Daniel Loeb of Third Point — the activist shareholder who set off a management crisis at Yahoo last week with the revelation that new CEO Scott Thompson had added a fake computer science degree to his bio — will be onstage at a high-profile investor confab in Las Vegas this afternoon. It’s his first public appearance since Loeb scored a direct hit on Yahoo in his ongoing proxy fight against the company — a first casualty yesterday with the stepping down of Yahoo director Patti Hart , who vetted Thompson. With one win like that, can Loeb resist using the panel, titled “Titans of Wall Street: Insight & Strategies for Capitalizing on Today’s Markets” to strafe Yahoo a bit? Sources said Loeb is prepping some reaction to Thompson’s apology on Monday for the borked bio becoming a “distraction” (but not, oddly, for the mistake itself), as well as an offer to work with the Yahoo board on a new CEO choice. Loeb has called for Thompson’s firing over the bio fibbing. But the pugnacious investor will likely also be asked to opine on the situation so far at the off-the-record SkyBridge Alternatives Conference , which describes itself as “committed to facilitating balanced discussions and debates on macro-economic trends, geo-political events and alternative investment opportunities within the context of a dynamic global economy.” What will be more interesting is to see in the days ahead — even as the Yahoo board investigates how the false information about Thompson’s academic credentials got on that bio, as well as in regulatory filings — is if Loeb can be more than just a bomb-thrower and put forth a more specific and substantive plan for the long-troubled company than he has so far. It’s not a requirement, of course, since Loeb is only seeking board seats and is not lobbying to be CEO, whose job it is to formulate a cogent strategy. But other Yahoo shareholders he is seeking to convince to join him in his proxy battle probably want more than “Yahoo stinks” from him at some point. Still, for today at about 1:35 pm PT when Loeb is scheduled to speak, it’s probably a good bet to expect some less-than-pretty noise from Sin City.
Read MoreNewspapers are supposed to be relying on the Web for new revenue streams. But the digital ad business may be letting them down. The Washington Post reported this morning that its online ad revenue dropped 7 percent in the first three months of 2012. That follows a New York Times earnings release which saw that publisher’s Web ad business drop 2 percent. (We should get some color on the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones, when parent company News Corp. reports its earnings next week; News Corp. also owns this Web site.) The Times said that digital sales were “under pressure” in the first quarter of the year, while the Post didn’t bother to add any color to its results. But it did note that online display ads were down 11 percent, while classifieds were down 1 percent. Unlike the Times, the Post is essentially a regional newspaper, so it is harder to argue that its travails reflect a larger trend. And it’s also worth noting that the Post faces fierce competition for its core political coverage from Politico, an online/offline competitor that basically sprouted overnight. But for the record: The rest of the Web publishing business — including not only Google but laggards like Yahoo — has been posting Q1 revenue increases. [An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported that AOL's ad revenues were up for Q1; the company won't post its numbers until next week.]
Read MoreGroupon’s stock continued a downward spiral three weeks after it revised its fourth-quarter results to account for higher than expected returns during the holiday period. Friday, shares of the Chicago-based deals site closed at a new low of $11. At that price, it is now worth just over $7 billion, down 57 percent since the company went public last November and well off the more than $10 billion it was valued at as tech’s hottest start-up of 2011 . Ironically, Groupon’s current market valuation is actually not much more than the $6 billion offered for it by search giant Google in late 2010. The fall for Groupon has been swift, from the honorific of being the fastest-growing company ever to one that cannot keep control of that runaway growth. That’s perhaps no surprise. Perhaps most significantly, Groupon went public in just four years, delivering the biggest tech IPO since Google. The quicksilver move was typical for it.
Read MoreOvation's February distribution deal with AT&T U-Verse has started bearing fruit: with distribution now in the low 50 millions, the network has enough breathing room to start talking original programming. The network's executives yesterday talked up
Read MoreRep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., isn’t satisfied with the Federal Communications Commission’s investigation of Google’s surreptitious collecting of Wi-Fi data from residential networks. Nor is he happy with the slap-on-the-wrist fine the FCC imposed on the company, claiming it “deliberately impeded and delayed” the agency’s investigation. So he’s calling on Congress for a broader probe into Google’s Wi-Spy debacle . And he’s not the only one. In a letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) also called for another investigation, this one by the Department of Justice.
Read MoreWas it something Larry Page said? Something he didn’t say? We don’t know, and we should be wary of people who say they understand why the market moves in any particular direction, on any particular day. That said: The day after Google announced its Q1 earnings, Google is trading down about 4 percent. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq is down about 1 percent. To recap: Google’s Q1 came in around where Wall Street thought it would — revenues were just under consensus, and earnings were a bit above. The company’s cost-per-click trend continued to decline, dropping 12 percent year over year, and I’ve seen some reports where analysts are wringing their hands over that. But the stock-watchers I follow don’t seem overly concerned about that — they assume that as long as Google’s overall ad volume increases , it can afford to sell its stuff for less. The other news item, of course, was that Google is creating a new, non-voting class of stock that effectively creates a 2-1 split. This has no bearing on the way the company does business — it will still run, effectively, as a privately controlled company whose shares happen to trade on the open market
Read MoreCisco Systems Inc. Chief Executive John Chambers identified Huawei Technologies Co. as its toughest rival, stating that the Chinese company doesn’t always “play by the rules” in areas such as intellectual property protection and computer security. Mr. Chambers, who was responding to a question at a Wall Street Journal event, didn’t cite any specific actions by Huawei, which competes with Cisco in sales of networking equipment. But he suggested that, by contrast, Cisco is considered trustworthy by governments around the world. Read the rest of this post on the original site »
Read MoreWhen you arrived at last night's Bravo upfront, a nylon tent with plastic windows in it had been erected around the front of the venue—one of those former Manhattan warehouse spaces way out on 22nd Street near 10th Avenue. The entrance was a big roller-shutter door, like a garage, and when you stepped inside the little box (another door a few feet away), colored LEDs and a really, really enthusiastic voice welcomed you to the Bravo upfront, where you'd be making over "your favorite Bravo-lebrities." Then the floor started to move, and you realized you were in a freight elevator. The NBCUniversal lifestyle network has a big programming slate this year. The network has green-lighted 11 new series with titles like LA Shrinks and Miss Advised and a show about yachting enthusiasts called Below Deck . There are also a pair of scripted series in development— 22 Birthdays , about misbehaving parents of kids at a tony private school, and Blowing Sunshine , set in a rehab center. According to data provided by SNL Kagan, the Bravo gravy train is continuing to chug along. The financial company predicted a small increase in subscription fees this year (21 cents a sub from 20 in 2011), an uptick in gross ad revenue ($439.5 million, up from $410.9) and an operating revenue increase of about $37 million
Read MoreFrom 1981 to 2009, NBC aired just three series in the Thursday 10 p.m. time slot: Hill Street Blues , L.A. Law and ER . Celebrated by critics and viewers alike, these were canonical dramas, series that represented network TV at its very best. Since ER flatlined in April 2009, NBC’s showcase has become a junk shop; in the last seven months alone, the network has run three dramas in the hour, a string of flops that averaged a 1.2 rating in the adults 18-to-49 demo.
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