Net neutrality is officially a real topic again, I guess. Heck, it’s on the front page of the Wall Street Journal this AM so it must be important, right? Sorry for the cynicism first thing on Monday but after reading a rather lengthy report on the threat to net neutrality that is being spearheaded by Google I feel like I may have actually gotten up on the wrong side of the bed after all. I’ll summarize. Google is doing some behind the scenes negotiating to create an internet fast lane that would give those who could pay for it a...
Like it or not, Google is widely considered to be a leader within the technology industry. Flagship companies such themselves, Apple, and Microsoft are important companies to watch during a market downturn. Downsizing at these multibillion dollar corporations are viewed as a devastating reminder that even the strongest companies aren’t immune to the decline. In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Google CEO Eric Schmidt outlined several cost cutting initiatives to help keep revenue on track. "We have to behave as though we don't know" what's going to happen, says Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt. The company...
When Google pulled out of its proposed search advertising deal with Yahoo last month, it was chief legal counsel David Drummond who made the announcement. He cited concerns of a “protracted legal battle,” but only now do we learn that the Justice Department was only three hours away from filing an antitrust lawsuit to block the deal. Sandy Litvack, the prosecutor hired by the justice Department to head up the case, tells Am Law Daily: We were going to file the complaint at a certain time during the day. We told them we were going to file the complaint...
-- Shock, surprise: Google is cutting back. "We have to behave as though we don't know" what's going to happen, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt says. WSJ -- Twitter: We don't need to make any stinkin' money -- yet. CNet -- Yahoo gets out of the Internet radio business. PaidContent.org -- CBS is building an Internet radio powerhouse. A VC -- MySpace Video goes mobile. NewTeeVee -- Logitech rolls out its one billionth mouse. BBC -- Does the T-Mobile G1 ever go offline? Gizmodo -- Virtual lines come to Six Flags Magic Mountain rides. LAT -- Mosquito gives us the perfect...
Nothing says serious about cost cutting and process quite like hiring a CFO with a black belt in Six Sigma management. With or without the tanking economy, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has been heading towards maturing growth—you can't keep up triple-digit growth or even double-digits indefinitely—and the addition of McKinsey vet and Bell Canada planning exec Patrick Pichette as CFO in August was one sign that cost containment was on the way. The slowing of online ad growth coupled with the unexpected speed of the economic downturn has only accelerated Google's need to show maturity of a different sort. That would...
If a YouTube video gets yanked, if a Blogger blog gets deleted, if a website disappears from Google's search results, chances are Google lawyer Nicole Wong had something to do with it. Wong has kept a low profile, aside from the occasional post on Google's official blog, but after a profile in Sunday's New York Times Magazine, it's likely she'll be hearing more pleas than ever from frustrated users whose works have vanished from Google's sprawling Web empire. Google's corporate motto is "don't be evil." It's increasingly a burden, as Google expands its reach into more countries and more industries....
The competition for the next wave of enterprise computing has heated up since Microsoft announced its Windows Azure strategy a month ago. While the jury is out in some quarters about Microsoft’s ability to actually deliver the reliability, security, and even the interoperability that is promised, the timetable has accelerated the plans of competitors and forced some to define themselves in terms of the cloud at a dangerous moment. Sun Microsystems has been under particular pressure to realign; analysts and even Sun employees such as Tim Bray have been outspoken in their pleas for Sun’s executive team to jettison unprofitable...
No man is above the law — not even multibillionaire Google CEO Eric Schmidt. At least that's what we hear from a well-placed tipster, who says Schmidt recently confessed to having been pulled over by the cops last month in Los Angeles for talking on his cell phone while driving. (California law recently changed to require the use of a headset.) Oh, but it gets worse for Schmidt. We haven't gotten anyone from Google or Yahoo to confirm this bit, but we're told cops interrupted a call Schmidt was making to Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang to discuss how to get...
Silicon Valley entrepreneurs like to talk about their hopes of "changing the world." Yes, of course: Changing the world form one in which they are poor to one in which they are fabulously wealthy. The question in the air is whether the founders of companies do a better job at creating wealth, for themselves and their investors, than professional managers. With Yahoo announcing Jerry Yang's plans to step down as CEO, it would seem like a losing time for founders. But Yang is an exceptional case; he took his hands off the steering wheel when Yahoo had a mere five...
Why is Yahoo looking for a new CEO? Because founder Jerry Yang, in his year and a half on the job, has proven himself incapable of meeting the company's many challenges. Here are five key moments where Yang failed to rise to the occasion: 1. The all-too-sacred cows. When he first became CEO in July 2007, Yang promised that there would be "no sacred cows" and a 100-day action plan. Instead, his efforts became mired in Yahoo's famous bureaucracy; the cows were spared. While the company had layoffs last February, they were not nearly enough; next month, Yahoo is cutting...
