Ashley Highfield

Yahoo Poised to Name New International Head–After Five-Month Look-See at the Crowned Web Heads of Europe

Kara Swisher in News on August 17, 2009 at 11:24 am PT

Yahoo is closer to naming a new international head, according to sources, the last big slot left in the top management structure of CEO Carol Bartz. While BoomTown is endeavoring to get the name of this international man of mystery, the suspect list is long, since Yahoo’s headhunter for the job–Heidrick & Struggles–has pretty much talked to the gamut of international Web muckety-mucks since the search started six months ago. In a memo to Yahoo staff after her reorganization in February, Bartz said that “international growth is critical for Yahoo!, which has become too reliant on its U.S. business over the years.”

The Guardian's Changing Media Summit in London: No Answers There Either!

Kara Swisher in News on March 26, 2009 at 2:33 pm PT

On BoomTown’s recent grand tour of Europe, I paid a visit a week ago to London to moderate some sessions at Media Guardian’s Changing Media Summit 2009. As in the U.S., a lot of the same questions were asked there about when and how the new media business would cross the Rubicon to transform into a strongly profitable and sustainable business. And the answer to that query was just as hard to find as here.