Charged with the turnaround of Yahoo, a company whose once lofty position in tech has slid in recent years, Marissa Mayer is expected to make a drastic change to the company in the coming months. (That is, beyond the Googley new free lunches for all.) While we watch and wait for Mayer’s next move, Biz Stone has an idea for the newly crowned CEO: Pack up and head East. The Twitter co-founder suggested in a blog post on Friday that above all else, a cross-country HQ relocation could provide the shake-up the stagnating company needs. “Compared to newer powerhouse social and search giants in Silicon Valley, Yahoo seems faded and out of place,” Stone wrote. “The bold act of picking up and moving to New York City could cast Yahoo in the completely different light of a comparatively nascent and powerful player in the media capital of the world.” It’s a flight of fancy that isn’t entirely pie-in-the-sky — every other week you’ll hear yet another story on the state of the burgeoning NYC tech scene. To boot, points out Stone, Mayer already sits on the board of both the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and of the New York City Ballet, and is apparently interested in fashion (Project Runway, anyone?). It’s a natural fit! One minor quibble: While Yahoo has cast itself as a media company in administrations past — see interim CEO ( and now ex-Yahoo ) Ross Levinsohn’s area of expertise, for one — Mayer’s background and experience at Google suggest a product emphasis going forward.
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Read MoreGoogle Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin has quietly become a power broker in this Silicon Valley city, in a bid to beautify and transform its sleepy downtown. Mr. Brin, who lives in nearby Los Altos Hills, which doesn’t have a downtown but shares a border with downtown Los Altos, is bankrolling a real-estate investment firm that has bought local properties, renovated them and attracted new tenants, according to people briefed on the matter. Read the rest of this post on the original site »
Read MoreEdSurge , a site that covers the boom in education technology, has raised a $400,000 seed round led by the Washington Post Co. and NewSchools Venture Fund, along with angels like Allen & Co.’s Nancy Peretsman and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Judy Estrin. Founded in February 2011, EdSurge is run by Elizabeth Corcoran, a veteran technology reporter who worked at Forbes and the Post.
Read MoreSome of the early backers of Groupon Inc., including Silicon Valley veteran Marc Andreessen, are heading for the exits, joining investors who have lost faith in companies that had been expected to drive a new Internet boom. At least four Groupon investors who held stock in the daily-deals company before it went public have sold or significantly pared back their holdings in recent months. Since its initial public offering in November, Groupon has shed more than three-quarters of its stock-market value, or about $10 billion. Read the rest of this post on the original site »
Read MoreNow is the summer of a social network’s discontent, made glorious by this tweet of snark: “Facebook Unlock happens during ‘Shark Week.’ Shorts Circling.” All the clouds that low’red upon this house of daily deals in the deep bosom of mockery buried: “Watching #Groupon trade today is like watching an Olympic-class limbo competition.” And the world is grown so bad for social gaming, that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch: “I heard Zynga is building a new slide at their HQ based identically on their stock performance.” With all apologies to William Shakespeare’s “Richard III,” it’s been a very bad week for the trio of the highest profile Web 2.0 companies — Facebook, Groupon and Zynga — that just a year ago were flying pretty high. Too high, as it turned out, and now they have been felled low — at least by Wall Street investors, who have been furiously bidding down the companies to valuations unimagined until recently. Naturally, the noise levels on the situation ratcheted up heavily as last week drew to a close, with innumerable media stories chronicling the woeful stock situation. Facebook — due to worries about revenue growth, mobile problems and a pile of unlocked shares flooding the market — hit a record low since its May 18 offering, down 50 percent to $19.05 on Friday. Zynga, which also showed weaker than expected results recently and with concerns about the lasting power of its social games — is now at $3, which is down 69 percent from its IPO. And Groupon — perhaps the biggest punching bag of all for the longest time — is off 82 percent to $4.75 on Friday, with uncertainties growing about its core coupon business. And it stands, some are predicting an even worse performance tomorrow and in the weeks ahead. Again, borrowing from the Bard: “The worst is not, so long as we can say, ‘This is the worst.’” Now, the most pressing question for the three companys’ execs, employees and shareholders is when there might be some respite for the weary. Unfortunately, most think that will be quite some time. As the New York Times’s Peter Eavis put it well: Indeed, each of the companies that have gone public in recent months has needed one main magical story … But the nightmare begins when investors stop believing in that central story. Earnings don’t have to be terrible, and they haven’t been at the hardest hit firms — Facebook, Groupon and Zynga, the online game company.
Read MoreDavid Windley As I reported earlier today , new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is shaking up the human resources unit at the company. Consider it shook and definitely not stirred: Leaving the company, by mutual agreement, is its longtime head David Windley, several sources said. Also out is his No. 2 exec. Both have been replaced by another Yahoo HR exec Kristen Robinson on interim basis. Windley’s tenure has included a huge brain drain at the Silicon Valley Internet giant and a series of layoffs at Yahoo, as well as an ongoing musical-chair series of top leaders. Yahoo, keeping with a spanking new policy of non-communication, has not returned an email seeking comment. Windley’s departure comes as exactly no surprise, since Mayer has arrived and taken control of its culture and recruiting, which have basically boiled down to making a Yahoo version of the search giant. Mayer worked at the search giant for her entire career. As I wrote earlier: “While free food and better swag have attracted attention, Mayer has also plunged into the recruiting arena aggressively
Read MoreAccording to sources close to the situation, active new CEO Marissa Mayer has turned her focus on the troubled Silicon Valley Internet giant’s human resources unit. It is now headed by David Windley (pictured here), whose tenure has included a huge brain drain and a series of layoffs at Yahoo, as well as an ongoing series of top leaders. Yahoo, as has become its practice, has not returned an email seeking comment. Some in the company think a big shakeup is coming, which could include Windley’s departure. He could stay too, but it is clear his new boss will be in his business more than previous leaders. That is probably no surprise in the wake of the hiring of Mayer. The former Google exec has instituted a series of quickfire changes across the company related to its culture and recruiting, which have basically boiled down to making a Yahoo version of the search giant. While free food and better swag have attracted attention, Mayer has also plunged into the recruiting arena aggressively. She is now reviewing that all new hires personally — another steal, um , borrow, from Google — and has also begin to require a much more stringent set of hiring standards
Read MoreAs I previously reported he likely would, top Yahoo exec Ross Levinsohn — who lost the CEO race to former Google exec Marissa Mayer — is leaving the company, according to several sources. Mayer also just sent a note to the company about the departure, added other sources across the company. Levinsohn, who took over as interim CEO in the wake of the ouster of Scott Thompson earlier this year, had been running the Americas unit of the Silicon Valley Internet giant. That put him in charge of key Yahoo businesses, including its media and advertising sales units. The pair have been negotiating his exit for several days, sources said, which is not surprising given the awkward circumstance between them. While Mayer might have benefited from Levinsohn’s close ties with key marketing players and his content experience, her intense focus on products and not on media likely mean that she will likely rely on a more tech-heavy leadership team going forward. Levinsohn does not apparently have any current plans for another gig, but as an experienced and very well-liked online media exec will likely have many options. He came to Yahoo in late 2010 , replacing Hilary Schneider, in the regime of Carol Bartz, who was later fired. Levinsohn arrived at Yahoo from Fuse Capital, where he worked with Jon Miller — now chief digital officer at News Corp
Read MoreThe constantly churning tech news cycle officially ate itself alive today over the thin strand of the possibility that Twitter was getting a big chunk of change from Apple. That was according to the New York Times , which said the socially-stumbly Apple “has talked with Twitter in recent months about making a strategic investment in it.” Holy googa mooga went the blogosphere over the possibility of Twapple — credit to @evegelman for that fab mashup — in which Apple would apparently value Twitter at $10 billion. That’s especially so, as it came after what has been a terrible week for tech stocks. That has included Apple, the patron saint of all that is shiny in Silicon Valley, after disappointing earnings. But the jolt was soon over, after a tetchy oh-no-you-didn’t report in The Wall Street Journal made the salient point that such talks took place over a year ago. “People familiar with the matter said there are no current formal investment or acquisition discussions between the companies,” the article said. This is correct, according to our people who are also familiar with the matter (and who are probably the exact same peeps). Big sigh, because I guess it’s back to contemplating the weirdness of the opening ceremony of the Olympics, and what it exactly meant that Lord Voldemort and a team of Mary Poppins did battle in the air, as children on beds cowered in horror. Or maybe it’s time to return the nice warm cocoon of Silicon Valley speculation on multibillion deals that might or might not happen, but will leave everyone rich if we only believe in faith and trust and just a little pixie dust. Wait, that’s Peter Pan’s line — which was also jammed into that strange Olympic show, which took place in London, as did the fab children’s story. In any case, minus the fairytale, let me give you the actual scorecard, based on our reporting: Apple and Twitter did do some courting, but it was a while back, so the Journal was right. Twitter don’t need the dough — it has a big amount of money in its kitty, so the Times was right. Twitter will probably try to go public at some point — and good luck with that ! — as both the Times and the Journal noted, but everyone already knew that one. Actually, this is all kind of old news, but it did liven up our weekend, so both media outlets and others were right to chew all over it until it was like cud
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