popular widgets on social networking sites like Facebook, where it has also been the top music application, with 10 million active monthly users.

The Partovis–who once were close with execs at Facebook (see my party video below), particularly founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg–placed great faith in its growth lifting all Web 2.0 boats.

It did not turn out that way, though, especially from the important financial point of view, and iLike scrambled to diversify.

The iLike service recently began offering a music downloading service, for example, as well as other such features, all of which would be attractive to the music-centric focus at MySpace.

Once an Internet sensation, MySpace has been struggling to restructure itself after losing momentum and buzz in recent years, as well as a huge advertising revenue drop in its most recent quarter.

Its owner, News Corp. (NWS), replaced its founders with new management four months ago, including former Facebook exec Owen Van Natta as CEO.

After making major staff layoffs and rejiggering management, Van Natta and his new team have been working on an overhaul of the MySpace product and seem to be refocusing it to become a global music and entertainment service.

MySpace also has a joint venture with major music labels, MySpace Music, which has been trying to attract consumers and build a viable business. Sources said MySpace Music could also buy into the iLike deal or simply license its technology to improve its features.

Thus, purchasing iLike would fit in well with MySpace’s overall plans.

And iLike has also been in need of a fix itself.

For all its popularity, especially on Facebook, it has moved slowly toward profitabilty, and its $17 million in funding has been dwindling, as has its viability as a standalone company.

Back in more frothy Web 2.0 days, iLike’s generous funding gave it a valuation of more than $50 million, which has also lost steam over time and as the economy has worsened.

In the last quarter of fiscal 2008, for example, Ticketmaster wrote down its $13 million investment by $6 million.

Tensions between its execs and iLike have gotten worse over time, although some thought at one time that Ticketmaster would buy iLike.

No longer, which is why the founders turned to Allen & Co., as MediaMemo reported as far back as November, to find another big investor or buyer.

Wrote Peter Kafka: “Delivering free music on the Web has so far proven to be a high-cost, low-revenue endeavor…”

So, the New York deal-making firm ginned up a small group of suitors, which included Facebook, Activision Blizzard (ATVI) and Microsoft (MSFT), as well as MySpace.

Of the three, Activision was most serious, with interest in integrating iLike’s community and technology tools with its Guitar Hero franchise.

But Activision never actually made a formal bid, said sources.

Both Microsoft and Facebook also considered the purchase, but sources said they would only offer stock in a deal. But iLike wanted cash in the deal.

The Partovis were also was wary about working at either place.

Both Partovis, for example, had worked at Microsoft (Ali after selling it LinkExchange in 1998 for $265 million; Hadi several times, once following Microsoft’s acquisition of Tellme Networks, which he co-founded).

As it has turned out, in its short life, iLike’s last, best alternative is apparently MySpace.

“Look, iLike has been shopped around for a while, and while the team and technology are great, it only has one choice and that’s to be sold,” said one person involved in the various scenarios. “The question for the buyer then is whether it was worth it to pay up or just move on and do it ourselves.”

So until the bean counters settle this IRS nightmare, here is my video interview with Hadi Partovi about a year ago at iLike’s HQ in the Capitol Hill section of Seattle, when times were a little more hopeful:

And here is a very dark and very shaky video I did when iLike threw a fete in Silicon Valley to celebrate its start-up two years ago and to send some appreciation in Facebook’s direction–it is so dated that Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who is in the video, is still at Google (GOOG).

(Full Disclosure: News Corp. also owns Dow Jones, which owns this site.)

]]> http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090817/sale-of-ilike-to-myspace-135-million-in-cash-6-million-for-talent-retention-delayed-over-tax-issues-reallyplus-the-list-of-other-suitors/feed/ 0 http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090814/massive-aol-layoffs-not-imminent-but-top-to-bottom-cost-exam-definitely-in-process/ http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090814/massive-aol-layoffs-not-imminent-but-top-to-bottom-cost-exam-definitely-in-process/#comments Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:35:32 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=17611

After a while–in a BoomTown mangling of the old cliché–if you are a nail, everything begins to look like a hammer.

So, it is probably inevitable that the next thing for much-beleaguered AOL staffers to start rumbling about is 2,000 people getting laid off next week, as was reported earlier this week by Silicon Alley Insider.

After all, the Time Warner (TWX) unit has a long history of whacking employees. So, it is easier to assume things will not be different under the regime of the latest CEO Tim Armstrong.

Except it’s not actually true that such massive cuts are in the offing, since–as many sources I spoke to said–Armstrong is only in the early part of figuring out what to do about the cost structure of AOL, after laying out a company strategy and rejiggering management recently.

While the end result of the cost-to-benefit analysis might, in all likelihood, mean layoffs of a chunk of its 7,000 employees–a larger number for its smaller operations.

And, after all, staff costs are one of the biggest line items in AOL’s budget–sources at the company said Armstrong will not rely on simply cutting jobs to craft a more attractive budget for its upcoming spinoff.

Still, there is obviously a lot of pressure on Armstrong to get the financials–which are still largely dependent on AOL’s declining, but money-generating, access business–looking pretty.

That access business did almost $2 billion in revenue last year–about half its sales–and it represented almost all its profits.

In contrast, AOL’s advertising business lagged, dropping hugely over the last several quarters.

Still, Armstrong has laid out a strategy that has included, in part:

Being a new kind of content giant, via a series of branded niche media sites, with about 500 full-time writers and editors and 1,500 freelancers; selling premium display advertising on these sites and strengthening its third-party self-service ad network business; finding a way to use its communications properties to redistribute traffic to other properties in a kind of virtuous circle.

There are also local, analytical and venture elements. But–for all intents and purposes–Armstrong’s plan is a content-and-advertising model, supported for now by the dwindling piles of cash from the access business.

That’s why, of course, costs are the next item on Armstrong’s to-do list.

“The cost structure is the last part of what was going to be dealt with, as Tim has told everyone,” said one person close to the situation about the former Google (GOOG) exec. “But, if it is slash-and-burn only, that would be pretty short-sighted.”

Perhaps, except that it is that exact tactic that has been business-as-usual at AOL for far too long.

]]> http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090814/massive-aol-layoffs-not-imminent-but-top-to-bottom-cost-exam-definitely-in-process/feed/ 0 http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090730/microsofts-financial-analysts-meeting-today-billion-dollar-belly-flop-with-a-side-of-yahoo/ http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090730/microsofts-financial-analysts-meeting-today-billion-dollar-belly-flop-with-a-side-of-yahoo/#comments Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:59:28 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=16783

The fun never stops at Microsoft, it seems.

Well, not fun–more like a long march of khaki-clad Softies.

They will be on display bright and early this morning at the company’s annual Financial Analyst Meeting, a cavalcade of top execs at the tech giant blabbing away.

BoomTown will be there covering it in person, natch!

The Microsoft management smorgasbord includes:

CEO Steve Ballmer, COO Kevin Turner, Entertainment and Devices President Robbie Bach, Online Services President Qi Lu, Microsoft Business President Stephen Elop, Servers and Tools President Bob Muglia, Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie, Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie and CFO Chris Liddell.

I am betting that most of the focus at the gathering, which is being held at the worldwide HQ of Microsoft (MSFT) in Redmond, Wash., will likely be on two major events over the last week–its billion-dollar revenue miss in its fourth quarter and its just-born search and online advertising deal with Yahoo (YHOO).

The former, of course, was bad news for Microsoft, as it continues to signal weakness in its core operating system software and server businesses, due to lower demand for personal computers in the midst of the econalypse.

The latter was good news, of course, since Microsoft seemed to score a coup in nabbing the search technology business from Yahoo with no big upfront payments.

I have a lot of questions about both these issues, as will the crowd of reporters and Wall Street sharpies at the FAM, which is what they call the meeting here.

There could even be be plenty of answers, especially given that the entire leadership of Microsoft will be there.

Here is a link to a live Webcast of the FAM event, if you want to join the party too.

]]> http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090730/microsofts-financial-analysts-meeting-today-billion-dollar-belly-flop-with-a-side-of-yahoo/feed/ 3 http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090716/do-that-thing-you-do-after-cuts-both-yahoo-and-myspace-need-a-little-something/ http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090716/do-that-thing-you-do-after-cuts-both-yahoo-and-myspace-need-a-little-something/#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:02:42 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=14849

A few weeks ago, when I was having breakfast with legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur Marc Andreessen about his new venture fund, he talked about what he thought was critical to being successful as an Internet company.

Ticking off names, from Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Andreessen said he always favored technical entrepreneurs for one key reason: “You need someone who lives and breathes product.”

It’s a refrain I have heard a lot recently from a wide range of people in the sector, most especially when talking about two of the more challenging renovations of key Internet brands going on of late.

That would be: Yahoo and MySpace.

In recent days, the focus at both Yahoo (YHOO) and MySpace, a division of News Corp. (NWS), has been on cost cuts, management rejiggering and, of course, layoffs, as new leaders at each Web giant are trying mightily to push the reset button. (News Corp owns Dow Jones, which owns this Web site.)

No surprise, their efforts have gotten a lot of attention and have been the subject of a lot of coverage (here for Yahoo and here for MySpace).

But, as those clean-up efforts wrap up, both have to show a whole lot more than that if either is to truly succeed at their tasks–which is to make both services much more relevant and exciting in the fast-changing Web arena.

While Yahoo and MySpace remain huge Web properties–and Yahoo, in particular, is very profitable in comparison to most Internet outfits–the widespread perception across the digital sector for too long now is that they are both tired in some significant ways and in desperate need of innovation.

Their big tasks include an overhaul of product offerings and features, a refreshing of brand and, most importantly, a strategic rethink that will set them on a new course for the next several years.

This is not a new thing in the Internet space, which has seen once-popular companies fall by the wayside as their products have gotten dull and consumers weary.

AOL–the Time Warner (TWX) unit whose new CEO, Tim Armstrong, is trying to reinvigorate that iconic but deeply tarnished brand too–is the classic example of this problem. But there have been too many that either hobble along, get subsumed into a larger company or just wither and die.

Sudden death is not likely to be the case for either Yahoo or MySpace, but time is most definitely running out for the pair to show some true product pizzazz and a strategic road map.

At Yahoo, most of the glitter thus far has come from the personality and charms of CEO Carol Bartz (pictured here), who has been hard at work projecting an image of moxie and decisiveness in her efforts to get some momentum at the turmoil-plagued company.

Replacing former CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang, Bartz has largely been busy cutting staff, pruning products that she recently dubbed “space debris” and rounding out her executive staff.

She’s also been prepping a new branding campaign to accompany Yahoo’s overhauled front page, which is set for the fall.

But, as the famous Peggy Lee song (see video below) goes: “Is that all there is, is that all there is?/If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing/Let’s break out the booze and have a ball/If that’s all there is.”

But breaking out the booze and having a ball is actually not such a bad idea. To my mind, instead of tweaking what is there and emphasizing what it has been, Yahoo now has the chance to just go for broke and boldly make some dramatic choices.

That is especially true if it forgoes a search and online advertising partnership with Microsoft (MSFT), since Yahoo is going to have to do more than just what it already does better.

Interestingly, it is Microsoft, with its well-reviewed new Bing search service, that seems the most aggressively innovative these days.

So, why not, for example, make a shocking move, say, into the premium online video space? Yahoo certainly could pick up some damaged goods, like Veoh and Joost, on the cheap.

But what about buying the early winner: Hulu?

While the three studios that are its joint owners (the fourth owner is Providence Equity Partners)–News Corp., Disney (DIS) and GE (GE) unit NBC Universal–don’t seem inclined to sell, many sources close to the company said they most certainly would for the right price and perhaps a stake in Yahoo too.

Yahoo has been one of Hulu’s many distribution partners, but that effort has been lackluster. As owner, it would surely point its vast traffic and tech resources at Hulu to good effect.

In this kind of scenario, Google (GOOG) and Comcast (CMCSA) are also contenders for Hulu, but it is only Yahoo that has the truly better record of being able to create, manage and distribute Web content.

Plus, you could call it: HuHoo or YaLu or, better still, HooLu.

There are lots of ideas along these lines for Yahoo, but the overarching idea is to dominate in areas its rivals do not.

For MySpace, which was the dominator until rival Facebook cleaned its clock and then some, it is both a crisis of identity, a broken consumer experience and technology that needs a major overhaul.

It is hard to say what MySpace is, except really noisy. While the music part of that is good, the idea of making it hip again seems well-nigh impossible.

But it could be useful as an entertainment hub where it is fun to be. News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch raised this concept recently, in fact, and it is a good one.

That’s because Facebook is aggressively un-fun, with a fascist design sensibility and a thick ethos of utility and enforced busy-ness. Whenever I use it, I always start to feel like I am 23 minutes late.

There really is no good overall and unified entertainment hub on the Web in a massive way–one that aggregates all kinds of interests. I would, for example, love a place where I could easily live in a “Gossip Girl” universe.

Best of all, such a direction moves MySpace well away from Facebook, where is needs to get pronto.

MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta (pictured here) said as much in a memo to employees yesterday:

“As I’ve said before, simplifying and unifying our site is fundamental to our success going forward. MySpace should feel like one platform–not 15 sites loosely stitched together. We consider our diverse content offering a strength but too many logos and disorganized verticals makes the site difficult to navigate and creates confusion about our brand identity. Our users don’t know if we’re a social portal, a music site, or an entertainment hub.”

In her own memo last week, Bartz also talked about the need for speed and definition of Yahoo:

“I’ve noticed that since the reorg, people seem like they’re waiting for something. I’m not sure if it’s a sugar-low or what, but we need to stop waiting and get moving. Good things do not come to those who wait, they come to those who make things happen.”

Actually, per Marc Andreessen, good things come to those who make things. Wonderful things, fun things, memorable things and, if you are Steve Jobs, just one more thing.

Let’s just hope in the case of Yahoo and MySpace, they don’t settle for just any thing.

Until they do that thing they do, here is a catchy video from the movie, “That Thing You Do”:

]]> http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090716/do-that-thing-you-do-after-cuts-both-yahoo-and-myspace-need-a-little-something/feed/ 3 http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090713/yahoo-and-microsoft-breaking-and-making-up-is-hard-to-do/ http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090713/yahoo-and-microsoft-breaking-and-making-up-is-hard-to-do/#comments Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:44:10 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=15708

Oh, they’re still talking. Except when they’re not. And, then, they are.

Such has been the course of discussions Yahoo and Microsoft continue to be engaged in about a possible partnership deal around search and online advertising.

“It runs hot, then cold, then hot, then who knows,” said one person close to the situation.

It’s kind of like a digital version of the romantic travails of Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson, minus the paparazzi and screaming matches in trendy clubs.

(Spokespeople for both companies declined to comment on any talks. Curiously, both joked separately that they would prefer to be the Lohan character in my sick metaphor because she was so “unpredictable,” which is good in business–until I pointed out that was just another word for an addiction-challenged lunatic.)

But I digress!

The temperature now, after talking to a dozen sources with knowledge of the situation?

Warmer than two weeks ago–with one of Microsoft’s principal dealmakers on the case–Charlie Songhurst–down in Silicon Valley where Yahoo is located, focused solely on the talks and making progress with them.

When last we checked in, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had a little private tete-a-tete about the deal, when both were attending the seventh D: All Things Digital conference in Southern California in late May.

That meeting, as well as meetings between other top Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) execs in attendance, went well enough.

Bartz and Ballmer also both acknowledged discussions in onstage interviews at D7, with Bartz even boldly stating that she was open to the deal if good and reliable data and “big boatloads of money” were forthcoming from Ballmer.

(You can see the video of her saying that here, while Ballmer is less colorful here.)

Well, that ship has not yet sailed, with the two sides–whose history together is tumultuous–still niggling over price and control issues.

Thus, talks in the weeks after languished, especially in the wake of Microsoft’s launch of its new Bing search service and Bartz’s focus on beefing up Yahoo management and marketing.

And while Ballmer has consistently said that Microsoft was open to a deal, Bartz has since made a variety of public statements related to it, many in conflict with previous statements.

It is an indication of the push-me-pull-you tone of the talks, which began in March.

When last asked about Microsoft by a stockholder at the Yahoo annual meeting in late June, Bartz said she had nothing to say about any deal and said it would be said publicly only after any such deal was struck.

Setting expectations is probably a good idea, since all the back and forth underscores a very real debate by both sides about whether joining together will benefit them both or not.

The possible pluses are clear: Huge technology cost-savings and cash for Yahoo and another weapon to fight archrival Google (GOOG) for Microsoft.

Sources said Bartz had been getting a lot of pressure to do a deal from Yahoo board member Carl Icahn, whom she has managed to isolate, even as she has gained total control over the company.

She is also under less immediate scrutiny, sources said, since the cost-savings related to a series of layoffs at the company have given Yahoo some financial breathing room. Still, it can ill-afford a search arms war.

Yahoo, as well as Microsoft, will report its quarterly earnings next week and both are expected to show continued weakness, due to the economy.

Still, the stock of both companies has also improved a lot since the beginning of the year, with Yahoo shares up 23 percent and Microsoft’s up 19.5 percent.

As for Microsoft, the company has also become more confident with the early success of Bing, which has garnered good reviews and improvements in market share in surveys.

Sources at the company maintain that the improvement–via innovation and a huge marketing spend–has given Microsoft a bit of leverage against Yahoo, although the bets are still out on exactly how much sustained share Bing can garner.

In a blog post today, for example, Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft SVP of the Online Audience Business Group (really, that is his actual title), touted Bing’s success after just a month:

“We saw 8 percent growth in unique users to Bing.com in June, which is an important indicator that you are trying Bing and the word is spreading….We have a long term view, and we are committed to steady progress over the years to come.”

Does that mean these two crazy kids will probably not get together in the end? Well, like LiLo and Sam, they seem to be trying, but striking a lasting partnership is not as easy as it looks.

And, until the companies decide to unite or part for sure, please enjoy this delightful video trailer for “The Parent Trap,” a time when Lohan was adorable and much, much less–like a possible Yahoo-Microsoft deal–complicated:

]]> http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090713/yahoo-and-microsoft-breaking-and-making-up-is-hard-to-do/feed/ 1 http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090625/liveblogging-the-yahoo-annual-meeting-carol-tastic/ http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090625/liveblogging-the-yahoo-annual-meeting-carol-tastic/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:18:06 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=15064

BoomTown is at the lovely Santa Clara Marriott in Silicon Valley at the 2009 Yahoo annual meeting, liveblogging the event, which should be spectacularly dull.

Here is a rundown of what went on.

10:05 am: The meeting kicked off with a little video presentation with various and sundry television talking heads saying “Yahoo” in quick succession.

Actually, this was the year during which all of those hype-magnets repeated “Twitter”–the hottest media trend these days–so many times that it has began to make my ears bleed.

But I like the spirit of trying to make Yahoo (YHOO) seem relevant and innovative again.

Then, CEO Carol Bartz (pictured below) walked onto the small stage in the California Ballroom, declaring: “Well, that made me feel good.”

Exactly when does Carol not feel good?

She explained why: “I am having a ball,” speaking about her rehaul job at Yahoo, and then thanked shareholders after what was “a tough year last year.”

The board was introduced, with most of them being present at the meeting, except for Ron Burkle and Carl Icahn.

10:12 am: General Counsel Mike Callahan comes on with the blah-blah-blah about rules and votes.

I soon started thinking of the lovely breakfast pastries outside that I passed by outside. Drat!

This year, the 12-member board, now including Bartz, was up for reelection.

Last year, as you might remember, many of those board members were under siege by shareholder discontent.

Not in 2009. A major shareholder who was unhappy last year told me there would be no protest vote.

“Carol is doing a good job,” said the investor.

Yahoo was also asking for approval of its accounting firm, Price Waterhouse.

There were several important votes before the shareholders.

One was a standard one regarding executive compensation or a “say on pay” proposal, which was introduced by an outside stockholder.

Yahoo’s board recommended against it.

Another proposal regarded changes to be made to a 1995 stock plan and to a 1996 employee stock purchase plan.

The latter was most important, because it was a request to authorize more shares for future employee options grants. It will mean a large addition to the pool–30 million more shares–if authorized.

The stock will be used to keep valuable Yahoo talent in place. Good idea.

10:23 am: The floor was then opened for comments on the proposal and ballots were collected.

I was not on the edge of my seat.

Like clockwork or an election in the former Soviet Union, the board was elected, the stock plans approved and Price Waterhouse was in.

The “say for pay” proposal? It went down in defeat.

The people have spoken!

10:29 pm: Bartz took back the stage, which immediately livened things up.

She went through the history of her coming to Yahoo, which began with former Yahoo CEO and Co-Founder Jerry Yang (pictured here) asking if she was interested in the job at a Cisco (CSCO) board meeting.

Both are on its board.

Bartz also briefly recounted her meeting with Yang at his house, although she minimized the insulting aspect of the story.

She has maximized it in other tellings–such as in an onstage interview with me recently at the D: All Things Digital conference.

The basic thrust of the story was that Yahoo was a big mess that needed the Carol treatment.

Bartz, of course, did not stress that as much today. After all, Yang was sitting right in front of her.

Bartz noted that she has been asked about two things since coming on board:

What about a deal with Microsoft? And what the heck is Yahoo anyway?

She had nothing to say about Microsoft (MSFT) and said it would be said publicly only after any such deal was struck.

Actually, she has commented about talks with the software giant publicly many times, but let’s overlook that.

The Bartz went into the definition of Yahoo. It’s simple, she said. The largest global online media company. With technology. That everyone knows. Plus email.

10:34 am: Bartz ran through the new staff she has put in place, such as CMO Elisa Steele and others.

She then moved onto the top-to-bottom reviews she has been doing of Yahoo.

Including what she dubbed “space debris,” which are Yahoo sites that should be shut down, repaired or outsourced.

Bartz’s tone? Calm and comforting and reassuring–less the live wire she usually telegraphs and more the I’m-in-charge-here-so-remain-calm vibe.

She hit all the big targets, for good measure. Front page. Mobile. And, of course, advertising.

“Yahoo has a distinct opportunity in this area,” said Bartz, referring to its online display ad business. “Advertisers come to us.”

She ended by calling Yahoo a “home,” which is one theme the company is considering using as a brand strategy in an massive overhaul it is working on.

10:45 am: The floor was open for questions.

The first was a good one. Essentially, why is Google (GOOG) such a money machine when Yahoo is not? And why are its workers so much more productive in comparison?

“We have a very different model than Google,” said Bartz. “It has a cleaner process.”

As in, it is better at vacuuming up the dough!

Bartz, who has been trying mightily to end the Yahoo/Google comparison (smart move!), did not really give an answer.

“Please, this direct comparison model to Google is not fair and is frankly not relevant,” she said.

Well, it is actually quite a bit fair and a lot relevant, but we shall also overlook that one too (for now).

10:49 am: A fan question about how it was good that Bartz has been taking the focus off of the Microsoft issue too.

He also liked that she said she would take piles of money from the software giant, though, in a search partnership deal.

Then, the questioner dived right into the weeds, with questions about the front page, such as having too much dopey entertainment news on it.

Especially all that Jon & Kate and their gazillion kids crap!

This is a favorite meme for Bartz, who proceeded to quickly one-up the question by strafing a perfect celebrity target.

“If I see another Britney Spears item, I am going to throw up,” she declared in nauseous solidarity.

She then mentioned something called a “fluffometer,” which is apparently taking care of this most pressing issue of our time–the Lindsay Lohan threat.

Will it defluff Yahoo?

Inquiring minds want to know.

10:54 am: The inevitable China question was asked, of course, a query which has always tripped up previous Yahoo management.

“It’s very easy to get crosswise,” said Bartz, trying not to get crosswise.

She mentioned a recent human rights summit Yahoo had hosted. “We have actually done a lot, but it is never enough.”

Well, actually, Yahoo and many others did not do enough previously, but Bartz was pretty much steering clear of the thorny realities of doing business in China.

Then came the “vision” question.

Actually, Bartz said it was not about vision, but about growth. “We don’t have a vision problem, we have an execution problem,” she said.

Another question was asked about Internet censorship in China.

“I’m going to go real simple here: Yahoo was not incorporated to fix China,” she said. “It’s that simple.”

Bartz said the company was not going to take on every government in the world and that its “mistake”–referring to activists jailed due to Yahoo handing over information to the Chinese government–should not hound it forever.

Well, it should, but point taken.

The next question was about Iran and how popular Twitter is. Bartz said Yahoo was also in there.

11:04 am: A questioner asked about Facebook and why the social networking site was so popular, even though Yahoo had better products.

Bartz said Yahoo was working hard on making those products more social.

The next questioner asked about whether another Google partnership deal with Yahoo could be reborn. That deal went down in defeat last year.

“Justice is Justice,” said Bartz, referring to the federal government department’s opposition to the deal.

As in, you don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and you don’t mess around with Uncle Sam.

The next questioner asked about why Yahoo always told shareholders at meetings like this that it was doing great every year and then didn’t deliver.

Bear with us, said Bartz.

As to selling off its Alibaba assets in China: Not a good time to sell.

11:09 am: A questioner asked whether Yahoo might buy a newspaper, like the New York Times (NYT).

Yes, that would be a good move–out of the frying pan into the fire!

I was sitting right next to one of its reporters, Miguel Helft. No comment!

Bartz then thanked the Yahoo shareholders for having faith.

As I said, it was Bartz’s first annual meeting. But, for Yahoo investors over the last several years, having a lot of faith–too often tested–kind of comes with the territory.

]]> http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090625/liveblogging-the-yahoo-annual-meeting-carol-tastic/feed/ 1 http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090612/ticketmaster-ceo-irving-azoff-the-full-d7-interview/ http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090612/ticketmaster-ceo-irving-azoff-the-full-d7-interview/#comments Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:23:29 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=14443

Today, the full sessions of the seventh D: All Things Digital conference get rocking–literally–by posting my onstage interview with music powerhouse and Ticketmaster (TKTM) CEO Irving Azoff.

One of the most important behind-the-scenes movers and shakers in the industry, Azoff is now running the world’s biggest entertainment ticketing company while still heading one of the largest music management companies. He is also personal manager for the Eagles and many others.

He and I talked about all this and more, focusing on the digital forces buffeting the music business.

Here’s the video of the D7 interview (including the very funny intro that music legend Joe Walsh did for Azoff) :

]]> http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090612/ticketmaster-ceo-irving-azoff-the-full-d7-interview/feed/ 0 http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090415/stop-me-if-youve-heard-this-one-yahoo-management-and-staff-set-on-shuffle-again/ http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090415/stop-me-if-youve-heard-this-one-yahoo-management-and-staff-set-on-shuffle-again/#comments Wed, 15 Apr 2009 08:31:09 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=11417

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 (YHOO).

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 are being reshuffled.

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

First, the layoffs, which the New York Times was first to report yesterday would be announced Tuesday (side note to Damon–this is how you link to scoops) during Yahoo’s first-quarter earnings call and could impact several hundred employees.

The quarterly results are expected to be weak by most analysts, which is why more layoffs–which had been mentioned by the company as a possibility–are an obvious move.

But several internal sources said Yahoo staff is bracing for employee departures that might to be even higher, as many as 500 or more.

That could mean a complete lopping off or sale of various business units that Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has been evaluating since she arrived in January.

Why? Well, several employees said they were told the new round of cuts will not actually take place until June and that Yahoo HR is now preparing to follow the rules required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

Under the complex federal guidelines, Yahoo must provide a written WARN notice to affected employees “at least 60 calendar days in advance of covered plant closings and mass layoffs.” WARN notices are triggered for a variety of reasons, although a smaller number of layoffs across many units typically does not require it.

A WARN notice is required, for example, when an employer shuts down a facility or operating unit within a single site of employment and lays off at least 50 full-time workers, as well as when an employer lays off 500 or more full-time workers at a single site of employment.

In its last two layoffs, Yahoo issued WARN notices and slashed about 2,500 jobs in total last year, leaving it with about 13,600 employees world-wide at the end of 2008.

But some of Yahoo managers are still leaving on their own.

Many top engineers, for example, have taken jobs of late at Microsoft (MSFT) after the software giant installed a Yahoo tech star, Qi Lu, as its top online exec.

And, BoomTown reported earlier, there have also been numerous departures of key staff recently, including: PR head Jill Nash, Zimbra founder Satish Dharmaraj and soon, high-ranking techie Venkat Panchapakesan.

And more still, it seems.

Yahoo’s VP of Sales Operations Foehner, for example, is headed out after a long stint at the company and is going to Facebook, said several sources inside and outside the company.

On Foehner’s Twitter page, he tweets about a new unnamed job, as well as an athletic endeavor (Foehner is a dedicated triathlete): “back in pleasanton. starting bike adventure on thurs. start new gig on monday. 9 weeks til CdA!”

There is also a lot more movement inside Yahoo, as the reorganization done by Bartz in February shakes out.

Typical of this is Mike Walrath, the high-profile former CEO of Right Media, an online ad exchange snapped up by Yahoo for $720 million in 2007, who is now an advertising-focused SVP at Yahoo.

Now Walrath is moving out from under the purview of Yahoo North America EVP Hilary Schneider and will report to Ari Balogh, EVP of Products and CTO, as all search products seem to be rolling up through his organization. (Both Balogh and Schneider are pictured here.)

While there are other key execs at Yahoo–see this drastically downsized Yahoo management page, which used to be a lot longer–Balogh and Schneider have roughly split the company into two parts, product and engineering for Balogh and the bulk of the content and advertising businesses under Schneider.

Bartz is at the top, of course, and moving parts is not a complete surprise, said one exec, as she gets more control of the company.

“The last reorg was a blunt instrument, so now she is starting to surgically move people around or even out, after seeing what staff can and can’t do and what fat there still is,” said one exec close to the situation.

That’s no small comfort to Yahoo’s reorg-and-layoff-weary staff, especially at its Sunnyvale, Calif., HQ in the heart of Silicon Valley.

When Bartz announced her big reorganization in late February, she declared a moratorium to the endless reorganizations that had plagued the company’s troops for far too many years.

Wrote Bartz in an email to Yahoo employees about her new management lineup:

“I know you guys have reorg fatigue. Hang in there–our intention is to leave this structure in place for two to four years. We’ll continue to make adjustments as needed, but we expect this core structure to stay put.”

Perhaps the core is still solid, but a lot is still quite undefined at Yahoo, as it seeks to right its shaky fortunes.

]]> http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090415/stop-me-if-youve-heard-this-one-yahoo-management-and-staff-set-on-shuffle-again/feed/ 1 http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090413/bartz-of-100-days-tough-talk-to-microsoft-talks/ http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090413/bartz-of-100-days-tough-talk-to-microsoft-talks/#comments Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:30:29 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=11364

Here’s an interesting irony–Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz will have her 99th day in office on the very one that the Internet giant will announce its first-quarter earnings: April 21, 2009 at 2 p.m. PST.

Technically, it will mean that she has been running Yahoo (YHOO) for 100 days, a time when most administrations get their first evaluation.

Thus, if it’s good enough for President Obama, it’s good enough for Bartz!

While most expect the results for the quarter to be weak, due to the econalypse, the overall verdict from BoomTown’s needling of Yahoos to give me info on their new leader recently: Love, love, love Bartz’s innate decisiveness, and wanting more of the same.

“She has an opinion and she is not afraid to use it,” joked one high-ranking Yahoo. “That is a big deal for a lot of people here who have wanted a CEO who is very forceful.”

And the only substantive negative: Some remain worried about her lack of Internet savvy, although most of those admit she has been a quick learner as the 100-day mark comes to a close.

In Yahoo’s case, 100 days has a special meaning–when he got his job in late 2007, former Yahoo CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang declared that he was going to give the troubled company a 100-day evaluation with “no sacred cows.”

The Yang-farmed bovines, as it turned out, just got fatter.

Under Bartz, more have been under the knife, as the hard-charging exec has started to really put her imprint on the company.

She has certainly talked tough since the meet-the-press conference on her very first day on Jan. 13.

Some memorable Bartz quotes were about Yahoo’s immediate needs, in her estimation: “some friggin’ breathing room” and “frankly, [the company] could use a little management.”

That kind of tough-lady, Annie-Get-Your-Gun quote-making has been Bartz’s signature, whether it be in folksy Friday memos she has sent out to staff or at the fourth-quarter earnings call in late January, only weeks into her tenure, when she declared:

“This is not a company that needs to be pulled apart and left for the chickens.”

Well, except for the management structure, which Bartz pulled right apart and reshuffled six weeks in.

Cleaning up and simplifying the complex reporting structure in an all-roads-lead-to-Carol set-up and tossing out the CFO were main points of the reorganization. Many at Yahoo expect there to be even more cuts in staff sooner than later, many sources said.

And there have also been departures of key staff, including: PR head Jill Nash, Zimbra founder Satish Dharmaraj and soon, high-ranking techie Venkat Panchapakesan.

Yang too, although he remains on the board, has not been present as much at the company.

Curiously, though, except for the new CMO, Elisa Steele–whose office is powerfully located right next to Bartz, as many Yahoos noted to me–there have been no further appointments for open positions for CFO, a new Customer Advocacy top exec and a new international head. Presumably, they are on the way.

Not that Bartz has not been busy–visiting Yahoo staff and clients all over–as well as finally finding time for a face-to-face meeting with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in Silicon Valley recently.

Before the recent meetings, in a classic negotiating tactic, Bartz (pictured here) has projected a disinterested, poker-faced attitude about the situation, even telling Yahoo staff in one meeting “that she plans to spend a lot of time investigating whether to sell Yahoo’s search business, but that her ‘gut’ was not to do that.”

Well, a sale of Yahoo’s search business might not happen, Bartz was only buying a little time in being so confident and projecting the affect that Yahoo had some leverage and a choice.

But that is exactly what she does not really have, given that Yahoo faces the prospect of spiraling costs to maintain a search share, even as it has a good chance of declining.

So, last week, the news–first reported here Friday–that Bartz was involved in preliminary talks with Microsoft (MSFT) about an extensive commercial advertising and search partnership–should have come as almost no surprise.

A re-engagement between the companies, after a bruising takeover battle that ended in tears all around, has been long hoped for by investors and other observers, given that both have struggled against the search behemoth that is Google (GOOG).

(Or, in a nickname that BoomTown is trying unsuccessfully to popularize: Googzilla.)

The talks–which are not about the software giant making another acquisition offer for Yahoo–are ongoing and might not lead anywhere, but it is in both sides’ interest to avoid that outcome.

“Yahoo has to do some kind of deal or Bartz will be facing a decline even she cannot manage,” said one person close to the situation. “And Microsoft, if it wants to compete in search, needs Yahoo’s share along with its own.”

Among the surprisingly innovative ideas being bandied about: Yahoo might take over all of Microsoft’s display and premium advertising business to sell along with its own, while Microsoft would run the search advertising business for the pair.

And, while the discussions could degenerate into chest-pounding and pointless jockeying, one assumes that Bartz gets the idea that Yahoo needs a lot of help–including from some rapprochement with Microsoft, from making its staff even leaner, from streamlining its product focus and from striking other significant partnerships.

Many inside and outside Yahoo certainly hope that spirit–and not the one from this video below of a fabulous scene of Betty Hutton and Howard Keel in the musical classic, “Annie Get Your Gun,” singing “Anything You Can Do”–prevails with Microsoft in the next 100 days.

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