Brad Williams

Uh-Oh: Groupon Loses New COO, Who’s Going Back to Google

Kara Swisher in News on September 23, 2011 at 1:54 pm PT

In a blog it just posted, Groupon said its recently hired COO, Margo Georgiadis, “has decided to return to Google (her former employer) in a new role as President, Americas.” She was hired in April, only months before the company filed to go public.

BoomTown's Favorite Leaked Yahoo Internal Memo Ever: New PR Head Eric Brown Says Hello (and More)!

Kara Swisher in News on July 7, 2009 at 5:52 pm PT

BoomTown has had some good leaked internal memos from Yahoo, but I have never enjoyed one quite as much as this one from newly installed Yahoo PR head Eric Brown, who started today. While it is clear Yahoo has had its troubles in understanding and offering social-networking products to its users, Brown certainly knows how to share. Yahoo could use some of that DNA! Here’s his introductory memo to his new troops.

Yahoo Gets New PR Head From NetApp–The Internal Memo (Natch!)

Kara Swisher in News on June 2, 2009 at 5:45 pm PT

New Yahoo Marketing head Elisa Steele named a colleague from her former job, NetApp, as SVP of Global Communications at the Internet giant. Eric Brown was the VP of corporate relations at the data storage company, on whose board Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has also served. Before that, he was at Adaptec. And, according to Yahoo’s internal memo, Brown likes to eat ice cream in bed while reading a Kindle and surfing the Web. Scooch over and make some room for BoomTown, Eric!

Yahoo Hires Adobe Vet Lamkin to Run Communications and Communities Unit as Dietzen Moves to Strategy Post

Kara Swisher in News on April 24, 2009 at 11:43 pm PT

More musical chairs at Yahoo, which BoomTown predicted recently, as top execs at the company move in and out of jobs, and new ones from the outside move in. Perhaps the most important change to occur is the replacement this week of SVP Scott Dietzen–who had been in charge of all communications and communities products at Yahoo–by former Adobe Systems exec Bryan Lamkin, several sources said. And there’s even more…

Jerry Yang's Entire Memo to the Yahoo Troops About Layoffs (Except Not the Part About Maybe More to Come)

Kara Swisher in News on December 10, 2008 at 8:55 pm PT

Here’s Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang’s entire memo to the staff of the Internet giant about the layoffs, which took place today. There’s no need for translation, except to say–as Yang did–that it is the worst of times for any company. Except, as BoomTown previously reported, that there might be more to come, which a Yahoo spokesman told the New York Times. Here’s Yang’s whole memo.

BoomTown Decodes Jerry Yang's Here-Comes-the-Weasel-Consultants Memo (So You Don't Have To!)

Kara Swisher in News on September 25, 2008 at 6:16 am PT

Oh, this is just too good to pass up, so it is once again time for BoomTown to let you know exactly what Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang actually meant in his internal memo to employees about the hiring of Bain & Company to evaluate its troubled business systems. Jerry wrote: yahoos, it’s time for another update. Translation: Yep! Still no adult punctuation! We might continue to face serious big-boy issues at the company, but we refuse to give in on our insistence on kindergarten spelling patterns. In that vein, would you like a nice cold glass of chocolate milk before I get to the bad news?

Yahoo Execs "Open" Up to BoomTown Video in a Blabfest!

Kara Swisher in News on September 12, 2008 at 11:35 am PT

Yesterday, Yahoo trotted out a range of top execs who were unusually loquacious at its “open house,” where the company made a valiant effort to explain an aggressive strategy to open up its platform and products. So here are video interviews I did with a range of Yahoo’s top execs, including Audience Product Division EVP Ash Patel, Yahoo Media Group head Scott Moore, social media guru Marc Davis, Yahoo! Mail kingpin Scott Dietzen,, Connected Life EVP Marco Boerries and PR minion Brad Williams.