Yahoo, CEO Marissa Mayer, Is It Over? (video)

Inside the New Book About Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer: Video - Bloomberg:
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Techomony CEO David Kirkpatrick comments on Author Nicholas Carlson’s book “Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!” (Source: Bloomberg Dec 19)

NYTimes.com: ".... Mayer may not be able to buy herself the time. Major Yahoo shareholders have recently begun collaborating on a series of spreadsheets that calculate that AOL and Yahoo are worth between 70 and 80 percent more when combined than they are apart. Some investors are further attracted to the merger because it will bring AOL’s chief executive, Tim Armstrong, into Yahoo. Like Mayer, Armstrong made his career as an early Google employee — but he was in charge of its sales force. After a rough start, Armstrong has managed to get AOL’s stock going again, not by inventing some new consumer product but by optimizing its ad and media assets. Armstrong, who has seen a version of this analysis, appears willing to consider a deal. Doing so, of course, would provide enormous personal benefit; Armstrong, who owns 5 percent of AOL, could stand to gain tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars. For Mayer, the calculus is less enticing. It’s unlikely that her personal turnaround plan included shrinking a $30 billion company into a $5 billion one, all to combine it with a $3 billion company and realize $1 billion in cost-savings...."


Is Yahoo Doing Enough to Keep Activists Satisfied?: Video - Bloomberg:
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Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg’s Tom Giles examines third-quarter results from Yahoo and whether or not chief executive officer Marissa Mayer is doing enough to keep activist investors satisfied. He speaks on “In The Loop.”

Yahoo Results Just a Series of One-Off Events: Atul Lele: Video - Bloomberg:
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Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Atul Lele, chief investment officer at Deltec International Group, talks about the state of Yahoo, CEO Marissa Mayer’s turnaround efforts and the tech M&A environment. He speaks on “Bloomberg Surveillance.”


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Sunday Focus: YAHOO! Play OR Be Played?

New York Times
Yahoo Faces Moment of Decision, Again
New York Times
And some start-ups have looked warily at selling out to Ms. Mayer, seeing more prestige in choosing Google or Facebook or in going public....


Wall Street Journal
Starboard Pushes for Potential Yahoo-AOL Tie-Up
Wall Street Journal
Activist investor Starboard is pushing Yahoo and CEO Marissa Mayer to ... Analysts have said a Yahoo-AOL merger could create a strong competitor ...
Yahoo, AOL Pushed Toward Merger By Fed Up Activist Investor - Forbes

Activist Shareholders Go After Yahoo, Tell Marissa Mayer To Buy AOL - Business Insider: "... This time its Jeffrey Smith of Starboard. He doesn't want Mayer to resign. He wants her to… Sell Yahoo's stakes Alibaba and Yahoo Japan. Cut costs by $250 million to $500 million per year. Quit buying startups that don't add to revenues. Combine with AOL..."

Yahoo to Close Education, Qwiki and Directory Next Quarter: "Yahoo today announced it is closing three more products: Yahoo Education, Qwiki, and Directory. The company says the decision is part of a broader strategy to focus on its more successful projects. Yahoo Education will close down on September 30. The site is designed to connect users with education providers and content, but the company has concluded that education is an area outside of its core offerings “where users’ needs are already well served by alternative online resources.”..."

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5 Ways Apple iOS8 Changes How You Use Your iPhone (video)

Apple's iOS8: Five Ways it Changes How You Use Your iPhone -

Apple's latest iOS update--iOS 8--is here. While last year's iOS 7 was mostly a design change, this operating system is all about function. Sam Grobart reveals the five biggest changes that will change the way you use your iPhone. (Source: Bloomberg-Sept 17)

Hey, Android Users, Don't Buy the New iPhones - Businessweek: ".... there are two kinds of Android users who will end up buying the new iPhones: those who have always wanted one but couldn’t live without a bigger screen, and anyone who really wants the Apple Watch—although those people probably have iPhones already."

Alibaba Closes Up 38% at $93.89, Volume Falls Off - Tech Trader Daily - Barrons.com: "Alibaba Group Holdings (BABA), after opening at $92.70, up 36% from its offer price of $68, slipped in afternoon trading then steadily worked its way back up to close at $93.89, up 38%. The stock hit a high of $99.70 early in the session. Volume dried up noticeably from over 50 million shares at the open to less than a million in the afternoon, before rallying to a little over a million shares. The day’s gain gives the company a market cap of about $231.44 billion, based on 2.47 billion shares outstanding following the offering."

Exclusive: France's Iliad sets mid-Oct deadline for T-Mobile US bid - sources | Reuters: "French low-cost telecom operator Iliad has set a mid-October deadline to decide whether to improve its bid for T-Mobile US or walk away as it faces resistance from seller Deutsche Telekom, several people familiar with the situation said."


ABC News
Yahoo finds way to blow Alibaba riches
USA TODAY
Yahoo (YHOO) might be celebrating its $8.3 billion windfall from selling Alibaba shares. Here's the problem: It could have made $11.3 billion.
Alibaba IPO to Give Yahoo Windfall - Wall Street Journal
Alibaba Overtakes Amazon as Most Highly Valued Online Retailer - Bloomberg
Yahoo Seen Relying on Alibaba Even as IPO Sales Begin - Bloomberg


The New Yorker
You May Love Apple, But Can You Trust It?
The New Yorker
But, for the iPhone 6, the iPhone 6 Plus, and the Apple Watch, which Apple ...

MiamiHerald.com
Apple fans in Miami line up to wait for a new iPhone 6
MiamiHerald.com
Paul Menendez and Manuel Llanos brought junk food. Lots of it. Combos, SunChips, an emergency Pixy Stix straw in case they needed a sugar rush.
Apple's new big-screen iPhones draw long lines as sales start - Chicago Tribune


CNNMoney
Will Yahoo use Alibaba cash to buy AOL?
CNNMoney
But it's not clear that a combined Yahoo and AOL would be able to do a better job of stealing online ad dollars away from Google, Facebook (FB, ...

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Apple-Samsung Trial (video); Android Smartphones 71% Top EU Marketshare

Apple-Samsung Trial Is All About Messages: Feldman: Video - Bloomberg:
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UC Hastings' Robin Feldman, author of "Rethinking Patent Law," discusses Apple and Samsung's $2 billion trial with Emily Chang on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg West." (Source: Bloomberg April 25)

Apple makes final pitch to US jury in Samsung trial
Fox Business
SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - Samsung transformed the smartphone market only by copying iPhone technology, an Apple attorney said on ...

Kantar: Windows Phone ‘Stutters’ Amid Android Price Competition, iPhone 5S Is Apple’s Buffer | TechCrunch: "According to the latest 12-week figures from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech — a market research division of WPP — Windows Phone accounted for 8.1% of smartphone sales in the 12 weeks to the end of March across the top five markets in Europe (the UK, France, Spain, Italy and Germany), with Android taking 70.7% of sales and iOS 19.2%."

Viral Twitter protest targets Mexico Internet law: Activists are worried that the law, proposed by President Pena Nieto, would allow the government to restrict access to the Internet and increase surveillance. There are also concerns that the government could block communication signals at protests, reportedly for security reasons, potentially stopping activists and journalists from tweeting and live-streaming.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Will Talk Net Neutrality With Congress On May 20 | TechCrunch: "Mark your calendars: May 20 should provide fireworks. On that date, Tom Wheeler, current chairman of the Federal Communications Commission FCC will sit down in front of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and testify."

Apple rolls out new, cheaper MacBook Airs
CNN
(CNN) -- Apple has refreshed its line of MacBook Air notebooks, dropping in more powerful processors and knocking $100 off the price. The 11-inch ...

Microsoft Office For iPad Gains Printing
InformationWeek
Users can wirelessly print Office documents using Apple's AirPrint feature. In Word ...Microsoft also promised bug fixes and stability improvements.

Google: Driverless cars are mastering city streets
Washington Post
LOS ANGELES — Google says that cars it is programming to drive themselves have started to master the navigation of city streets and the challenges ...

Google: Weapon of Choice in the Cloud
Wall Street Journal
Google: Weapon of Choice in the Cloud .... Valuations at companies such as Google,Facebook, and Amazon are, in large part, bets on the ability of ...

Microsoft boosts OneDrive for Business storage
PCWorld
Microsoft is currently offering the first year's subscription at half the price. ... As part of its free Google account for individual consumers, Google offers ...

Apple Plans $12 Billion Bond Sale to Keep Cash Overseas
Bloomberg
Apple Inc. (AAPL) is marketing $12 billion of bonds in the U.S. as the iPhone maker seeks a cheaper alternative to reward shareholders than overseas ...

Google acquires a taste for Power -- IBM's processors, that is
CNET
An effort to license IBM processor designs bears fruit as one of the most powerful computing companies on the Net shows its own server using Big ...

Facebook Launches Business Manager Tool
InformationWeek
Business Manager streamlines workflows for large advertisers and provides one dashboard to manage accounts, pages, permissions, and more.

AOL probing security breach
Washington Post
CYBERSECURITY. AOL probing security breach. Those passwords you just changed? It's time to change at least one of them again — that is, if you use AOL. The company said Monday that it is “investigating a security incident” after being notified that ...

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Reform Government Surveillance, The 5 Principles

Merry Christmas and Season's Greetings!

Tech industry chieftains unloaded on Obama about the NSA for 2 and 1/2 hours this past week --

Yahoo’s Mayer Said to Warn of Web Balkanization in Spying - Bloomberg: "Yahoo! Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer warned President Barack Obama the backlash over U.S. spying threatens to Balkanize the Internet, as countries adopt different standards to thwart surveillance, according to an industry official. Mayer was among 15 technology company executives including Apple Inc. (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook, Facebook Inc. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Google Inc. Chairman Eric Schmidt who met at the White House...Schmidt began by going over five principles supported by the companies to changing government surveillance programs, including limiting collection of user information and transparency about government demands, according to the industry official..." (see below)

Reform Government Surveillance: The Principles:

1 Limiting Governments’ Authority to Collect Users’ Information
Governments should codify sensible limitations on their ability to compel service providers to disclose user data that balance their need for the data in limited circumstances, users’ reasonable privacy interests, and the impact on trust in the Internet. In addition, governments should limit surveillance to specific, known users for lawful purposes, and should not undertake bulk data collection of Internet communications.

 2 Oversight and Accountability
Intelligence agencies seeking to collect or compel the production of information should do so under a clear legal framework in which executive powers are subject to strong checks and balances. Reviewing courts should be independent and include an adversarial process, and governments should allow important rulings of law to be made public in a timely manner so that the courts are accountable to an informed citizenry.

3 Transparency About Government Demands
Transparency is essential to a debate over governments’ surveillance powers and the scope of programs that are administered under those powers. Governments should allow companies to publish the number and nature of government demands for user information. In addition, governments should also promptly disclose this data publicly.

4 Respecting the Free Flow of Information
The ability of data to flow or be accessed across borders is essential to a robust 21st century global economy. Governments should permit the transfer of data and should not inhibit access by companies or individuals to lawfully available information that is stored outside of the country. Governments should not require service providers to locate infrastructure within a country’s borders or operate locally.

5 Avoiding Conflicts Among Governments
In order to avoid conflicting laws, there should be a robust, principled, and transparent framework to govern lawful requests for data across jurisdictions, such as improved mutual legal assistance treaty — or “MLAT” — processes. Where the laws of one jurisdiction conflict with the laws of another, it is incumbent upon governments to work together to resolve the conflict.

/s/ AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo

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