GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Carol Bartz, the woman who promised to turn around Yahoo after replacing founder Jerry Yang as CEO in 2008, has been fired, apparently for failing to live up to that promise. Bartz sent an e-mail to all employees, via her iPhone, saying she had just been told over the phone by Chairman Roy Bostock that she was fired. The company later issued a news release confirming the information, with Bostock thanking her “for her service to Yahoo during a critical time of transition in the company’s history, and against a very challenging macro-economic backdrop.”
The company’s shares rose on the news.
Links to other sites: BBC, Beacon Equity Stock Market Watch, Bloomberg, Wired
The Financial Times reports that Yahoo and Microsoft are “on the brink of sealing an online alliance that could create a more formidable rival to Google”, ending 18 months of uncertainty in the Internet world as Microsoft first chased, then attempted to woo Yahoo. The two reportedly are agreeing to share future online advertising revenue but Microsoft will not be paying Yahoo money up front, which was part of earlier proposals. Wall Street Journal
Geneva's Mont Blanc McDonald's sports the new look
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The latest company to leave the UK and move to Switzerland is fast food giant McDonald’s, which will shift its European head office to Geneva later in 2009, the Tribune de Geneve reported late Friday. European president Denis Hennequin and a small team of possibly a dozen people will make the move. The Tribune says the company will be housed in the former offices of Bank Mirabaud on Boulevard du Théâtre, but the company has said only that details will be announced closer to the date of the move.
The UK’s Telegraph newspaper links the move to a change in the UK’s “taxation of foreign profits linked to intellectual property rights such as patents and trademarks” but it notes that the company stresses its tax rate will remain virtually unchanged.
Executives at Time Warner are close to taking the decision to spin off the internet portal AOL entirely, acording to the Financial Times. The company has been in talks with both Microsoft and Yahoo to try to find a buyer for the troubled division. Time Warner merged with AOL in 2001, creating the largest media company in the world just before the dotcom bubble burst. A year later, Time Warner wiped $100 billion off the value of the company.
Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer’s current visit to Yahoo country in California has technology and business media speculating that he is meeting with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, to try to revive talks to create a search partnership, after discussions fell through in 2008. The two are struggling to gain greater shares of the search market where Google has 64 percent. Reuters
Shares in Yahoo rallied Tuesday 21 April after the company reported first quarter figures in line with forecasts, but it said there are still “dark clouds on the horizon” with ad revenue down. The company plans to cut 5 percent of its global workforce, which numbered 13,600 at the start of 2009. It cut 10 percent of staff at the end of 2008. Reuters, Yahoo corporate site
A management shakeup at Yahoo is in the works, under new CEO Carol Bartz, who replaced founder Jerry Yang at the start of 2009, but one top executive, Neeraj Khemlani, head of the news and information division, has left for a job with Hearst. Financial Times (Ed. note: Yahoo is expected to open its European head office in Rolle, Vaud, Switzerland in coming months)
Yahoo has settled a lawsuit brought by investors by reducing the severance plan it created in February 2008 when Microsoft made an unsolicited takeover bid. The costly programme has now been reduced so that employees dismissed within a year, rather than two years, of a takeover will receive severance. Reuters
Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang has resigned as CEO, a job he has held since June 2007, but he will remain with the company as “Chief Yahoo,” effective as soon as the company finds a replacement. The company’s shares promptly rose 4% as investors brightened at the possibility a deal with Microsoft could now go through, after failed talks with the company, as well as with Google and Time-Warner. Bloomberg, Reuters
A June deal between Google and Yahoo that would let Google use some of Yahoo’s online advertising space quickly ran into problems with the US Justice Department and the Wall St Journal is now reporting sources close to the deal as saying it could be dropped next week. The two have 80% of the online advertising market and advertisers have voiced fears prices will rise if the deal goes through. Reuters
Yahoo’s third quarter profits were down 64%, worse than predicted, and the company announced it will cut 10% of its workforce, about 1,500 jobs worldwide, to help improve its fortunes. BBC
