BoomTown strives to bring readers the very best in internal memo decoding, and this one is just too good to pass up. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent a short memo to employees this afternoon about finally hiring someone to head the software giant’s lackluster digital efforts. That someone, as this column reported earlier today before the official announcement, was former Yahoo (YHOO) tech star Qi Lu. He will become president of the Online Services Group at Microsoft (MSFT), right after the new year. Thus, let us try to read between the lines: What Steve wrote: From: Steve Ballmer Sent:...
Another day, another hare-brained scheme to buy Yahoo. This time, the player isn't Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, but former AOL CEO Jon Miller, who now runs a venture-capital fund. But the prospect of a deal seems as far off and fanciful as Microsoft, which spent most of the spring and summer trying to buy Yahoo, coming back to the negotiating table. Miller wants to buy Yahoo, but is having trouble coming up with the money, the Wall Street Journal reports. Is there no one serious who wants to buy this company? It's been a grindingly frustrating comedown for what was...
$500 fully subsidized with a plan! I said that is the most expensive phone in the world and it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard which makes it not a very good email machine. …Right now we’re selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year, Apple is selling zero phones a year. In six months, they’ll have the most expensive phone by far ever in the marketplace and let’s see … what’s the expression? Let’s see how the competition goes. – Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on the iPhone, Jan. 2007 “Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone...
A report in the Times of London in which Microsoft would buy Yahoo’s search business in a convoluted $20 billion deal that would include well-known Internet execs Jon Miller and Ross Levinsohn, is–in the words of one key player–”total fiction.” Actually, that’s Levinsohn speaking, on the record. But that’s also the essential word from all key players regarding the Times’ report. BoomTown has spoken to top sources at Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) too and all scoff at such a deal now taking place or that either side has been in any such discussions of late. Yahoo’s entire market...
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn spurred a rally in Yahoo shares today after he disclosed that he had increased his stake in the struggling Internet company. Shares surged nearly 9% in the shortened trading session after Icahn, a Yahoo board member who has been pushing a strategy shift or a sale to Microsoft, said he had bought about 6.8 million Yahoo shares. A Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed that Icahn had paid an average of $9.88 per share from Monday through Wednesday, boosting his holdings by about $67 million. The purchases gave Icahn a nearly 5.5% stake in Yahoo worth...
Now that the Jerry Yang problem has finally been dealt with, Icahn looks to be gearing up for battle once again. Over the past few days, Billionaire financier Carl Icahn has been buying up more of Yahoo and likely gearing up for another shot at plugging the dam. Icahn’s recent pick ups where made at bargain prices of course, compared to his initial investments. At just under $10, Icahn paid over 50% less than he did during his last buying round where he scooped up a much more substantial 69 million shares. This time around he only bought an...
Last Friday, a number of the Bruce Clay, Inc. databases went down. Right as I was about to post the Friday Recap. So that brings us to today's post, the belated Friday (Monday) Recap. I didn't have the heart to scrap the link-filled post that rounded up the week's tech news sprinkled with random stories to make you smile -- especially since this was an expanded recap meant to hold you over through the Thanksgiving break. So with that, here is your Friday (Monday) Recap. How about a video to start us off? Google has released its SearchWiki, which means...
A US judge has ruled Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer must testify in the next 30 days in a class-action lawsuit over the Vista Capable logo programme...
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in October that he had no knowledge of the "Vista Capable" debacle that's since spawned a class-action lawsuit, but a federal judge wants him to testify in the case anyway. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman smacked down Microsoft's earlier claims that Ballmer shouldn't have to testify, and wrote Friday that the plaintiffs had adequately shown the chair-throwing executive may have had "unique knowledge" of the disastrous "Vista Capable" PC program. Ballmer was ordered to give a deposition in the next 30 days. A Microsoft said the company will comply with the order. Just for fun,...
Back when Vista was announced, everyone was upset that they’d have to make significant hardware upgrades in order to accommodate the new operating system from Microsoft. Many faithful Windows users had to buy new computers because it was less expensive than making the upgrades necessary to their then-current notebooks and desktops. However, there was a slight problem involved. The original date for the “Vista Capable” campaign was slated for June 1, 2006. For one reason or another, Microsoft decided to launch it three months earlier on April 1. Some of the folks over at Intel were upset because the...
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will be forced to take the stand to defend his involvement in the “Vista Capable” marketing initiative which sparked a class action lawsuit back in February. The court has been selectively taking testimony from key Microsoft executives based on the contents of the 158 page bundle of internal emails that Judge Martha Peachman ordered unsealed. Specifically the court seems interested to learn of Ballmer’s involvement in giving Intel a pass on its underpowered integrated graphics hardware which turned out to be barely capable of booting Vista Basic. In one specific chain senior vice president Will...
