Apotheker's exit payout dwarfs HP's new CEO

Reuters, Thu Sep 29, 2011

Leo Apotheker, CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co., speaks at a
media event in Beijing, June 29, 2011. (Credit: Reuters/China Daily)

(Reuters) - Hewlett Packard Co will pay ousted CEO Leo Apotheker nearly $10 million in severance and bonuses and let him keep 156,000 restricted shares, a hefty payout for an 11-month term that saw HP's share price dive 45 percent.

In contrast, HP will pay new CEO Meg Whitman a base salary of just $1 per year. She, however, has the option to buy 1.9 million of the company's shares and is eligible for a performance bonus of $2.4 million in 2012, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Apotheker -- fired this month after repeatedly slashing sales forecasts and angering investors with a pricey acquisition of Autonomy -- gets a $7.2 million severance payout and also a $2.4 million annual bonus under the company's 2005 "pay-for-results plan".

In addition, he will be reimbursed for relocating to France or Belgium, and compensated for any losses on the sale of his residence in California.

Whitman joins a club of high-profile CEOs who have drawn the dollar-a-year salary, which include Apple's Steve Jobs, Yahoo Inc founder Jerry Yang and Google executives Larry Page, Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin.

HP's shares closed down 2.5 percent at $23.78 on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bangalore, editing by Bernard Orr)

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Taking in more sun with Clean Power Finance

Google Blog, 9/27/2011

(Cross-posted from the Green Blog)

This morning, at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum (REFF-West) in San Francisco, I announced a new $75 million investment to create an initial fund with Clean Power Finance that will help up to 3,000 homeowners go solar. This is our second investment in residential solar, and we’ve now invested more than $850million overall to develop and deploy clean energy.

As we said when we made our first residential solar investment, we think it makes a lot of sense to use solar photovoltaic (PV) technology—rooftop solar panels—to generate electricity right where you need it at home. It greens our energy mix by using existing roof space while avoiding transmission constraints, and it can be cheaper than drawing electricity from the traditional grid.

Purchasing a solar system is a major home improvement, but the upfront cost has historically been one of the biggest barriers for homeowners. Solar installers across the country don’t always have the resources to find financing for customers, or the capital to provide it themselves. And for investors like Google, banks and others, it can be difficult to enter a fragmented solar market with many companies, and get connected to individual homeowners.

That’s where Clean Power Finance comes in. They’ve developed an open platform that connects installers with investors like Google to provide financing to homeowners. Solar installers sign up with Clean Power Finance to get access to the company’s comprehensive sales solutions, including consumer financing from investors, like the Google fund. This enables installers to sell more systems and grow their business. The installer builds the system, the investor (in this case, Google) owns it, and homeowners pay a monthly payment for the system, at a price that’s often less than paying for energy from the grid. Maintenance and performance are taken care of by Clean Power Finance and its network of installers.

Owned by Google, operated by Clean Power Finance and installed by
American Vision Solar, the Colin family of Santa Clarita, Calif.
has a 4.14 kW solar system

This innovative and scalable model makes business sense for Google, Clean Power Finance, solar installers and homeowners too. We’re excited to be one of the first investors to partner with Clean Power Finance and enable the company to continue forging strong relationships with solar installers (like the ones they announced last week with SunLogic, California Solar Systems, American Vision Solar—learn more on Clean Power Finance’s website). By making financing more readily available, the Clean Power Finance platform has the potential to lower costs and accelerate adoption of solar energy.

We’ve already installed a 1.6MW rooftop solar installation at the Googleplex back in 2007. Now, through Clean Power Finance and our previous investment this year, we’re hoping to have an even larger impact. We look forward to watching our funding help more than 10,000 homeowners generate clean electricity from the sun.

Posted by Rick Needham, Director of Green Business Operations

Singapore Tops IT Competitiveness in Asia Pacific, Ranks No. 3 Worldwide

Jakarta Globe, Irene Tham - Straits Times Indonesia, September 27, 2011

Singapore has raced past Australia to become the most competitive IT market in Asia Pacific, a new study by the Economist Intelligence Unit shows.

Worldwide, Singapore has clinched the third place, after traditional heavyweights the United States and Finland.

The fourth report Investment for the future: Benchmarking IT Industry Competitiveness 2011 scores 66 countries around the world on six key indicators: overall business environment, technology infrastructure, human capital, legal framework, public support for industry development, and research and development landscape.

The bi-annual study was sponsored by non-profit anti-piracy trade group Business Software Alliance. The United States has consistently retained its pole position as the world's most competitive IT market.

EIU ranked Singapore first in the region and third globally due to the nation's strong showing in its R&D environment and the Government's support for industry development.

Globally, Singapore surpassed Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark.

In 2009, Singapore ranked ninth globally and second in Asia Pacific in IT competitiveness.

Google expresses interest in Indonesia, lays out terms

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Thu, 09/22/2011

Blue-chip Internet company Google has expressed an interest in investing in Indonesia, and is discussing its terms with the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM).

BKPM chief Gita Wirjawan said the board had been communicating intensively with Google.

"Google is considering investing in Indonesia by establishing PT Google Indonesia," Gita said Wednesday.

He added that Google had presented BKPM with two terms and conditions for investment. First, that it does not have to build a data center in Indonesia, and second that Google must be allowed to earn an income through online advertising.

Both terms have been forwarded and discussed with the Communication and Information Technology Ministry, Gita said.

"If there is no wish to invest, we are ready to be reactive by readying fiscal and non-fiscal barriers that do not rub against international rules," he said.

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Yahoo launches new social platform, Yahoo! Post

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Wed, 09/21/2011

Yahoo! Inc. on Wednesday announced Yahoo! Post, a new forum that allows users, particularly Indonesians, to search various topics and share interests online.

Yahoo! Post can be accessed through http://id.post.yahoo.com and is open to anyone with a Yahoo account.

Yahoo! Southeast Asia regional product marketing manager Aryo Kresnadi said Yahoo! Post was different to other web-based services because it combines search-based products with community features for content discovery.

“Usually, when we look for something using a search engine we get a link. In Yahoo! Post, we get a forum of discussion where we can get information as well as meet people with similar interests by simply entering a keyword,” Aryo said Wednesday.

Aryo added that Yahoo! Post offers three levels of participation: contributor, voter and forum moderator. Active members who contribute to a specific forum in Yahoo! Post can be promoted to higher levels.

They can also nominate themselves to become forum moderators by obtaining votes from other members.

A similar platform, KPost, has been available in Hong Kong and Korea since 2010.

Aryo said Yahoo! Post was part of Yahoo! efforts to innovate in Indonesia, one of the most important Internet markets in Southeast Asia.

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Hacked Security Firm DigiNotar Files for Bankruptcy

PC Mag, by Sara Yin, September 20, 2011

DigiNotar, a Dutch certificate authority that was hacked in July, has filed for bankruptcy.

"Although we are saddened by this action and the circumstances that necessitated it, we would like to remind our customers and investors that the incident at DigiNotar has no impact on VASCO's core authentication technology," said T. Kendall Hunt, chairman and CEO of VASCO, a U.S. security firm that acquired DigiNotar in January. "The technological infrastructures of VASCO and DigiNotar remain completely separated, meaning that there is no risk for infection of VASCO's strong authentication business."

Hunt added that VASCO was working with the Dutch government to investigate those responsible for the hack. VASCO is also planning to announce the financial damage done.

DigiNotar, established in 1997, was responsible for creating certificates that validate Web sites as legitimate. Although the breach traces back to July, DigiNotar reportedly took weeks to notice and revoked fake certificates without notifying anyone. A subsequent investigation revealed that DigiNotar certificates might have compromised the Google accounts of approximately 300,000 Iranians.

What this means is that when users in Iran and elsewhere navigated to certain Web sites, they might actually be visiting spoofed sites that stole personal information when users logged in. In the wake of the DigiNotar digital certificate hack, Microsoft revoked the trust of five DigiNotar root certificates, followed by Google, Mozilla, and Apple.

A hacker known as Comodo Hacker, who got his name thanks to a March hack of Comodo, has also taken credit for the DigiNotar job. He also claims to have accessed GlobalSign, prompting the company to temporarily stop issuing digital certificates.

Chloe Albanesius contributed to this report.

For more from Sara, follow her on Twitter @sarapyin.

Related Article:

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Online gamers crack AIDS enzyme puzzle

Raw Story, By AgenceFrance-Presse, Sunday, September 18th, 2011

PARIS — Online gamers have achieved a feat beyond the realm of Second Life or Dungeons and Dragons: they have deciphered the structure of an enzyme of an AIDS-like virus that had thwarted scientists for a decade.

The exploit is published on Sunday in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, where -- exceptionally in scientific publishing -- both gamers and researchers are honoured as co-authors.

Their target was a monomeric protease enzyme, a cutting agent in the complex molecular tailoring of retroviruses, a family that includes HIV.

Figuring out the structure of proteins is vital for understanding the causes of many diseases and developing drugs to block them.

But a microscope gives only a flat image of what to the outsider looks like a plate of one-dimensional scrunched-up spaghetti. Pharmacologists, though, need a 3-D picture that "unfolds" the molecule and rotates it in order to reveal potential targets for drugs.

This is where Foldit comes in.

Developed in 2008 by the University of Washington, it is a fun-for-purpose video game in which gamers, divided into competing groups, compete to unfold chains of amino acids -- the building blocks of proteins -- using a set of online tools. 

To the astonishment of the scientists, the gamers produced an accurate model of the enzyme in just three weeks.

Cracking the enzyme "provides new insights for the design of antiretroviral drugs," says the study, referring to the lifeline medication against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

It is believed to be the first time that gamers have resolved a long-standing scientific problem.

"We wanted to see if human intuition could succeed where automated methods had failed," Firas Khatib of the university's biochemistry lab said in a press release.

"The ingenuity of game players is a formidable force that, if properly directed, can be used to solve a wide range of scientific problems."

One of Foldit's creators, Seth Cooper, explained why gamers had succeeded where computers had failed.

"People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at," he said.

"Games provide a framework for bringing together the strengths of computers and humans. The results in this week's paper show that gaming, science and computation can be combined to make advances that were not possible before."

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The First Windows 8 Apps, Coded by College Kids

PC Mag, by Michael Muchmore, September 16, 2011

Where does a multibillion dollar software company get developers to create the first apps for its revolutionary new flagship software? Why, by recruiting college interns on their summer breaks, of course!

It's a fact that when Microsoft was looking for sample apps for Windows 8, they tapped that very workforce. And a session at the company's first BUILD conference titled, "Windows Interns: Our Summer of Apps" gave the youthful coders a chance to describe their experiences as the first developers working in Microsoft's next operating system. (Check out our hands-on with the Windows 8 preview.)

Microsoft's John Lam, calling himself the "interns' den mother" introduced each young programmer, each of whom went on to describe how he or she built their app and show some of the more interesting code involved. The recurring theme of their remarks was that they had anticipated some aspect of their project with trepidation, but it turned out to be made simple by Microsoft's new programming model.

Intern Ted Driggs, wrote a line of business application for Windows 8 using C#, a language business developers would be more familiar with than the Web languages Microsoft is talking up for WIndows 8 development. "We really focused heavily on how to make [our app] authentic to a line of business," Driggs said.

When I asked about what was difficult in the process, Driggs replied that when the interns were writing code, Microsoft was still finalizing the APIs. "So we had a little bit of churn," he said.

"But the nice part about this is that for a long time Microsoft's really been focused on developers, Driggs added. "They've learned a lot about how to make really good APIs. The WinRT is a great unification of a lot of disparate pieces. It was very easy for me to take my existing C# knowledge and apply it to the new stuff. One thing I was worried about when I heard the new plans was that if JavaScript's the new standard, were C# programmers going to have to write like JavaScript programmers? The answer was resoundingly no. These APIs felt like C# APIs and took advantage of the language. C# is a first-class citizen."

Juliana Pena worked on a calorie counter and health tracker app, and was similarly pleased with the ease of programming for Windows 8, though she used Web languages. She also mentioned last minute platform changes when I asked about difficulties. "APIs were changing every week," she said. "Once we learned what the differences were, it was pretty easy to get it all running. It's standard HTML5 and JavaScript, so it was really easy to build."

Poorva Singal, a senior at Olin College in Massachusetts, wrote the WordHunt game included with Windows 8. The challenge of building this app was that it needed to use networking capabilities to handle two-player games. "I came into Microsoft not knowing anything about networking," Singal said. "But it was actually made pretty simple with all the APIs that Microsoft's created. It was actually not as hard as I thought. We finished the core of the networking within a week."

So while wizened older programmers may have apprehensions about what the new Metro apps and WinRT will mean for their day-to-day work, at least the newest generation of developers seem ready for the tasks and opportunities that WIndows 8 represents. HTML5 and JavaScript, so it was really easy to build."

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EU wants stricter control of censorship software

RNW, 15 September 2011, by Hans de Vreij 

(Photo:flickr/bas-boerman)

Internet applications such as facebook and Twitter played a large role in the Arab spring uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The hardware and software used by the regimes to monitor communications between protestors played an equally important role.

Internet applications such as facebook and Twitter played an important role in the recent Arab spring uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Equally important was the use of hardware and software to monitor and block those same Internet applications. The European Parliament has called for the export of eavesdropping and censorship software to be strictly controlled.

China, Iran, Syria; just three of the many countries that censor internet use. In the United States, legal proceedings are taking place against Cisco systems for complicity in Internet censorship and the oppression of dissidents and members of the Fallon Gong by the Chinese government. Earlier, the activities of other companies, including Google and Yahoo, were deemed controversial.

But there are numerous other companies that facilitate censorship through the export of the necessary hard-and software.

EU parliamentarian (MEP) Judith Sargentini: “Nokia Siemens has supplied Iran with various items of hardware and software. A British company supplied Egypt's Mubarak regime with the equipment necessary to monitor facebook and Twitter, and the Dutch Fox-it company tried to market a number of products in Tehran and other Arab countries."

Stricter control

The European Parliament is currently tightening up regulations governing the export of hardware and software that can be used for censorship or repression. Christian Democrat MEP Lambert van Nistelrooij is in favour of tougher export regulations:

“What we need to do is create a list with certain products. Companies proposing to do business with countries that have questionable records when it comes to freedom of speech and freedom of expression, can consult the list and know exactly where they stand.”

Double-edged sword

MEP Sargentini says the experiences of Fox-it show that certain technologies can be used for good as well as evil:

“It’s two sides of the same coin; here in the Netherlands, Fox-it protects Dutch consumers and has recently helped the government to get out of trouble with the security certificates issue. However, the same company also makes eavesdropping devices.”

RNW contacted Fox-it and the company confirmed (in writing) that police and security services can tap and analyse internet traffic using its FoxReplay software. The company refused to comment on any of its clients but says it conforms to all current export laws and regulations.

In an interview with a Dutch weekly magazine earlier this year Ronald Prins said,

“It has certainly happened that the authorities in a country where there has suddenly been a great deal of commotion have contacted us and attempted to purchase our products. And then I have been very clear and said that that is something that we do not do”.

It's not clear how the proposed EU export regulations on censorship technology will be applied. It is possible that companies will have to apply for export licences. This could be regulated by putting controversial technology on an existing dual-use the list that controls the export of items that can be used for civilian as well as militarily ends.

The Dutch government is in favour of requiring export licences; however, other EU member states and some MEPs are in favour of regulating exports after the fact.

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Utility paid $200K for positive web stories

CBS News, September 14, 2011 10:02 AM

 (AP)  COMMERCE, Calif. - A Southern California water utility paid nearly $200,000 in taxpayer dollars for glowing coverage from a website that boosted its profile on Google, according to a newspaper report.

(CBS/AP)

The Los Angeles Times reports that officials from the Central Basin Municipal Water District used public funds to have a consultant produce promotional stories "written in the image of real news," and to have those stories posted on a professional-looking website called News Hawks Review.

The utility used the stories to boost its ranking on Google, which classified News Hawks Review as a news site, the newspaper reported.

Google removed the site from its search index Tuesday, following publication of the Times' story, saying News Hawks Review had violated its guidelines.

The site had published more than 30 glowing stories about the utility in the past year.

Central Basin spokeswoman Valerie Howard told the Times that she did not find the website misleading and the campaign had helped bring more web traffic to the utility's website.

The utility serves more than 2 million customers in southeast Los Angeles.

Terry Francke of Californians Aware told the newspaper that the utility engaged in a serious breach of the public trust.

"If it was known and approved by the board, it could be interpreted as the use of $200,000 of taxpayer funds as a self-promotion to help them stay in office," Francke said.

The utility has earned some bad press in the past year.

Los Angeles County prosecutors are investigating the elected board's travel expenses.

The Times' earlier reporting revealed the utility had signed contracts totaling more than $2 million with a nonprofit run by a former Bell city councilman charged with public corruption.

Some local politicians have called for a state audit of the utility's finances.

Microsoft unveils its new Windows 8 operating system

BBC News, 13 September 2011

Related Stories 

• Has Microsoft fumbled its tablet vision?
• Windows deal 'milestone' for Arm
• Intel launches tablet processor

Microsoft has taken the wraps off the next generation of its Windows operating system.

Microsoft plans to offer Windows 8 Apps
through its Windows Store

Windows 8 is designed to run on tablet computers, as well as desktop and laptop PCs.

The software, which is due to be released in 2012 will work on the popular ARM-designed low power processors for the first time.

Microsoft has been under pressure to come up with an answer to Apple's iOS and Google's Android platforms.

Unveiling Windows 8 at the Build developers' conference in California, Windows division president Steven Sinofsky declared: "We re-imagined Windows. From the chipset to the user experience."

The system will function through one of two interfaces; a traditional desktop, similar to that seen in previous editions of Windows, and a tablet version, known as Metro.

Metro features larger, chunky controls of the sort that best suit touchscreen use. The current lack of such an input method is widely seen as the reason why few Windows 7 tablets exist.

Microsoft said that it would also be launching its own online marketplace - the Windows Store - to sell downloadable applications.

Chip changes

One of the biggest innovations for Windows 8 will be its compatibility with processors designed by ARM holdings.

Windows 8 has been designed to be used on
 touchscreen devices

Chips based around the ARM architecture typically use very little power, and as a result are found in the vast majority of smartphones and tablets currently available.

To date, Windows devices have required Intel or Intel-compatible processors, with the exception of Microsoft's Windows Phone range.

ARM chips are likely to be predominantly used on Windows 8 Metro devices, and will require ARM-specific versions of applications.

The company has not given details on the chips that will be integrated into desktop and laptop machines.

Tapping into any section of the Windows market will be seen as a huge boost for Cambridge-based ARM Holdings.

The company faces growing competition in the mobile device sector since Intel launched its tablet and smartphone-focused Oak Trail chipset in April 2011.

Tapping into that particular market is seen as vital for hardware manufacturers, and software-makers, such as Microsoft, as the market for traditional computers continues to be eroded.

Industry analysts Gartner predicted in April that the global market for tablets would reach 70 million this year, and grow to 300 million in 2015.

Sales of desktops and laptops are expected to continue growing, but at a much slower rate than in the past.

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How our cloud does more with less: Google

Google Blog, 9/08/2011

We’ve worked hard to reduce the amount of energy our services use. In fact, to provide you with Google products for a month—not just search, but Google+, Gmail, YouTube and everything else we have to offer—our servers use less energy per user than a light left on for three hours. And, because we’ve been a carbon-neutral company since 2007, even that small amount of energy is offset completely, so the carbon footprint of your life on Google is zero.

We’ve learned a lot in the process of reducing our environmental impact, so we’ve added a new section called “The Big Picture” to our Google Green site with numbers on our annual energy use and carbon footprint.

We started the process of getting to zero by making sure our operations use as little energy as possible. For the last decade, energy use has been an obsession. We’ve designed and built some of the most efficient servers and data centers in the world—using half the electricity of a typical data center. Our newest facility in Hamina, Finland, opening this weekend, uses a unique seawater cooling system that requires very little electricity.

Whenever possible, we use renewable energy. We have a large solar panel installation at our Mountain View campus, and we’ve purchased the output of two wind farms to power our data centers. For the greenhouse gas emissions we can’t eliminate, we purchase high-quality carbon offsets.

But we’re not stopping there. By investing hundreds of millions of dollars in renewable energy projects and companies, we’re helping to create 1.7 GW of renewable power. That’s the same amount of energy used to power over 350,000 homes, and far more than what our operations consume.

Finally, our products can help people reduce their own carbon footprints. The study (PDF) we released yesterday on Gmail is just one example of how cloud-based services can be much more energy efficient than locally hosted services helping businesses cut their electricity bills.

Visit our Google Green site to find out more.

Posted by Urs Hoelzle, Senior Vice President, Technical Infrastructure

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Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California. The internet
 giant has published its carbon footprint for the first time.
Photograph: David Paul Morris/Getty Images

Google Gobbles Up Zagat to Bolster Local Content

Dutch Government Struggles to Deal With DigiNotar Hack

PCWorld, by Loek Essers, IDG News, Sep 7, 2011

The Dutch government is trying to minimize the effect of the DigiNotar hack on its IT infrastructure but warned it's a time-consuming process: Not all the SSL certificates can be replaced on the fly.

Piet Hein Donner, minister of the interior, said in a press conference on Tuesday that the government will work as quickly as possible to replace all the DigiNotar SSL certificates in use. However, if the certificates are withdrawn immediately it will be damaging, he warned.

"It particularly concerns the fully automated communication between computers," Donner said. If the certificates are withdrawn right now it would disturb or even block Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication. That is why the Dutch government chose a "phased and controlled" migration to other certificates. While website certificates should be replaced by Saturday, he said, replacing those involved in M2M communication will take longer.

For the same reason, Microsoft agreed on Tuesday to postpone an automatic software update for the Netherlands that revokes the trust in all DigiNotar certificates for one week. Next week the software update will be rolled out in the Netherlands with an opt-out option. Companies who want to implement the software update this week have to do that themselves. According to Donner this ensures there is no significant disturbance in digital communications in the Netherlands.

On Sept. 2, the Dutch government announced in a night-time press conference, the first in Dutch IT history, that all DigiNotar certificates were to be banned and replaced. According to a report by the security firm Fox-IT published on Monday, 531 fraudulent certificates were issued after DigiNotar was hacked from an Iranian IP address in June. The firm also found proof that the "DigiNotar PKIoverheid CA" certificates the Dutch government uses were compromised. Fox-IT found no evidence that government certificates were misused.

Ronald Prins, CEO of Fox-IT, said on the Dutch television show "Nieuwsuur" on Monday that the real damage for Dutch citizens was limited, but that the implications could have been big. DigiNotar was used for DigiD, an identity management platform used by Dutch government agencies including the Tax and Customs Administration. Hackers could have monitored DigiD traffic and would even be able to manipulate tax filings if they wanted to.

The government replaced the DigiNotar DigiD certificates with PKIoverheid CA certificates from Getronics PinkRoccade, one of the seven (including DigiNotar) SSL certificate providers the government uses. Other problems occurred with the systems of the Rijksdienst voor het Wegverkeer (RDW), which handles vehicle registrations and inspections in the Netherlands. The RDW switched to VeriSign certificates but still has to use DigiNotar for M2M communication, spokesperson Sjoerd Weiland told the Dutch IDG news site Webwereld on Monday.

According to Weiland it is impossible to say when the switch from DigiNotar to another CA can be done. Every business connected to the RDW, including the police and insurance companies, has to switch to new certificates at the same time to prevent the total collapse of all M2M communication. Local governments could have the same problem as the RDW. Minister Donner said there are "some disturbances" in communications between the RDW and local governments.

Dutch financial transactions, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport and the national railways were not affected. "Although several sectors are meanwhile suffering from disruptions, major uncontrollable problems have not appeared to date," Minister Donner and Minister Ivo Opstelten of Public Safety and Justice stated in a letter to the lower house of Parliament. In total DigiNotar issued 57,956 certificates in different sectors in the Netherlands.

Because DigiNotar was hacked in June and the company knew about the hack shortly afterward but did not inform the Dutch government, the attorney general has begun an investigation to determine if DigiNotar can be held formally responsible for the ongoing crisis. Telecom watchdog OPTA is also investigating DigiNotar. That investigation is aimed at the way the certificates were issued.

 (Photo: RNW)

Related Article:

Dutch hacking attack grave threat to Iranian dissidents

Fired over the phone: Yahoo chief Carol Bartz sacked after disastrous three years in charge

Daily Mail, By CHRIS PARSONS, 7th September 2011

• Troubled internet firm had lost ground to rivals
• Yahoo revenue growth 11 times less than Google
• Bartz 'fired over the phone' by Yahoo Chairman

Fired: Carol bartz has overseen a
 rocky three-year tenure at ailing
firm Yahoo

Yahoo boss Carol Bartz has been fired as the company's chief executive after the ailing internet firm lost further ground to main rival Google.

Ms Bartz, who was axed by phone, has had a rocky tenure lasting nearly three years punctuated by stagnating growth and a bitter row with one of the firm's Chinese partners.

The 63-year-old CEO, who was hired despite a lack of internet or advertising experience, told Yahoo employees that she was fired over the phone by Yahoo's Chairman of the Board.

Most recently, Yahoo have settled a payment dispute with China's Alibaba Group, in which Yahoo holds a 40 per cent stake.

Ms Bartz has also had to watch as Yahoo loses further ground as an internet domain to all-conquering Google, while also facing strong competition from other social networks like Facebook.

She announced her departure to employees via a two-sentence email from her iPad which read: 'I am very sad to tell you that I've just been fired over the phone by Yahoo's Chairman of the Board.

'It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward.'

More...

• Google closes down 10 of its services at once: but don't worry, 'Search' isn't one of them
• Leaked confidential screenshots hint that Apple's iPhone 5 could launch worldwide on October 21
• Facebook to offer free online music to rival Apple's iTunes

The California-based company have appointed chief financial officer Timothy Morse as CEO on an interim basis, but plan to search for a permanent replacement for Ms Bartz.

At its peak in 2000, Yahoo shares traded for $125. Last night they closed at $12.91.

Yahoo lost further ground in the race against Google during Ms Bartz's tenure, despite actually making more money through layoffs, service closures and other cost-cutting moves.

Media moguls: Bartz, far right, attends a CEO summit in Washington
 alongside Richard Branson, Michael Capellas, president of Compaq,
Steve Ballmer, president and CEO of Microsoft, and Bill Gates

Last year Yahoo's revenue edged up by just two per cent in the first nine months of the year, while Google's climbed by 23 per cent in the same period.

In April the same year, the straight-talking boss candidly admitted that she 'could have done better' in her job, by which time speculation around her job was already growing.

A TROUBLED TENURE

• Jan '09: Bartz appointed Yahoo CEO, replacing co-founder Jerry Yang, who resigned under pressure from investors after rejecting a Microsoft takeover bid.
• July '09: Yahoo and Microsoft seal ten-year search engine merger deal in attempt to rival Google.
• April 2010: Bartz admits she, along with 100 other executives at Yahoo, 'could have done better'.
• Sept 2010: Yahoo's revenue growth for first nine months of year is 11 times less than that of Google.
• Dec 2010: The firm's poor financial growth forces Bartz to lay off between 600 and 700 employees.
• Feb 2011: Yahoo is valued at around $22.11bn, while Google is worth $169.38bn.
• May 2011: Row between Yahoo and Chinese partner Alibaba sees U.S. firm lose part of its 40 per stake in Asian company.

Facebook has also become another serious competitor for Yahoo by attracting the major marketing partners which once went to Yahoo during the dotcom boom in 2000.

The firm were forced to lay off over 600 staff - around five per cent of its workforce - last year due to lacklustre growth.

The departure was first reported by the Wall Street Journal's All Things D technology blog.

Yahoo shares jumped 74 cents, or 5.7%, to $13.65 in after-hours trading, around 12% higher than they were when Ms Bartz was named chief executive.

Roy Bostock, chairman of the Yahoo board, said: 'The board sees enormous growth opportunities on which Yahoo! can capitalize, and our primary objective is to leverage the Company's leadership and current business assets and platforms to execute against these opportunities.

'We have talented teams and tremendous resources behind them and intend to return the Company to a path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation.'

Embattled: The ailing Californian internet firm have lost ground
in the past two years to Google, while facing stern competition
from Facebook

Mr Bostock also thanked Ms Bartz for her service to Yahoo during 'a critical time of transition in the company's history, and against a very challenging macro-economic backdrop'.

Mr Morse said: 'It is an honor to be selected for this role and lead the Company with this world-class team of executives.

'I look forward to working with the Executive Leadership Council and the talented employees of Yahoo!, and to partnering with the Board to invest in the organization and continue to drive its ongoing growth plans.'