At today’s all-hands meeting for Yahoo employees — in the wake of the dramatic ouster of its former CEO Scott Thompson — what pop culture icon did new interim CEO Ross Levinson use to loosen up the crowd?

Why, a little Al Pacino from the movie classic “The Godfather,” of course — the go-to guy solution menu for all troubles in the world.

Comparing the battered Silicon Valley Internet giant to Don Corleone after a gun ambush, Levinsohn said to the crowd gathered at URL’s Cafe on the Sunnyvale, Calif., HQ campus: “This weekend was like that scene from ‘The Godfather’ — ‘They hit ’im with five shots, and he’s still alive!’”

And also, trying to make Yahoos feel as if there were forward momentum: “There are things being negotiated now that are gonna solve all your problems and answer all your questions.”

Well, let’s hope so, and that it does not end for Yahoo — and Levinsohn — like it did for Luca Brasi (who sleeps with the fishes, in case you didn’t know).

So far, in his first impress-the-employees outing, the reviews for Levinsohn were largely positive on its internal message boards and from numerous sources I talked to.

What they liked: Acknowledgement of the tough past week, but not dwelling on the past, either; a theme of revival and spirit; no PowerPoint slides; and zero direct mention of Thompson.

What they really liked: The whole pile of compliments that Levinsohn doled out to the troops.

No tough-love dude he — unlike Thompson and his predecessor Carol Bartz, who liked to verbally smack around the troops a little more in a mobster kind of way.

Instead, said one person in attendance, “he was appealing to Yahoo pride, which is pretty much in the doldrums.”

Still, one questioner worried about the future and whether the company was going to still be stuck in a leadership vacuum, especially since Levinsohn was not named as the permanent CEO.

Fred Amoroso — who was just named Yahoo’s new chairman and was the only person who appeared with Levinsohn on the stage — tried to assuage that concern by saying he wanted Levinsohn to eventually become the head of the family for good.

While there will likely be a search for other CEO candidates, it is as close to a ring-kiss as Levinsohn is going to get for now.

That is, unless he does not produce some quick results on a variety of Yahoo’s thorniest issues, such as an Asian asset sale and a settlement of the patent lawsuit fight with social networking giant Facebook.

But the over/under on him and Amoroso together was good.

One person said it was important when Amoroso talked about coding and technology and products, which is not advertising- and media-focused Levinsohn’s expertise.

“It was nice to see a board member who cared about products and innovation,” said one person. “Or at least said he did.”

We’ll see how this pair works out together, but always remember this, Yahoos:

Just when you thought you were out, they pull you back in.

Until we know how the movie ends, here is a scary video of me talking about the last week’s events at Yahoo on a local ABC television news station — I look a fright since I’m so tired from covering it all:

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Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson, who has developed a tough-talk reputation within Yahoo of late, went all sweet — well, less crabby, I guess — the day after the layoffs in which 2,000 employees were fired.

After dressing down top execs the night before the cuts by telling them the bad situation was due to their poor performance as leaders, his internal letter to the troops was also a bit cut-and-dried, with the not-very-sympathetic admonishment, “change is never easy.”

Not exactly what someone who just got their pink slip — or saw a close colleague get axed — likes to hear!

Today, Thompson opted to go with the softer side of Scott, in an internal memo I obtained titled “time to move forward.” It includes a promise to deliver a real strategic plan next week at an “All Hands” meeting. (I have previously reported that he was rolling out a new structure next week.)

Yahoo’s activist shareholder Third Point admonished Thompson yesterday for not having such a plan in place before making such widespread layoffs, which shed 14 percent of the workforce from the Silicon Valley Internet giant.

“While this action was unfortunately necessary and widely expected, Third Point, Yahoo!’s largest outside shareholder, is disappointed that this round of cuts occurred before CEO Scott Thompson has articulated his strategic plan for the Company,” it wrote in a letter (embedded below). “Shareholders deserve a management team and board who have a vision and strategic plan.”

Internally, there was also a lot of grumbling over the lack of a vision before the layoffs and worries that Thompson does not have a clear path for Yahoo.

“It’s like going into war and killing a big chunk of troops right before, without a plan in place about how to win,” said one person, in a common sentiment I heard from employees. “Everyone left feels shell-shocked and with no direction.”

In recent meetings about various options, including selling off a variety of Yahoo’s businesses, the former president of eBay’s PayPal payments unit has focused on a range of ideas, especially adding more commerce and data to the mix.

Apparently, all will be revealed next week, in what Thompson called “comprehensive plans for Yahoo!’s future.”

Thompson also did a little cheerleading:

“We can do this. We will do this! One thing I’ve heard repeatedly since I got here is that everyone wants to win again…I have seen big turnarounds before, and this company has the foundation, the spirit, the backbone, and the creativity to get it done,” he wrote. “Personally, I can’t wait to get moving.”

That’s good, because shareholders and employees have been waiting a long time for any forward momentum at Yahoo.

Here’s the memo below in its entirety:

From: Scott Thompson
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2012 1:15 PM
To:
Subject: time to move forward…

Yahoos –

This was a tough week. Thank you all for supporting each other through a difficult time.

As hard as big changes like this can be, I was encouraged to hear support from so many of you who really understand our need to operate differently. That said, I also know many of you still have a lot of questions about where we’re headed and how fast we can get there. I shared a few thoughts in my note earlier this week and you’ll hear more at our All Hands next week.

We deliberately separated this week’s employee action from next week’s discussion of our strategy. The reason was simple: we felt it was only fair and respectful to those who are leaving and transitioning to take care of each of them before turning to our future.

Starting next week we will begin looking forward and our All Hands is just the beginning. You’ll be hearing a lot more from me and other leaders about our comprehensive plans for Yahoo!’s future. The immediate next step for all of us is to get clear on our goals, and then take action and move.

There’s a lot to do and that’s why I can’t stress enough that we all need to focus on getting stuff done. Getting stuff done is short hand for eliminating bureaucracy and barriers so we can all innovate as fast as our customers and the industry require. That’s pretty fast.

Our users want fun, informative, engaging experiences on all screens that they feel were designed just for them. Advertisers want it to be much easier to work with us and they want measurable ROI on their spending. We can do all that. But we won’t win by talking about the opportunity. We’ll win by putting our customers first, creating high-quality experiences, and iterating on them quickly. Great user and advertiser experiences are what will ignite excitement around our brand and get us growing again.

You’ll receive the official invite to our All Hands shortly and we want to know what’s on your mind in advance. If you have questions before we meet next week, please check Backyard for information and answers to your questions. If you don’t see the answers, please post questions on Backyard, or you can email questions directly to the leadership team.

We can do this. We will do this! One thing I’ve heard repeatedly since I got here is that everyone wants to win again. There is so much passion for Yahoo! — for what it was and for what we all believe it can be. Even after all you’ve been through, there’s a hard core crew of Yahoos who believe in this company and in its ability to thrive. I have seen big turnarounds before, and this company has the foundation, the spirit, the backbone, and the creativity to get it done.

Personally, I can’t wait to get moving.

Scott

And here’s the Third Point letter from yesterday:

TP April 4 Statement

Finally, here is a video of a “Reporters’ Roundtable” I did last week on CNET:

Here’s the news that came out of a meeting that newborn Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson had yesterday afternoon with the VP-and-above staff of the Silicon Valley Internet giant:

No. 1: Yahoo is both a media and tech company.

No. 2: His focus for the next four weeks will be internal meetings and getting to know the staff.

No. 3: Thompson uses the following Yahoo products — email, finance and news.

No. 4: He is very good at explaining what eBay’s PayPal — where he just served as its president — is.

“If he can do that, maybe he can let us all finally know what Yahoo is, too,” joked one VP, referencing the well-known difficulty Yahoo’s CEOs have had with clearly defining the company’s mission.

But Thompson — whom every single person I spoke to called a “nice guy” — declined to say much about the stuff everyone really wanted to know, from the Asian assets (no comment!) to the possible investments by private equity firms (no comment!) and more (no comment!).

Most VPs I interviewed seemed to have a wait-and-see attitude about Thompson, who is not the kind of high-profile hire some had expected. Of prime worry: The steep learning curve he might have, in a time that requires urgency.

“He’s not the game-changer, but he seems very competent,” said another VP. “We’ll see.”

Indeed, we will. And, to start, Thompson is on display for the entire Yahoo staff at an all-hands employee meeting on Yahoo’s Sunnyvale campus, which is taking place right now.

More to come on that soon, as my embeds call in reports! (Was my invite lost in the mail? Not very nice!)

As I reported late last night, Yahoo said it had named PayPal President Scott Thompson as its new CEO. The exec is currently in charge of the large eBay online payments unit.

He’ll start next week, but there are staff conference calls today and also an all-hands meeting on Yahoo’s main Silicon Valley campus (meet at URLs, troops!) tomorrow.

Yahoo shares are down almost three percent on the news so far, as Wall Street has been hoping for a big sale of some sort and not another turnaround.

Yahoo will be holding a 7 am PT press conference about the move and presumably to swan around Thompson.

(Welcome, Scott! I hope you were informed — please do not listen to what co-founder Jerry Yang says on this important issue — that you are supposed to send all internal memos to me! Also, as one of my Twitter followers, Mike Dudas of Google just tweeted: “If Thompson leads companies as well as he grows a moustache, Yahoo made a great CEO choice!!” I concur.)

A Yahoo PR person confirmed the hire very cordially in a phone call early this morning and the Internet giant also put out a press release.

So did I, of a sort, last night. Given I am too tired to rewrite myself, here is what I had reported:

The company fired its last CEO, Carol Bartz, in September, and Yahoo has been run by the board and also by interim CEO Tim Morse, who had previously been its CFO.

After Bartz’s ouster, Yahoo said it was looking at a range of strategic options, including the possible sale of all or part of the company.

That was the focus at first, although Yahoo had simultaneously hired Heidrick & Struggles to look for a new CEO.

The company attracted two partial investment bids from private equity firms, Silver Lake and TPG Capital, but shareholders were unhappy with the low prices of these so-called PIPE — Private Investment in Public Equity — arrangements.

Yahoo then moved to try to strike a tax-advantaged deal with its long disgruntled Asian partners, China’s Alibaba Group and Japan’s SoftBank, to sell back parts of the large stakes it has long owned in Alibaba and Yahoo! Japan.

Those complex negotiations are still ongoing and look promising, which could yield Yahoo billions of dollars in capital to be given to investors, for stock buybacks or to invest in new initiatives.

Since then, the board — long considered one of the more cloddish in tech — has turned its attention to hiring a new CEO, in the hopes of trying once again to revive its flagging fortunes.

Thus, it began looking to hire someone with deep tech experience at a large public consumer Internet company in Silicon Valley.

That narrowed the field, with Yahoo looking at a range of choices with expertise in advertising, technology platforms and more.

There is a lot of that on the deep bench that eBay CEO John Donahoe has assembled at the online commerce giant, including Thompson.

Plus, he is a genuine Internet geek.

According to his eBay bio, Thompson became president of PayPal in early 2008, after serving as its CTO in charge of information technology, product development and architecture.

Before eBay, he worked at Inovant, a subsidiary of Visa formed to oversee global technology for the organization. He was also CIO of Barclays Global Investors and has worked at Coopers and Lybrand on information technology.

And here’s a tasty new wrinkle: Thompson recently “liked” Yahoo on his Facebook page, along with the decidedly more interesting Kickstarter and Splunk.

Again, Scott, thanks for the Facebook tip — I knew the social networking site could come in handy!

(Also, here is an interview I did with him post-announcement.)

And here is Yahoo’s official press release where Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock says nice stuff about Thompson:

YHOO_News_2012_1_4_General

Today, Yahoo leaders — all of them in two different memos — took to the keyboards to fill their 14,000 employees in on what’s up.

Reading them, Yahoos must now be more confused than ever.

To summarize: Yahoo is for sale, sort of. But we’re taking it slow, because we always like to drag out the uncertainty here at Sunnyvale HQ. Hey, keep working hard and innovating, despite the still-matrixed system. But don’t fret that your job and career hang in the balance. And have a good weekend!

In the first email, Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and co-founders David Filo and Jerry Yang — also a director — penned a rambling missive, which finally admitted the company was indeed, as was first reported here, for sale.

Yahoo said hired-gun investment advisor, Allen & Co., was “fielding inquiries from multiple parties that have already expressed interest in a number of potential options.”

Not to be a niggler, but didn’t Yang tell the troops at an all-hands meeting recently that Yahoo was not for sale?

Details! Thus, said the memo, until the company sorts out all the offers just pouring in — not so much, but when you’re selling a house, you put on the dog — Yahoos had to keep working hard.

Therefore: “What Yahoo! needs to do better — and we’ve talked about this — is accelerate innovation, reignite inspiration, and give our users what they want now — great content that is engaging and easy-to-use on any device and provides an experience in which they can participate and contribute. Perhaps most importantly, we need to anticipate what they will want next.”

You’ve. Talked. About. This. You mean to try to make cool stuff like every other tech company — Apple, Facebook, Google — already does? Mind-blowing.

After a little throat-clearing on its fake search for a new permanent CEO and some media-bashing (yes, this all my fault!), the memo noted that all this fancy strategery is going to take “months, not weeks.”

(Is it just me or does it feel as though former CEO Carol Bartz was fired a badillion years ago, instead of just weeks ago? Plus, I actually believe I officially now miss her kooky-but-genuine Friday staff emails.)

The Gang of Three email was followed by one from the incredible shrinking interim CEO Tim Morse, who said Yahoo was not in “limbo,” due to all this obvious limboness about the strategy.

“That means we will not be sitting still over the next few months,” Morse wrote. “We are actively making decisions and taking action.”

In other words, nothing to see here. Except everything.

Oh, I give up — just read for yourselves:

Dear Yahoos:

In our recent all hands meeting, we talked about the Board’s strategic review to help return the Company to a path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation. While our teams are working to evaluate the many opportunities by which Yahoo! can continue building on our success, all kinds of people have been — and will continue — speculating in the media about where that work is headed, so we thought it best to provide you with some additional context directly from those of us who are closest to it. We don’t have specific news to share with you today, but we are committed to communicating with you directly from time to time — especially given the level of external swirl — so that you know where we are in the process. You can expect periodic updates from us and we encourage you to communicate with us as well.

At the heart of what we are doing is our belief that Yahoo!’s core strengths are not only relevant to where users are going today, but can serve as a foundation for the next phase of our company’s growth. Consider our strengths: we have 680 million users worldwide. We have nine of the #1 properties in the U.S., and we are a leader in display advertising. Our brand is iconic — we are not the only ones who bleed purple. By whatever measure you want to use — engagement, quality of products and services, our value to our advertisers — we all feel that we have what it takes to succeed. Also, our Asia assets remain one of our top priorities and we continue to work well with the teams there. As you may have seen, Alibaba Group has just announced a liquidity event for its employees that reflects a continued appreciation in its value, and therefore of the value of our stake.

What Yahoo! needs to do better — and we’ve talked about this — is accelerate innovation, reignite inspiration, and give our users what they want now — great content that is engaging and easy-to-use on any device and provides an experience in which they can participate and contribute. Perhaps most importantly, we need to anticipate what they will want next. That is the path to enhancing the value of Yahoo! for all of its stakeholders, including its users, customers, shareholders, partners and Yahoos everywhere. Our strategic review is designed to help us map out the best way to achieve that.

At this point, we cannot offer many specifics about the Board’s review; we’ve just gotten started. You should know that the entire Board and management team are fully aligned and unanimous in their views regarding the scope of this work. Allen & Company was a logical choice to help us in this review, because they have been one of our advisers for some time, and this is familiar territory for them. Achieving success in our sector is intrinsic to what they do for a living, and they will be constructive partners.

Our advisers are working with us to develop ideas that we will pursue proactively. At the same time, they are fielding inquiries from multiple parties that have already expressed interest in a number of potential options. We will take the time we need to select and structure the best approach for the company, its shareholders and employees.

In addition, as we announced previously, the Board has commenced a search for a permanent Chief Executive Officer. That process also continues.

When we have updates that we can share we will do so. There will be plenty of rumors and speculation as different parties try to advance their agendas in the media — but it is important that we not be distracted by the rumors and speculation.

You are instrumental to the success of our business — we can’t do it without you. While we will move with a sense of urgency, this process will take time. Months, not weeks. We know that’s a lot of potential distraction, but we believe it will be worth the wait. We are forging a path to a next phase of growth for Yahoo! that feels like our best days: fun, full of possibility, and always in search of how to deliver the new thing people want from us. Together, we can write the next great chapter in the Yahoo! story and secure our place as one of those rarities: an internet company that endures.

Jerry
Roy
David

Yahoos,

I’m sure by now you’ve all seen the note from Jerry, David and Roy. I want you to know that while the Board works through all of our options, CEO Staff and I have been charged to move the company forward.

That means we will not be sitting still over the next few months. We are actively making decisions and taking action.

In fact, for three days this week, CEO staff and I met to do just that. Our planning for 2012 is well underway, and we continue to execute on our current plans — such as our Social Chrome announcement this week. (I want to make sure to give a big shout out to the team behind it; it’s getting some great press.)

You see, the Board is confident we can execute our current game plan in the short term. We’ve done some truly great work on updating the foundation of Yahoo!, and we’ve got some good things in the immediate pipeline. So, the Board’s focus is where it should be — on our long-term outlook, and how we best position ourselves to be successful in 3-5 years.

We need a flexible, visionary plan. That’s why the Board is actively looking at all the options available to put Yahoo! on a strong trajectory.

That being said, while the Board makes this decision, it does not mean we are in limbo. We have to keep Yahoo! moving ahead. And to do that, there are three things I need Yahoos everywhere to focus on:

1. Speed: Emphasize quick execution and decision-making

2. Accountability: Do what you say you’re going to do — and take ownership for time to market, monetization, user engagement, quality, or whatever metric defines success for your team

3. Purpose: Rally behind our mission and purpose: creating deeply personal digital experiences.

In the meantime, we will keep you updated as much as we can. And we will earn your trust — we know we have to.

Have a good weekend.

Tim

At a prequel for the many VPs of Yahoo to the all-hands meeting for all 13,500 employees of the Silicon Valley Internet giant that is taking place at 11 am, Yahoo co-founder, director and former CEO Jerry Yang told the group the company was “not for sale.”

Even though, of course, it was hiring advisory firms, such as Allen & Co., to explore strategic options. Many justifiably feel “for sale” is just what Yahoo is.

Instead, Yang reassured the troops that it was business as usual at the company, in spite of the abrupt firing of its current CEO Carol Bartz yesterday.

One attendee emailed me: “Really?“

Yang told the group that the aim was to grow revenue and profit, but did not put forth a specific plan as yet. He also said the search was on for a new CEO.

Meanwhile, interim CEO Tim Morse spoke only at the end of the meeting, for the last 10 minutes.

Morse continued to be Yang’s sidekick at the all-hands meeting later, in which they reiterated their no-sale motto.

Still, the troops were restless and the event included a lot of pointed questions from employees about the ouster of Bartz and how that was going to get the company growing again.

One employee asked the board to give Bartz’s $10 million severance package to charity, to much applause.

Another query was about the shift on Bartz by Yahoo’s Chairman Roy Bostock, who praised her performance earlier this summer at the annual meeting.

How, asked the employee, did Yahoo go from full support of Bartz to fired? The basic answer from Yang: Things change!

Another employee asked about the bid to buy the Hulu premium video service. Americas head Ross Levinsohn’s answer: Yahoo did not need it to win.

Both Levinsohn and product head Blake Irving stressed how big Yahoo still is, although Yahoo’s kind of big today might not mean better.

Employees — I love them for channelling exactly what I would have asked — pressed Morse on when the strategery would be done this time. A few months, he said.

But perhaps the toughest query was about how did the board fire the CEO without first having a plan in place, which the questioning employee noted had further worsened trust issues with Yahoo leadership.

It got the biggest applause.

Trust us, said Yang.

That’s a big ask for beleaguered Yahoo staffers these days.

Meanwhile, Yahoo filed a new-less 8-K regulatory filing today about the Bartz firing.

In it, Yahoo wrote: “No new compensatory or severance arrangements were entered into in connection with these leadership changes. Ms. Bartz will receive severance benefits
for termination without cause as provided in her employment and equity award agreements.”

Here it is:

YHOO-20110907-8K-20110906

Related posts

• As Yahoo Continues to Wobble, Investors (And Board) Eye Options
• Exclusive: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Tim Morse Named Interim CEO
• Carol Bartz’s Last F%*& You — Now Aimed at Yahoo Board
• Yahoo’s Statement on Bartz Ouster
• Wall Street Likes Bartz’s Firing — Yahoo Stock Spikes on News
• My Picks for Yahoo’s Next CEO — Maybe Snoop Dogg, Ya Digg?

From 1999 until 2005, Doug Edwards was director of consumer marketing and brand management for Google, coming to the then-tiny search start-up from a business job at the San Jose Mercury News.

While there, the exec got a front row seat at the birth of what would become one of the most powerful tech companies in Silicon Valley and perhaps the best known digital brand ever for consumers.

While he didn’t kiss-and-tell for a while after leaving, Edwards said he could not get his experience there out of his brain, so he finally decided to write it all down in a book that just came out to pretty decent reviews.

And, indeed, “I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59″ is a pretty fair rendition of those times and the insane pace of what it is like to be at a rocket ship of a start-up.

It also includes a story I had long forgotten, when current CEO Larry Page asked me — I covered Google at the time for The Wall Street Journal — to help pen its famous investor essay for its 2004 IPO. I declined and he got another journalist to do it, but Edwards got it right.

Here’s my video interview with Edwards, as well as a video he shot in 1999 of Google’s TGIF all-hands meeting, the last time Page was CEO (he’s back again, of course):

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110727/xoogler-doug-edwards-talks-about-new-book-on-his-time-at-the-search-borg-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110725/viral-video-intern-flash-mob-at-linkedin-all-hands-meeting/ http://allthingsd.com/20110725/viral-video-intern-flash-mob-at-linkedin-all-hands-meeting/#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2011 07:13:01 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=102035 This is a very cute video of the interns at LinkedIn, the social business network, taking charge at a recent all-hands meeting.

It features one of my favorite new songs, LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” and LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner getting the stage stolen, so what’s not to like?

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110725/viral-video-intern-flash-mob-at-linkedin-all-hands-meeting/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110124/viral-video-aol-media-head-david-eun-gets-jiggy-in-internal-all-hands-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20110124/viral-video-aol-media-head-david-eun-gets-jiggy-in-internal-all-hands-video/#comments Mon, 24 Jan 2011 08:03:11 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=39854 While he has been striking a lot of content deals of late for AOL, there seems to have been enough time in his day of trying to turn around the struggling Web giant for Media and Studios President David Eun to make a rap-techo-whatever video for the troops.

While many division leaders might just release a dull memo, the former Google exec went right to the videotape, and I mean really went for it.

The adorkable result is an all-hands Q4 music video, which BoomTown acquired, in which a suit-wearing Eun moves into Lady Gaga territory and shakes his very buttoned-up booty.

While I like to see this kind of corporate playfulness and fun-poking, let’s hope AOL’s fourth-quarter earnings–being announced in a little more than a week and expected to remain weak–show as many jazz hands as Eun’s effort below does.

Enjoy:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110124/viral-video-aol-media-head-david-eun-gets-jiggy-in-internal-all-hands-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101216/following-layoffs-yahoo-cuts-products-mybloglog-delicious-yahoo-buzz/ http://allthingsd.com/20101216/following-layoffs-yahoo-cuts-products-mybloglog-delicious-yahoo-buzz/#comments Thu, 16 Dec 2010 19:58:59 +0000 Liz Gannes http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/?p=1375 At an all-hands meeting for the Yahoo product team following a round of layoffs yesterday that significantly impacted that group, Chief Product Officer Blake Irving showed off a slide of plans to “sunset” eight products and consolidate others.

Products on a list to be sunsetted–whatever that means–include MyBlogLog, Yahoo! Picks, AltaVista, Yahoo! Bookmarks, Yahoo! Buzz and Delicious. Some of those properties came from acquisitions and others were internally generated.

The news of the Yahoo plans first came out via a screenshot of the Webcast posted on Twitter by Eric Marcoullier that included a slide with a list of impacted products next to an image of Irving, along with EVP of the Americas Ross Levinsohn, announcing the news.

Marcoullier was founder of MyBlogLog, which created one of the products being shut down. (MyBlogLog was bought by Yahoo in 2007 and has been pretty much neglected ever since.)

The slide also shows plans to merge additional products, including Fire Eagle and Yahoo People Search, and make features out of many others, including Yahoo! Alerts and Yahoo! Calendar. (If you have better eyes than I do, please help identify some of those logos in the comments.)

Marcoullier is no longer at Yahoo, although the validity of his Webcast screenshot was confirmed, after he was quickly criticized on Twitter by various current Yahoo employees who didn’t appreciate it getting out, including Irving himself, who insinuated he would fire whoever leaked the Webcast. (Click on image here to enlarge.)

While the layoffs and shutdowns obviously indicate a de-emphasis of technology products by Yahoo, they aren’t necessarily unwarranted. Some of these products were the same as those mentioned on then-SVP Brad Garlinghouse’s infamous Peanut Butter Memo way back in 2006 as candidates for streamlining.

Update 12:21 p.m. PT: Yahoo’s statement on the matter just came through:

Part of our organizational streamlining involves cutting our investment in underperforming or off-strategy products to put better focus on our core strengths and fund new innovation in the next year and beyond. We continuously evaluate and prioritize our portfolio of products and services, and do plan to shut down some products in the coming months such as Yahoo! Buzz, our Traffic APIs, and others. We will communicate specific plans when appropriate.

In response to a follow-up question about Delicious, which seems to be the “sunsetted” product people are most upset about, the spokeswoman replied:

“We continue to operate Delicious today, and will communicate specific details when appropriate.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101216/following-layoffs-yahoo-cuts-products-mybloglog-delicious-yahoo-buzz/feed/ 28 http://allthingsd.com/20101015/nbc-u-perks-up-a-bit-for-its-new-owners/ http://allthingsd.com/20101015/nbc-u-perks-up-a-bit-for-its-new-owners/#comments Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:56:37 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=24588 This should make the folks in Philadelphia feel a bit better about their purchase-to-be: GE says that its NBC Universal unit, soon to become a Comcast property, had a decent third quarter.

Unofficially, that is. For the record, GE says that Jeff Zucker and company booked flat revenues and saw operating profit drop by 15 percent. But a year ago NBC had booked a gain after moving around ownership stakes in the A&E TV venture it co-owns with Hearst and Disney.

Strip those one-time benefits out, GE says, and its 2010 Q3 would show a seven percent revenue hike and a five percent bump in operating profit.

That’s better. “A pretty solid quarter,” in the words of GE CFO Keith Sherin.

Here’s GE’s highlight reel for the business, which Comcast will likely own by the end of the year. (Click to enlarge.)

Meanwhile, Zucker, who has a few months left on the job, is much, much more enthusiastic about his company’s performance. Here’s his all-hands letter to employees sent out this morning:

GE reported its earnings today, and I wanted to take the opportunity to congratulate everyone on NBCU’s very strong results. Looking just at our operations, these are our best third-quarter results since the NBC-Universal merger more than six years ago. Truly a record performance.

Although our segment profit as reported by GE shows us down, this is driven by the impact of one-time, non-operating events and transactions that took place in the third quarter of last year (such as the one-time gain from the change in our interest in A&E Networks). On an operating basis, our profit was up 32% versus last year (or 5% excluding the impact of charges taken by certain divisions in the third quarter last year). Given that the economy, although improving, is still far from robust, these are excellent results driven by superior execution throughout our operations.

We had exceptional performances from a number of our divisions, including Cable Entertainment, Local Media, Film, and Theme Parks. Cable Entertainment posted a double-digit increase in operating profit, behind great results at each of our networks. Local Media was up an amazing 87%, as increased revenues from a resurging local ad market hit the bottom line. Film op profit was up 57%, driven by Despicable Me, which performed well ahead of expectations. And Theme Parks had the best quarter in its history, with op profit up 59%, the result of the new Harry Potter attraction in Orlando and the new King Kong 360 in Hollywood.

Here are some of the other highlights:

· USA was the No. 1 cable entertainment network for the 17th quarter in a row, an incredible string of success, and Syfy finished the quarter ranked No. 8 in adults 25-54

· Bravo had its best quarter ever and now has 20 consecutive quarters of ratings growth, and Oxygen had its best 3rd quarter ever

· CNBC posted increases in both revenue and op profit, and MSNBC continues to operate from a position of strength, beating CNN in primetime for the 4th quarter in a row and beating CNN in total day for the first time in a decade, while also launching a very exciting new marketing campaign

· Through the first five weeks of the NFL season, Sunday Night Football is averaging nearly 22 million viewers, the most for the first five weeks of a primetime NFL package in 14 years

· NBC is tied for No. 2 through the first three weeks of the new season, up 4% versus a year ago to make it the only major English-language network to grow year-to-year

· Jay Leno continues to be No. 1 since returning to his old timeslot, and Jimmy Fallon holds a 35% lead over CBS in his time period

· NBC News remains No. 1 across the board and recently hosted a fantastic public-service programming event called Education Nation, an effort that should make us all proud to be part of this company

· Telemundo has the highest-rated novela in its history with Donde esta Elisa, and mun2 had its best quarter in all key demos

There is so much to be proud of! Congratulations and thanks again to everyone, because I know, whether you are part of one of the businesses mentioned above or not, you are working hard to keep this company great, and I truly appreciate it.

At the same time we are notching these business successes, our transition teams are hard at work preparing for the new NBC Universal. We’re on track for a close of the transaction with Comcast, hopefully by the end of the year. As I’m sure you know, the timing will ultimately be determined by the FCC and the Department of Justice. We’ll have a clearer idea about timing as we get into November.

One other thing about the transition. You have received information about your new benefits, and I urge you to pay attention: review the information on the intranet, attend the benefits sessions, and enroll yourself and your family in both the GE and the new NBC Universal benefits plans. I hope each of you give this the attention that it deserves.

The company is really in a terrific place right now. We have a Cable Entertainment group that is on track to record its fifth straight year of record earnings. A Theme Parks division that is on track to have its best year ever. A Local Media division that will likely more than double its earnings from a year ago … and much more. And making it all happen are 15,000 employees who love this company, understand what we do, and are committed to doing it better and better every day. Thank you very much. Your strength of character, and the strength of our operations, will ensure a strong end to this year.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101015/nbc-u-perks-up-a-bit-for-its-new-owners/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100218/myspace-to-hold-a-remain-calm-all-is-well-meeting-today-for-staff-heres-five-questions-that-someone-should-ask/ http://allthingsd.com/20100218/myspace-to-hold-a-remain-calm-all-is-well-meeting-today-for-staff-heres-five-questions-that-someone-should-ask/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:07:38 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=24579

MySpace has apparently scheduled an all-hands meeting today, which one source noted is to talk about the new order and to rally the likely much dispirited troops at the struggling social networking site.

With the sudden firing of relatively recently installed CEO Owen Van Natta last week by News Corp. digital head Jon Miller, it will be up to the two new co-presidents he installed, Jason Hirschhorn and Mike Jones, to give MySpace employees a whole lot of reason to believe they can reinvigorate a site that seems woefully resistant to revival so far.

While the one-time trio of Van Natta, Hirschhorn and Jones did manage to stanch the traffic declines in their short and, in hindsight now, rocky, tenure over the last year and have worked to fix the shoddy plumbing, getting the water running regularly is nothing that will inspire anyone internally or externally.

But they do seem to know that, at least.

In any case, if BoomTown were there–and don’t assume I am not skulking around, boys–here are five basic questions I would want the new leaders to answer, including Miller, who is clearly the silent third partner here. (Bonus: I left out Facebook-related questions, as that would be too painful):

While it might be looking backward, exactly why and how was the decision to fire Van Natta made? Was the direction in which he was leading MySpace–related to the socialization of music and other entertainment content–the wrong one? And should those staffers he brought in, such as advertising head Nada Stirratt and many others, be prepping resumes?

What are the three top priorities for MySpace? A massive redesign? A rebranding? Perhaps spinning off as a kind of huge start-up from owner News Corp. (NWS) so it can live or die on its own merits and have more of a chance of attracting talent and encouraging innovation? And, if MySpace stays part of the massive media empire, what are the benefits of that now?

Is MySpace trying to keep its remaining users or bring in new ones? If the former, what will keep them? If the latter, what will get them to try the service (again)?

Do you really believe MySpace can once again be on the growth path it was once on, and can what has clearly become a tired brand be reborn? What are the precedents for such a situation–and you may not use Apple (AAPL) as the example, because there is no Steve Jobs present?

And, perhaps most important: Who’s really in charge?

Of course, that might or might not be a very rhetorical question, to say the least.

Until it is all settled, you can add more questions below in comments. Also, here’s that famous video clip from the movie “Animal House” to enjoy, which is still incredibly funny after all these years:

(Full disclosure: News Corp. owns Dow Jones, which owns this site.)

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100218/myspace-to-hold-a-remain-calm-all-is-well-meeting-today-for-staff-heres-five-questions-that-someone-should-ask/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20080501/jeff-weiner-ignores-boomtown-at-econsm-and-says-other-stuff-too/ http://allthingsd.com/20080501/jeff-weiner-ignores-boomtown-at-econsm-and-says-other-stuff-too/#comments Thu, 01 May 2008 07:03:15 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080501/jeff-weiner-ignores-boomtown-at-econsm-and-says-other-stuff-too/ Here’s a few video clips of Yahoo’s Jeff Weiner, executive vice president of its Network division, onstage at paidContent’s Economics of Social Media conference on Tuesday.

In the first, he egregiously ignores BoomTown’s subtle (as a hammer!) way of asking about the Microsoft (MSFT) situation.

In the second, Weiner talks about Yahoo’s (YHOO) social-networking strategy (translation: this is not yet another social network, because we–oops–neglected to build one people liked!).

In the third, he talks about Yahoo’s “White Hat” ad plans to allow consumers to someday pick their own ads.

And, finally, in the fourth clip, Weiner disses YouTube’s (GOOG) business model (or lack thereof).

Unfortunately not here, our back-and-forth about what kind of food Yahoo would serve if it were a restaurant–you had to be there–given its reputation for being all over the map. My suggestion: Everything.

[ See post to watch video ]

But, personally, BoomTown really enjoyed Weiner’s wire-cutting performance in the Yahoo spoof video, called “All Hands, the Movie,” which Yahoo execs made and showed to its troops recently.

Weiner’s performance, which is at the start in a James-Bond-diffusing-the-bomb moment, is actually really good (and especially compared to other execs, like the golf sadist role for CEO Jerry Yang and the broom-wielding President Sue Decker).

Plus, finally–a really good use for his legendary “Miami Vice” stubble beard.

Here’s a link to Valleywag, which got a copy of the full (and quite clever) video, and a screen shot of Weiner below.

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