Yahoo is preparing to begin layoffs of what could be thousands of employees starting next week, according to multiple sources, and is then expected to announce a new restructuring of the company the week after.

The swirl at the Silicon Valley Internet giant has grown more intense this week, as new CEO Scott Thompson has brought in top management for a series of meetings both Tuesday and Wednesday to outline the plans.

What has emerged — although sources noted that Thompson and others communicating the pending changes said nothing was yet set in stone — is the picture of a drastically slimmed-down organization with a focus on media, advertising and new but unclear “future” initiatives.

First the layoffs: Sources said the cuts will be deep and mostly aimed at the product, research and marketing units of Yahoo, which are likely to take place Wednesday. The ultimate goal, said multiple sources, is to cut many thousands from Yahoo’s staff of close to 14,000 employees, which is actually much larger, due to contract workers not officially in its roster.

The entire cut will not take place at once, said sources, since Thompson and others are still trying to figure out how to dispense with its ad technology org and, potentially, its search business. He has been in discussions with both Microsoft and Google about this, although there are other possibilities, too.

Both these parts of Yahoo together have about 2,500 staffers, whose fate is not yet sorted out.

Also still baking is the new structure, although sources said it is most likely to be comprised of a global media division, one that encompasses Yahoo’s communications and search businesses, and ones focused on global and also regional sales. There could also be a small organization of about 50 aimed at future innovation.

Americas head Ross Levinsohn is the likeliest exec to run the media arm, while Shashi Seth — who now heads search and marketplaces — would be the obvious candidate for the the communications/search one.

Thompson has already been conducting a search for a new worldwide sales head, although one possible internal exec for the job could be Rich Riley, who was recently running Yahoo’s Europe, Africa and Middle East region.

It is not clear how Chief Product Officer Blake Irving fits in the possible new org, since much of the development could now move to the decentralized units.

Some current operational execs — such as service engineering and ops head David Dibble, CFO Tim Morse, and top lawyer Mike Callahan — are likely to continue to operate as before.

Thompson, along with consultants he has hired from the Boston Consulting Group, presented the possible plan in front of Yahoo’s senior execs on Tuesday. That was followed by more meetings with a wider range of top management yesterday, although Thompson was not as highly specific in these meetings.

In fact, according to a half-dozen sources, Thompson apparently grew somewhat testy in one of the gatherings, when asked if there was a strategy he was going to announce in more detail to the group.

(Dear Scott, these are very talented employees who love the company and who have been through the wringer and it’s not their fault that leadership has failed them, so it might be a good idea to treat them with as much respect as possible right now.)

More to come, obviously.

Now it’s working on the other side of the equation: The consumer. The company is rebranding its consumer product, formerly dubbed Card Case.

Pay with Square, as the app has been renamed, now has participating merchants listed at the forefront of the free app, rather than hidden on cards in the old app’s virtual wallet. It also includes a curated list of featured merchants, a search bar, and a tilt-to-map option, which allows the user to tilt their phone to make a map appear and display a merchant’s location.

Square has also added geo-fencing capabilities to the Android app, which will allow customers to pay for an item at a participating store simply by walking in and telling the merchant their name.

Square’s move comes as mobile payments continue to heat up — and as competitors like PayPal and Intuit move into Square’s traditional territory.

Square first launched Card Case last May, but the app has gained little traction. While Square now claims $4 billion a year in mobile payments transactions, only about 75,000 of its one million merchants are accepting payments via Card Case.

Megan Quinn, director of products for Square, said that merchants that have taken payments through the app have seen a 22 percent increase in revenue.

“Square isn’t just about accepting credit cards,” Quinn said. “Our focus is the whole ecosystem, and we don’t think anyone is making the whole experience as easy and delightful as we are.”

Square’s app update comes just as online payments giant PayPal has started focusing on offline payments solutions for both big and small businesses, including PayPal-branded point-of-sale payments systems in Home Depot stores across the U.S., as well as a mobile payments dongle for iPhone that rivals Square’s small business solution. PayPal claims more than a hundred million users worldwide, whereas Square has yet to expand beyond the U.S., though it’s clearly taking steps in that direction.

Now it is trying the same gambit, but with Mark Zuckerberg instead of Steve Jobs. If you want to read “Inside Facebook,” Miguel Helft and Jessi Hempel’s pre-IPO profile, you’ll need to pay up.

I just plunked down $1.99 for the Amazon edition, and zipped through it this morning. Like the Apple story, this one is focused on the company’s structure and management philosophy more than anything, which is quite useful for outsiders. Alas, no org chart.

And if you’re into profiles of big Silicon Valley companies in big business magazines, this is your lucky week: Businessweek’s Brad Stone profiles Twitter in a story out now.

The cover art is very promising:

Seattle-based Treemo Labs has created an iOS app maker called Appafolio that requires no code in the app-building process, will show up to 10 screens of data or imagery, and caches the app content so the app will work even when an Internet connection isn’t available.

The company wants to become an app resource for business users and marketing professionals who want to create brochure-like apps that likely won’t pass muster in the App Store. Appafolio is free, though there will be a premium model that offers more bells and whistles.

There’s also a simple Appafolio pass phrase that app makers can use as a URL and share with anybody, directing iPhone and iPad users directly to their app instead of to an app store or marketplace. The link won’t, however, work on a Web browser.

Treemo co-founder and CEO Brent Brookler pointed to camera company Contour as an example. Contour used Appafolio to show off its new line of cameras a few weeks ago at the Consumer Electronics Show — where the cellular service and Wi-Fi connectivity is notoriously bad. The company used an iPad as a kind of marketing brochure at its booth, and since the content of the app could be downloaded and cached in advance, there were no issues swiping through the Contour app and viewing all of the data available.

Of course, the number of companies that help people make apps is as large as the day is long — and some them also offer no-code builds. There’s also AppMkr, AppIncubator, AppWhirl from App.co, AppVoyage and EachScape, which just nabbed $3 million in Series A funding, to name just a handful.

While the Appafolio product is geared toward business clients, the app maker doesn’t allow users to import things like PDF or PowerPoint files. So, for an offline deck, the non-iPad-owning business user might still turn to other software applications to create slides or brochures.

And while Brookler sees getting an Android app going as an important step to market Appafolio to the masses, for now the app is iOS-only.

Brookler says the app isn’t just for business users; a casual user might want to create an app for a wedding, for example. But that sort of app is also unlikely to pass App Store muster, so Appafolio makes it easier for those users to become developers for a day.

Seattle-based Treemo Labs launched in 2005 and has mainly created apps for media properties, including CBS News, “60 Minutes” and “Survivor,” as well as music video apps.

This time it’s GoGo Inc., maker of GoGo Inflight Internet service, which you’ve probably used at some point if you’ve ever accessed Wi-Fi during a flight.

The company is filing for an initial public offering that could raise as much as $100 million.

GoGo’s S-1 doesn’t say how many shares it plans to sell or at what price. But it does plan to trade under the stock symbol — you guessed it — GOGO.

There are currently 1,177 commercial airplanes offering Internet access through GoGo: That’s about 85 percent of North America’s Internet-enabled commercial aircraft.

According to the filing, GoGo’s consolidated revenue increased to $113.8 million from $60.1 million, a year-over-year increase of 89.3 percent in the nine-month period ending in September. Despite increasing revenue, the company still lost $25.8 million in the first nine months of 2011.

A large portion of GoGo’s revenue comes from its customers in the business aviation market, for which it provides both broadband connectivity and satellite-based communications systems. GoGo’s business aviation arm has sold approximately 6,000 ATG and satellite-based communications systems for private planes and has signed agreements with all of the largest fractional jet operators, according to the filing.

On the the commercial side, the company cites the emergence of the “connected lifestyle” for consumers, coupled with the projected growth of the worldwide travel market, as evidence of demand for its in-flight product. In 2010, there were approximately 2.7 billion scheduled passengers on commercial aircraft worldwide, with 630 million in the U.S. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the number of passengers worldwide is expected to grow to nearly 3 billion by 2012.

GoGo plans to expand internationally and to penetrate even more of the business aviation market, with the number of business jets in the North American and global business markets expected to grow by 8.3 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively, by 2015.

One of Gogo’s biggest risks is its dependence on partnerships with North American airline fleets for about half of its consolidated revenue. Approximately 45 percent of its commercial airline revenue — generated within a nine-month period ending September 30, 2011 — was acquired through Delta Air Lines; approximately 18 percent came via GoGo’s partnership with American Airlines, whose parent company, AMR Corp., recently filed for bankruptcy.

The company also cites as risks the increasing demand for in-flight WiFi, and the possible incapacity to meet that demand, as well as the need to keep up with rapidly advancing technologies in network infrastructure.

Low on the risk list, though still worth noting, is that in June of 2006, Gogo purchased at auction a $31 million, exclusive 10-year license for three megahertz, air-to-ground spectrum, outbidding at the time JetBlue LiveTV LLC and a company called Space Data Spectrum Holdings. GoGo expects to renew that license, but the FCC could, in the future, decide to auction additional spectrum for ATG use that is not currently designated for that purpose.

Illinois-based GoGo Inc. was originally incorporated in Texas in June of 1991 as Aircell Inc., and later became Aircell Holdings Inc. On June 15 of this year, Aircell Holdings Inc. officially changed its name to Gogo Inc.

Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, UBS, Allen & Company, Evercore Partners and William Blair & Company are listed as the underwriters on the IPO filing.

According to a press release about to post, LinkedIn will price its shares at $45 each in its IPO tomorrow.

The price, at the top of its range, will give the Silicon Valley business networking company a $4.5 billion valuation.

That’s a stunning number for LinkedIn and a sign that the once moribund market for Internet companies is back, with investors clamoring to be part of the Web game again.

It’s also stunning given LinkedIn earned just over $15 million on revenues of $243 million last year.

But it does have 100 million business users and seems to be the spear tip of a number of promising Web companies that are expected to be coming to market, including Facebook, Groupon and Zynga.

LinkedIn’s stock is set to begin trading tomorrow on the New York Stock Exchange under the LNKD ticker.

And here is the official press release:

LinkedIn Corporation Prices Initial Public Offering

Mountain View, Calif.–May 18, 2011 — LinkedIn Corporation, the world’s largest professional network on the Internet, today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 7,840,000 shares of common stock at a price to the public of $45.00 per share. A total of 4,827,804 shares are being offered by LinkedIn Corporation, and a total of 3,012,196 shares are being offered by selling stockholders. In addition, LinkedIn Corporation has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,176,000 shares to cover over-allotments, if any. LinkedIn will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders.

The bookrunning managers of the offering are Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, BofA Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC. Allen & Company LLC and UBS Securities LLC are the co-managers. LinkedIn’s common stock will trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol “LNKD.”

The offering of these securities will be made only by means of a prospectus , copies of which may be obtained from the offices of Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, Attention: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, New York 10014, or by email at prospectus@morganstanley.com; BofA Merrill Lynch, 4 World Financial Center, New York, NY 10080, Attention: Prospectus Department, or email dg.prospectus_requests@baml.com; or J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Attention: Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, or by telephone at (866) 803-9204.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to their registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier tonight that Microsoft–in what would be its most aggressive acquisition in the digital space–was zeroing in on buying Skype for $8.5 billion all in with an assumption of the Luxembourg-based company’s debt.

Sources told BoomTown tonight that the deal for the online telephony and video communications giant is actually done and will be announced early tomorrow morning.

The purchase–which has been spearheaded in closely held negotiations by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, with an assist from Business Division CFO Amy Hood and top dealmaker Charles Songhurst–is a bold move for the software giant and its biggest acquisition in more than three decades.

The big price will give Microsoft–which has struggled in its online efforts and has lost billions of dollars for its work–a big brand name on the Web.

With Skype, which has been aggressively expanding, Microsoft will continue to lose money in its Internet efforts. Skype lost $7 million on revenue of $860 million. Operating profits, which Skype preferred to highlight, were $264 million.

And–let us not forget–Skype’s debt is $686 million. Silver lining: That’s slightly less than Microsoft’s Online Services division losses in its most recent quarter!

But, sources said, the concept is bigger than just money, including getting access to Skype’s 663 million registered users.

Skype, which had been headed bumpily toward an IPO until now, will apparently be integrated into Microsoft’s Windows Live and other online communications efforts in both the consumer and enterprise arenas, sources said.

Think Kinect connecting.

Skype has had a big-company owner before–eBay Inc. paid $2.6 billion in cash and stock for it in 2005, as a way for the auction site’s buyers and sellers to communicate.

A 70 percent stake in Skype was sold in 2009 to investors such as Silver Lake Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. It then valued Skype at $2.75 billion.

So, obviously, the deal is a big win for them. In addition, at the time they made their investments, Skype was a huge legal mess with lawsuits flying.

Skype has since gotten cleaned up enough to attract Microsoft.

Other suitors have looked at Skype, including Google, although acquisition interest by Facebook was very much overblown, said several sources.

Interestingly, Microsoft’s new smartphone partner Nokia also held meetings with Skype’s CEO Tony Bates, a former Cisco exec who arrived at the company last fall.

Interest in Skype by Microsoft was first reported by GigaOm’s Om Malik on Sunday.

Tune in at 5 am PT for the official press release, apparently, and lots and lots and lots of analysis of whether Microsoft paid too much for Skype.

Just when you don’t think there could be any more, another emerging category is now targeting small-to-medium-size businesses by offering companies discounts on a range of products from a Lenovo laptop to office furniture or employee perks.

RapidBuyr and marketsharing are two companies competing in the space.

Yesterday, RapidBuyr launched a partnership with American City Business Journals, which will eventually be able to tap into its 10 million subscribers via 42 web sites and 64 publications. It’s live today in about seven of its markets, and was offering 42 percent off three sets of 1,000 business cards for $100.

Through the partnership, RapidBuyr will have access to the business journal’s regional sales staff to get access to local deals in addition to signing up national deals. The American City Business Journals represents just one partnership in addition to making its deals accessible directly from the its web site or through emails.

The company was founded by twin brothers, Tom and Darr Aley, who sold their last company, Generate, which created enterprise-focused social networking tools, to Dow Jones in 2008.

Marketsharing, too, is offering specials on small-to-medium business needs, but says it is differentiating itself by also offering discounts on employee perks, like hand massages, bowling parties and gym memberships.

The New York-based company has raised $1 million in seed funding from Kevin Wendle, the co-founder of CNET, and Daniel Klaus, who was behind Music Nation and Original Signal. Marketsharing’s founder John Amato previously was the president and co-founder of Show Media, one of the providers of taxi advertising in New York City.

After it struck its online advertising and search partnership with Yahoo, Microsoft tapped longtime Internet exec Brett Wayn (pictured here) to work with Greg Nelson during the integration.

Well, Wayn must have liked what he saw at the Silicon Valley Internet giant, since he is bouncing there from his job at the Redmond, Wash. software giant to help run local efforts at Yahoo.

[UPDATING local roles at Yahoo.]

Wayn will be working for Chief Product Officer Blake Irving and will be responsible for product management of Yahoo’s local “horizontal.”

He will work closely with whoever Yahoo finds as a replacement for Matt Idema, a longtime Yahoo exec who shuttled over to Facebook as a director of business operations, working on the local arena.

Luke Beatty, who heads up Yahoo’s Americas region community and local businesses, including Flickr, Groups, Answers and hundreds of local sites, is doing Idema’s job for now within Americas head Ross Levinsohn’s unit.

Local is a hugely hot space right now, with a spate of Web focus from giants like Google and Facebook to powerful start-ups such as Foursquare and Groupon.

Wayn has more recently been working on international for Microsoft’s MSN portal. The Australian native has also worked at AOL and, interestingly, has an actual medical degree.

In other words: Paging Dr. Local, stat!

“Poor Mr. Elop. Has to make the big tech call not ever having written a line of mobile code or done system bring-up work,” Bray said in a tweet.

Bray later backpedaled, taking down the tweet and adding in subsequent postings (see below) that he has no inside info on Nokia, that he is not an executive at Google and that what he said is true of lots of executives, not just Elop.

But, of course, words aren’t the real issue for either Microsoft or Nokia. Apple and Android have already posted their real challenge, and it isn’t anything they have said on Twitter. Between them, they not only have most of the ultra-high-end smartphone business, but also the lion’s share of attention from developers, investors, advertisers and other key parts of the mobile world.

In going with Windows Phone, Elop is making a bold bet–both that Nokia will be able to stand out on someone else’s platform and, more importantly, that Windows Phone itself will be a winner.

Only time will answer that question. I would point out, though, that Nokia is not the first phone maker in a jam that made a bet on Microsoft. Some years back, Palm decided to start selling phones with Windows Mobile–the predecessor to Windows Phone. The venture was launched as a bringing together of two giants, with Bill Gates and Palm’s chief executive sharing a stage in San Francisco to tout the promise of the union. In the end, neither the Palm OS nor Windows Mobile were able to gain ground and the partnership fizzled.

We’ll get to hear directly from Elop on Friday when he addresses investors at a meeting in London. Mobilized will be there with live coverage starting at 11 am local time (3 am PT).

But it is a new day. Nokia is not Palm and Windows Phone is not Windows Mobile. The question now is whether this sequel will have a different ending.

CEO John Chambers said in a company statement that the quarter “played out as we expected” and that the company is “going through a period of transition as we move aggressively in the market with our architectural strategy….Simply put, we are owning our evolution and the next generation of industry leadership.”

That’s a change from the “air pockets” phrase Chambers used to describe the surprise downward in Cisco’s guidance when it last reported earnings in November, and the stock has yet to recover from the drop that resulted. More as I go through the numbers.

4:38 pm: Chambers: Our routing architecture is in the best shape in its history.

Chambers: We are in the middle of a major product transition with dramatically higher price performance advantages. With this in mind we did see our switching revenue decline 7 percent.

4:41 pm: Chambers: We are seeing pricing pressures on our Catalyst portfolio. This is where our competitors are targeting us and this is where we intend to own our evolution.

We are moving very aggressively to prevent any future erosion of our product share.

Services revenue increase 18 percent year over year.

International bookings are okay. Italy was the only country to see a fall.

Enterprise solid. Grew 10 percent year over year. Public sector grew 7 percent. U.S. public sector orders grew 9 percent. [He thinks orders will worsen in this sector in the coming quarters.]

Set-top business declined.

4:44 pm: Initial customer and industry feedback to Videoscape is being received well

4:45 pm: Chambers: There were a number of areas where we are pleased with our progress.

Guidance coming up.

4:47 pm: Q3 revenue 4 to 6 percent year over year.

Q4: 8-11 percent increase year over year.

4:48 pm: As I look, stock is now trading down nearly 4 percent after-hours.

Frank Calderoni, Cisco CFO is now on the call.

Calderoni: There are multiple product transitions in areas such as switching, which, although expected, are happening faster than expected.

4:56 pm: Cash and equivalents: $40.2 billion. Cash flow from operations: $2.6 billion

4:58 pm: Calderoni says Cisco would issue a dividend in fiscal 2011 with a yield in the 1 to 2 percent range.

4:58 pm: Shares now down about 6 percent.

More guidance coming up from Calderoni.

5:00 pm: Q3, we exepect revenue growth of 4 to 6 percent year on year.

That’s with one less week this year than last year.

Q3 we expect non-GAAP operation 23 to 24 percent

EPS 35 to 38 cents per share.

In Q4 we expect 8 to 11 percent growth in revenue year over year.

FY11 will be mid to lower end of 9 to 12 percent given in previous guidance.

5:03 pm: John Chambers is back on the call.

Enterprise orders growth good. Grew high 20 percent range.

Shares are down 9 percent on that “lower range” guidance for the full year.

We believe we are not losing market share with developed-world governments.

This growth will be severely challenged in the next several quarters, and will grow in the low single digit.

5:11 pm: We believe the growth in enterprise will balance out the challenges in government business.

5:12 pm: Decrease in gross margins was affected by several factors.

He says the company has started something called a working group to study the decline in gross margins. What does that mean?

5:17 pm: Shares are within sight of trading down 10 percent after hours.

5:18 pm: Chambers: I think we will look back on this period of time and wish we could have avoided it, but it will make us stronger.

Q&A about to start. Should be interesting.

5:20 pm: Chambers: Bookings were comfortably above the revenues. In terms of momentum in switching I would expect them to be positive.

5:39 pm: Chambers is now talking about tax policy. Echoing a point he’s made repeatedly about bringing cash that’s held overseas into the U.S. He think the taxes are too high.

5:39 pm: Cash in the U.S. is $3.1 billion versus total cash holdings of more than $40 billion. Calderoni is talking about the $3 billion debt offering. He said Cisco has about $3 billion in long term debt that’s coming due soon, and that the debt it’s issuing will carry a lower rate.

I’m going to close this early because I have to make another meeting. I’ll be posting more on Cisco earnings shortly.

This debut was supposed to happen a few weeks ago in San Francisco, with Rupert Murdoch and Steve Jobs sharing stage time. Instead, Murdoch will show off his new publication at the Guggenheim in New York, with Apple content boss Eddy Cue stepping in for Jobs.

We’ve got a very good idea of what to expect: A newspaper that’s both old-fashioned and cutting-edge, which will sell for 99 cents a week or $40 a year. And the best way to experience the new publication will be on an iPad, not at a museum.

Still, it will be interesting to hear News Corp. pitch this one in real time, and to see how it leverages all of its resources and a very rare Apple endorsement. (This Web site, we should note, is owned by News Corp. as well.)

10:40 am: Greetings! So excited to be in the Guggenheim that I’m starting this one a few minutes early.

10:44 am: And here’s Jon Miller, who has been shepherding this thing at News Corp. Here’s some fresh scoop! The Daily will be be live onstage for the demo, he says, but won’t appear at the app store until noon.

[Note: The Daily can be found here at the Apple App Store]

10:47 am: Miller is working the room very well; now chatting up Reuters’ Ken Li.

10:48 And Steve Rubenstein, who has been handling PR for the Daily launch. He semi-taunts me by noting that there were tasty canapés at Rupert Murdoch’s private party Tuesday night.

10:49 am: If you’d simply like to watch a livestream of the event, minus my commentary, head to thedaily.com at 11 ET.

10:50 am: That sound you hear is the rustle of departing page views.

10:51 am: Cunning of the News Corp./Rubenstein/event-planning crew to split up the press by species. Gives us something to talk about.

10:52 am: BREAKING NEWS! Jon Miller says Wi-Fi here at the Guggenheim has been working “intermittently.”

10:52 am: WAAAAAAY More interesting is that Engadget’s Joanna Stern being hassled for daring to take out a camera during a press conference. She is being moved three seats back. Where that’s OK, apparently.

10:56 am: Pre-launch music, btw: Some kinda samba thing going on. Festive and, dare I say, a smidge bit sexy. Rowr!

10:58 am: Slightly curious is that registration staff told media that they’ll have “review units” available after presser. But everyone in media has an iPad, right? It’s required, no?

Perhaps the notion is that the presser will end before noon, and the Daily won’t be available until then, so if you want to get hands-on in the meantime, that’s the way to go. Which would be smart!

On the other hand, if they’re simply handing out free “review” units to the press, well, that’s kinda smart too. Because the press likes free stuff.

11:03 am: Our crack tech guy Adam Tow tells me TheDaily.com site is now saying that the app will be available at noon ET. I can’t see that on my screen, but I’ll take his word for it.

Especially because that’s what Jon Miller said a few minutes ago.

11:05 am: Given News Corp. pub WSJ’s focus on privacy, and Apple’s, interesting to review the Daily’s:

When you use the Services, we may collect certain non-personally identifiable information about that use. For example, in order to permit your connection to the Services via the Internet, our servers receive and record information about your computer and browser, including potentially your IP address, browser type, and other software or hardware information. If you access the Services from a mobile or other device, we may also collect transactional information such as a unique device identifier assigned to that device (“UDID”), your geolocation, or other transactional information for the device in order to serve content to it. We also may use cookies and other tracking technologies (including browser cookies, pixels, beacons, and Adobe Flash technology including cookies), which are comprised of small bits of data that often include an anonymous unique identifier. Websites send this data to your browser when you first request a web page and then store the data on your computer so the web site can access information when you make subsequent requests for pages from that site. We may use these technologies to collect and store information about your use of the Services, such as pages you have visited, search queries you have run, and advertisements you have seen.

11:06 am: And we’re live. Here’s Rupert Murdoch, iPad in hand.

“Good morning. I’m Rupert Murdoch.”

Thanks for the “amazing Steve Jobs,” a man who has “single-handedly changed the world” of technology and media.

“Steve has been a champion of the Daily from day 1.”

“New times demand new journalism.” [hrm]

Trying to take best of traditional journalism, including “shoe-leather reporting” editing, “a skeptical eye” [hrm!] and combine them with awesome tech.

“”Simply put, the iPad demands that we completely re-imagine our craft”

Shooting for audience that is sophisticated and reads a lot, but not print.

We have that, but it’s niche. No “true news discovery.” The magic of newspapers “and great blog” lies in “serendipity.”
True!

Similarly, we must make the business of news-gathering viable again.

Goal is to be indispensable source for news and entertainment. “A robust new voice.”

Shout-outs to Jesse Angelo and Greg Clayman, who run editorial and business, respectively, for the new pub.

Daily will be 14 cents a day–99 cents a week–because no printing, delivery costs, etc.

More superlatives for the Daily, including a “sense of fun.”

Target audience is “tablet” audience–[note emphasis on tablet, not iPad].

And a shout-out to Jon Miller, too.

[Unless I misheard and it was News Corp. CTO John McKinley.]

“We believe the Daily will be the model for how stories are told and how they’re consumed.”

And another shout-out to “all our friends at Apple”

Okay. Here are Miller, Angelo, Clayman.

11:13 am: Miller starting off. Not a demo–this is live production.

Trying to figure out how to produce new news for tablet era. “We think we’ve developed that.”

Angelo shows off home screen of the Daily, with Egypt as main headline. Applause.

Have been doing live production for about six weeks.

11:14 am: They have a reporter on the ground in Cairo right now. Josh Hirsch [sp?].

Lots of big pictures, video embedded in text.

And here’s one of the 360-degree photos. Which look cool!

Can put audio behind them, etc.

HD video–here’s a clip about prisoners making toys in Angola prison. Note the bluesy background music. ’Cause it’s about a prison, duh.

11:16 am: Back to Miller. Have rethought navigation.

11:17 am: Back to Angelo, showing off swipey carousel. Sorta silly to describe this to you in a liveblog, but there’s a “play” function and a “shuffle function,” and a video anchor who will discuss the main stories of the day.

11:18 am: Back to MIller. “The Daily is not an island” can share to Facebook, Twitter, email.

11:18 am: Angelo: We can also pull HTML5 pages into device. Can also link out. [Subtext--we are TOTALLY NOT ignoring the Web, you dummies. We're not idiots.]

Bringing Twitter feeds directly into app. So you can see what Lily Allen (used to be semi-famous a couple of years ago) has to say about something.

11:19 am: Miller: We have apps and games section, with a link directly to Apple Store.

And we have an awesome sports section [sounds familiar!].

11:20 am: Angelo: Yes, check out our awesome sports section. Troy Polamalu talking about Clay Matthews’s hair.

“For sports fans, we really think this is the showstopper”–customizable sports filter by team/sport, brings in scores, tweets, etc.

11:21 am: Miller: Publishing once a day, with updates throughout the day “as the news warrants.”

Verizon sponsoring first two weeks of free subscriptions.

11:22 am: The art in this liveblog, by the way, is coming directly from livestream. Nice job, Adam Tow.

11:22 am: Here’s Eddy Cue. Never seen him before. A very, very, very big deal in media circles.

Running through iPad, iOs success. iPad customers are huge news eaters. 200 million news apps downloaded so far.

I’ve been using the Daily for the last two weeks. “It’s amazing.” Amazing that it’s done every single day. More superlatives, etc.

Basically, a repeat of what Miller et al just said.

Okay. Here are the new details on push subscriptions. First time Apple has used this tech. 99 cents a day, $40 a year. [ahem].

11:26 am: And now, oddly, press conference comes to a halt for a photo opp.

11:26 am: Waiting for them to set up chairs for Q&A.

Questions and Answers

How will back issues be handled? Where will old copies be stored?

Angelo: Best thing to do is to save articles you care about. And it will also be archived on the Web. Internal archiving not there for 1.0.

Q: When will other pubs start using subscription option?

Announcement “very soon for other news publications.”

Q: How will you measure impressions, etc. for advertising?

Miller: Will have tech built into app for that. I should have mentioned during presentation that we love advertisers.

Q: For Rupe: How will you measure success?

A: We want to sell millions. But keep costs low. We have spent $30 million so far, “all of which has been written off in figures we’ll announce today.” But overall costs $500,000 a week going forward.

Q: Another question about subscriptions.

A: A non-answer from Cue.

Q: Who/what does Daily compete with? And how will other News Corp. properties be integrated?

A: Miller: Gotta compete with everything. “you’re competing with Angry Birds at some level.” [Hey that's my line!]

Murdoch: In NY, for example, we already have multiple outlets competing with each other. This is another.

Q: What about breaking news? How will that work?

A: Angelo talking up twitter feeds, sports scores, but “we can drop in a new page if we want to, and we will.” BUT! As a conusmer, I don’t like Web sites that change constantly. It’s not a great experience. [THAT IS: This is a newspaper, not a Web site.]

Q: What’s the political tone of this thing. Centrist, right?

A: Murdoch: “The editorial position will be in the hands of the editor.” Cue Angelo, who sorta hedges. On op-ed page, “We’re patriotic.”

Q: Someone wants to know if Rupert is really into this. Also, will there be an Australian version?

Murdoch. Duh.

(An Australian version “always a possibility.”)

Q: Why do this with the Daily instead of existing brands. Also, what’s up with your phone hacking newspapers in the U.K.?

A: Murdoch: Existing tablet apps are what got me excited about launching a new one. No comment on “the other matter.”

Q: You’ll be working with other tablets besides iPad, right?

A: Murdoch. Yes. And “we’ve been quite honest with Apple about that.” We’ll defnintely be on all platforms. But Apple will be the dominant one this year, in my opinion.

[Sorry, missed a Q. Seems to be about what apps Murdoch likes.]

Q: More about the editorial voice, please.

A: Angelo: Thinking it through. We know that people spend a lot of time with these apps–35 minutes, 40 minutes. “It’s unbelievable.” So how do you create content rich enough to keep people there?

Q: What did Steve Jobs say about this in the last couple of days?

A: Murdoch: “He did call me last week” and told me app was “really terrific. He was extremely flattering.”

Q: How will people find this stuff, since it’s not on the Web?

A: Cue: We’ve downloaded 10 billion apps. People can find this stuff.

Miller: We feel really good about this. We didn’t want to make compromises.

Q: I ask about what’s available on the Web.

A: Some of it will be mirrored on the Web, when it can be done technically. [Sorry, hard to type and write.]

[Sorry, now even more confused about what's available on the Web and what isn't. Going to have to follow up with the gang later.]

[Where's Greg Clayman, by the way?]

11:47 am: Q: How do you balance a subscription model with a large audience that advertisers want?

Murdoch: “They’d pay a much lower rate per thousand if it was free. They realize it’s something that people want.” And we can tell them more about who sees it. “It’s not just scattered out there….We’ll draw a better class of advertiser, and a better rate.”

11:48 am: Q: What’s the split between ad and subscription revenue?

Miller: Subscription will be larger at start, and then eventually 50-50, “which is the magic number.”

And we’re done. Will try to follow up, may have more answers/comments here, or in a separate post. Thanks for checking in!

Here is the press release announcing the Daily:

Introducing The Daily

First National Daily News Publication Created for iPad Launches today in the Apple App Store

New York, NY, February 2, 2011 – Today Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of News Corporation, unveiled The Daily — the industry’s first national daily news publication created from the ground up for iPad.

“New times demand new journalism,” said Mr. Murdoch. “So we built The Daily completely from scratch — on the most innovative device to come about in my time — the iPad.”

“The magic of great newspapers — and great blogs — lies in their serendipity and surprise, and the touch of a good editor,” continued Mr. Murdoch. “We’re going to bring that magic to The Daily — to inform people, to make them think, to help themengage in the great issues of the day. And as we continue to improve and evolve, we are going to use the best in new technology to push the boundaries of reporting.”

The Daily’s unique mix of text, photography, audio, video, information graphics, touch interactivity and real-time data and social feeds provides its editors with the ability to decide not only which stories are most important — but also the best format to deliver these stories to their readers.

“News Corp. is redefining the news experience with The Daily,” says Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think it is terrific and iPad users are really going to embrace it.”

Led by Editor-in-Chief Jesse Angelo and Publisher Greg Clayman, The Daily is the first application made available on the App Store as a subscription — which will be billed directly to an iTunes account. And because this paperless paper requires no multi-million dollar presses or delivery trucks, it will be priced at just 99 cents a week (or $39.99 for an annual subscription).

“The Daily launches at a moment when advances in technology are changing the job of the modern editor,” says Mr. Angelo. “These advances are giving us new ways to tell stories. We intend to take advantage of all of them, and make The Daily the new voice for a new era.”

Each day The Daily will publish up to 100 pages focused on six key areas: news, sports, gossip and celebrity, opinion, arts and life, and apps and games. It will offer views from across the political spectrum. They will come from across cultures and generations, across America and the world.

The Daily will feature Sudoku and crossword puzzles, localized weather reports, and a customizablesports package that captures news on the user’s favorite teams. Subscribers will also be able to leave comments on Daily stories in either written or audio form — as well as bookmark them in-app to read later.

As readers move through The Daily’s content, they will be helped by several highly intuitive navigation tools. And while The Daily lives on the iPad, most of its articles can be easily shared via Facebook, Twitter and email. The Daily will link out to the web, as well as bring the web into the app.

“In short, says Mr. Murdoch, “we believe The Daily will be the model for how stories are told and consumed in this digital age.”

The Daily has bureaus in New York and Los Angeles, as well as stringers across the country. Full companybios are available at TheDaily.com/about. Executive staff includes:

John Kilpatrick – Executive Creative Director
Steve Alperin – Managing Editor
Mike Nizza – Managing Editor, News
Richard Johnson – LA Bureau Chief
Sasha Frere-Jones – Editor, Arts & Life
Chris D’Amico – Editor, Sports
Elisabeth Eaves – Editor, Opinion
Peter Ha – Editor, Apps, Games and Technology

The Daily is also changing the way advertising is offered and consumed within a news publication. Full-page ad units are completely interactive, customizable, and offer a rich mix of branding and direct response opportunities. Launch advertisers include HBO,Macy’s, Paramount, Pepsi Max, Range Rover, Verizon, and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

“With The Daily, Rupert Murdoch has given us the chance to rethink the entire experience of news delivery and consumption,” said Mr. Clayman. “The ability to actively listen to and engage with our audience means we can continually provide an experiencethat consumers value in this fast-evolving tablet space. Together with our customers, our advertising partners, and the team at The Daily, we are excited to create a new form of media.”

About The Daily
The Daily is a first-of-its-kind daily national news publication built exclusively as an application for tablet computing. It provides readers the engaging experience of a magazine combined with the immediacy of the web and the need-to-know content of a newspaper, all while elevating user experience beyond the printed word. The Daily is a subscription-based news product, published 365 days a year, at the cost of $0.99 cents a week or $39.99 a year. For more information on The Daily go to: www.thedaily.com.

Finally, here are screenshots from The Daily’s listing in the App Store:

Salesforce.com has bought Manymoon, the social productivity start-up.

The price of the acquisition was not disclosed, but one source put the sale at between $25 million and $35 million.

Manymoon makes one of the more popular tools on Google’s apps platform.

The San Francisco company, funded with only a small seed funding round by Harrison Metal, offers an online collaboration app that businesses and consumers can use to organize group projects, conversations, tasks or documents that are often done via email or other software.

Manymoon is rather typical of the innovative app makers the search giant has been courting to populate its marketplace.

Salesforce.com has been moving aggressively into social networking in the enterprise arena with its Chatter offering and more.

Earlier today, in fact, it was also part of a $4 million funding of Seesmic, the social dashboard app maker.

Here is the Manymoon blog post–which just went up–on the sale, as well as a video interview BoomTown did with its co-founders Amit Kulkarni and Manav Monga, just as Manymoon joined the Google Apps Marketplace store rollout in March:

Manymoon Acquired by Salesforce.com

February 1, 2011

Today we are excited to announce that Manymoon has been acquired by salesforce.com!

Manymoon has experienced tremendous growth since our launch, with more than 50,000 businesses adopting our social productivity app. We’ve launched on three major web platforms: Google Apps, LinkedIn, and the Google Chrome Web Store. We think we’re on to something special, building an easy-to-use application that integrates with the tools you already use to help you get work done. Over 1,000 new businesses choose Manymoon each week to track any type of work activity with anyone from anywhere.

We’re looking forward to even more growth in 2011, and are thrilled to now be part of salesforce.com, the leader in enterprise cloud computing, to continue to deliver an amazing social productivity application for everyone to use.

What Does This Mean for Manymoon Customers?

We’ll still be the Manymoon that helps you get work done. The Manymoon team will remain intact and will operate as a separate business within salesforce.com so we can continue our focus on building a great social app that makes our customers more productive and successful every day.

The Manymoon you know and love will remain the same:

* Manymoon Standard, our free product, will continue to be available for existing and new customers. In fact, we’ll continue to add features to our free product. And, if you want to upgrade, you are welcome to do that through the Manymoon website whenever you like.

* Existing premium features, subscriptions and price points will remain unchanged.

* Manymoon will continue to work with Google Apps, LinkedIn and the Chrome Web Store. And, we will continue to develop new features to enhance support of these platforms.

*We’ll continue to support our customers in the Manymoon Support Universe.

Salesforce.com and Manymoon Together

Our approach to the market remains unchanged: work with the tools that people already use online (Google Apps, LinkedIn, Chrome), build an app that requires no training or setup, focus on serving the daily productivity needs of professionals and be on the cutting edge of the latest technologies like HTML5. As we’ve grown, we’ve learned that serving customers is more than just building an app with nifty features. It includes providing scalability, security, performance and support–all areas in which salesforce.com has a proven track record.

Like most startups, we admire salesforce.com as the original cloud computing company that made this industry possible. Over the last 12 years salesforce.com has been an evangelist and driver for bringing applications, platforms and collaboration to the cloud. We’re excited to be part of their vision for cloud, social and mobile, utilize their knowledge and experience to build a world-class social productivity app, and move even faster in delivering new capabilities to you!

What’s Next?

We are going to invest more in what you’ve told us you like about Manymoon: Google Apps, LinkedIn and Chrome Web Store support. You can expect to see many of the key social productivity features you’ve requested released in the near future. We’re also going to be working on some exciting, new developments in the coming months…so stay tuned!

Thanks,

The Manymoon Team

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110201/salesforce-buys-manymoon/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20110127/here-comes-another-web-ipo-linkedin-s-1-filing-imminent/ http://allthingsd.com/20110127/here-comes-another-web-ipo-linkedin-s-1-filing-imminent/#comments Thu, 27 Jan 2011 10:16:23 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=39968

LinkedIn, the online business networking site, is likely to file regulatory documents for an initial public offering as early as today, according to sources close to the situation.

Sources said LinkedIn is ready to submit an S-1 filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, its first step in the IPO process, and that could happen after the markets close this afternoon.

The offering is likely to be led by Morgan Stanley, although Goldman Sachs is an investor in LinkedIn and could also be part of the underwriting team.

The Mountain View, Calif., company currently has what it describes as “the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 90 million members in over 200 countries and territories.” It has 1,000 full-time employees.

LinkedIn’s entry into the public market is one that many expect will be followed by other Internet firms in the coming year, including Zynga, Chegg, Groupon, and, most anticipated of all, Facebook.

Demand Media, a Santa Monica, Calif., online publisher, went public yesterday, with an offering that valued the content company at $1.5 billion.

How much is LinkedIn worth? According to a NetworkEffect post, “recent purchases of its stock have valued the company at more than $2 billion. Pushing the company toward the public markets would help set a price range up higher.”

LinkedIn was founded in the living room of co-founder and Chairman Reid Hoffman–who is also a well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor–in 2002 and launched in 2003. Its current CEO is former Yahoo exec Jeff Weiner.

Its investors include Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners and several others, with a total venture funding of $103 million.

A LinkedIn spokeswoman declined to comment (but, in a very lovely manner).

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110127/here-comes-another-web-ipo-linkedin-s-1-filing-imminent/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20110124/a-first-guess-at-twitter-ad-results-how-does-150-million-sound-for-2011/ http://allthingsd.com/20110124/a-first-guess-at-twitter-ad-results-how-does-150-million-sound-for-2011/#comments Mon, 24 Jan 2011 12:20:06 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=28498 Twitter’s ad business is still in the just-getting-started phase, but eMarketer thinks that will still be a nine-figure business: It predicts Adam Bain and crew will sell $150 million worth of promoted tweets, promoted trends, etc., this year. Next year, spurred in part by a Google/Facebook-like self-serve ad system: $250 million. “But the company must show it can live up to its hype.” Noted!

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110124/a-first-guess-at-twitter-ad-results-how-does-150-million-sound-for-2011/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20110120/a-big-quarter-from-google-and-shake-up-at-the-top/ http://allthingsd.com/20110120/a-big-quarter-from-google-and-shake-up-at-the-top/#comments Thu, 20 Jan 2011 21:03:37 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=28356 First look at Google earnings: Net revenue of $6.4 billion and $8.75 a share.

The Street was looking for $6.06 billion and $8.09 a share.

Also, importantly, a shake-up at the top. From the release:

* Starting from April 4, Larry Page, Google Co-Founder, will take charge of Google’s day-to-day operations as Chief Executive Officer.
* Sergey Brin, Google Co-Founder, will devote his energy to strategic projects, in particular working on new products.
* Eric Schmidt will assume the role of Executive Chairman, focusing externally on deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership–all of which are increasingly important given Google’s global reach. Internally, he will continue to act as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.

Here’s the full text of Schmidt’s statement explaining the move:

When I joined Google in 2001 I never imagined—even in my wildest dreams—that we would get as far, as fast as we have today. Search has quite literally changed people’s lives—increasing the collective sum of the world’s knowledge and revolutionizing advertising in the process. And our emerging businesses—display, Android, YouTube and Chrome—are on fire. Of course, like any successful organization we’ve had our fair share of good luck, but the entire team—now over 24,000 Googlers globally—deserves most of the credit.

And as our results today show, the outlook is bright. But as Google has grown, managing the business has become more complicated. So Larry, Sergey and I have been talking for a long time how best to simplify our management structure and speed up decision making—and over the holidays we decided now was the right moment to make some changes to the way we are structured.

For the last 10 years, we have all been equally involved in making decisions. This triumvirate approach has real benefits in terms of shared wisdom, and we will continue to discuss the big decisions among the three of us. But we have also agreed to clarify our individual roles so there’s clear responsibility and accountability at the top of the company.

Larry will now lead product development and technology strategy, his greatest strengths, and starting from April 4 he will take charge of our day-to-day operations as Google’s Chief Executive Officer. In this new role I know he will merge Google’s technology and business vision brilliantly. I am enormously proud of my last decade as CEO, and I am certain that the next 10 years under Larry will be even better! Larry, in my clear opinion, is ready to lead.

Sergey has decided to devote his time and energy to strategic projects, in particular working on new products. His title will be Co-Founder. He’s an innovator and entrepreneur to the core, and this role suits him perfectly.

As Executive Chairman, I will focus wherever I can add the greatest value: externally, on the deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership that are increasingly important given Google’s global reach; and internally as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.

We are confident that this focus will serve Google and our users well in the future. Larry, Sergey and I have worked exceptionally closely together for over a decade—and we anticipate working together for a long time to come. As friends, co-workers and computer scientists we have a lot in common, most important of all a profound belief in the potential for technology to make the world a better place. We love Google—our people, our products and most of all the opportunity we have to improve the lives of millions of people around the world.

His shorter comment, via Twitter:

Here, again, is a cheat sheet from Citi’s Mark Mahaney, so you can play along at home:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110120/a-big-quarter-from-google-and-shake-up-at-the-top/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20110114/docverse-now-google-cloud-connect-head-shan-sinha-talks-about-biz-apps/ http://allthingsd.com/20110114/docverse-now-google-cloud-connect-head-shan-sinha-talks-about-biz-apps/#comments Sat, 15 Jan 2011 00:00:22 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=39519

Earlier this week, I motored the Mini down to the Googleplex in Silicon Valley to visit with entrepreneur Shan Sinha.

He headed the start-up DocVerse, which was acquired by the search giant in March for a reported $25 million to $30 million.

Since then, Sinha has been ferreting away on scaling up DocVerse’s product, which allows users of Microsoft Office documents to collaborate in real-time on the Web.

Its new name: Google Cloud Connect.

About 4,000 companies quickly signed up to be early testers in the preview program, and Google said it had thousands of requests to be notified when it becomes available, which will be in a few weeks.

DocVerse was founded in 2008 by Sinha and Alex DeNeui, who both used to work at Microsoft. It raised only $1.3 million in venture funding from Baseline Ventures, Harrison Metal and Naval Ravikant.

Google’s acquisition of it was yet another shot across Microsoft’s software bow, along with a range of mashups of cloud computing and productivity applications.

For example, Google has been pushing its own cloud-based Google Docs to compete against the Office juggernaut.

For its part, Microsoft has committed itself to moving its hugely popular productivity suite–which includes Word, PowerPoint and Excel–into the cloud, in order to protect its software hegemony.

Why? Simultaneous group-editing and collaboration online is the future of Office.

Clearly, the race for productivity applications is in the cloud.

So–along with Cloud Connect –Sinha has been put in charge of deploying a $50 a person package of them, including Sites, Gmail, Docs, Calendar and Video, to millions of business users.

Here is Sinha talking about all of that and more in the video interview I did with him:

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110114/docverse-now-google-cloud-connect-head-shan-sinha-talks-about-biz-apps/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110110/head-of-microsofts-servers-and-business-unit-leaving-this-summer/ http://allthingsd.com/20110110/head-of-microsofts-servers-and-business-unit-leaving-this-summer/#comments Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:45:04 +0000 Arik Hesseldahl http://newenterprise.allthingsd.com/?p=1551 Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced today in an email to employees that Bob Muglia, the company’s head of its Servers and Tools Business Bob Muglia will be leaving this summer. No replacement has been named. And I’m told by a source familiar that Muglia is not leaving for another job.

Muglia is a 22-year Microsoft veteran who joined from Rolm in 1988 and was the first product manager for SQL Server. The news comes as Microsoft announced a preview of its next generation Enterprise Resource Planning, Dynamics AX 6. I’m told there’s no connection between the timing of the two.

Muglia would be the third division head to leave Microsoft in recent memory. The others are Stephen Elop who left to run Nokia last year, and Robbie Bach, who ran Microsoft’s entertainment division.

Muglia only been elevated to the job two years ago, nearly to the day. The Server and Tools Business is at $14.9 billion in annual revenue (fiscal 2010) Microsoft’s third largest division behind the Windows/Windows Live Division and and the Microsoft Business Division, both of which reported revenues north of $18 billion in 2010. On Muglia’s watch sales at STB grew more than 12 percent, and its operating margins went from 31 percent in 2008 to 37 percent in 2010. However, STB is nowhere near as profitable as the other two divisions: Business Division reported operating margins of 63 percent in 2010 while Windows saw 70 percent. Ballmer says in his memo that he’s eager to see stronger growth from STB.

Muglia is described by people I’ve talked to as a capable, well-respected manager who has over the years weathered the various corporate storms that have hit him, and usually come out on top. In 2002 for instance, he was replaced as the head of Microsoft’s .Net initiative. Reports at the time said he had requested the change out of frustration with the business model. By 2003 he was running the Windows Server Division and in 2005 was tapped to run STB as a senior vice president. He’s also been the key executive on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform.

Ballmer’s memo to Microsoft employees is below.

From: Steve Ballmer
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2011
To: Microsoft – All Employees
Subject: STB – Building on Success, Moving Forward

There are very few $15B businesses in the software industry, and Microsoft is the only company that has built three of them. While Windows and Office are household words, our Server and Tools Business has quietly and steadily grown to be the unquestioned leader in server computing. We have driven the industry forward and established the foundation for an entire generation of business applications. We have overcome significant competitive challenges. Over the past twenty years, the outstanding leadership from everyone involved in STB has made it a $15B business today.

We are now ready to build on our success and move forward into the era of cloud computing. Once again, Microsoft and our STB team are defining the future of business computing. In October, we completed an incredibly successful PDC where we detailed the future of the cloud, outlining Platform as a Service and demonstrating the rapid advancement of Windows Azure.

The best time to think about change is when you are in a position of strength, and that’s where we are today with STB – leading the server business, successful with our developer tools, and poised to lead the rapidly emerging cloud future. Bob Muglia and I have been talking about the overall business and what is needed to accelerate our growth. In this context, I have decided that now is the time to put new leadership in place for STB. This is simply recognition that all businesses go through cycles and need new and different talent to manage through those cycles. Bob has been a phenomenal partner throughout this process, and he and his leadership team have the right strategy in place.

In conjunction with this leadership change, Bob has decided to leave Microsoft this summer. He will continue to actively run STB as I conduct an internal and external search for the new leader. Bob will onboard the new leader and will also complete additional projects for me.

Bob has been a founder and leader of our server business from its earliest inception. He has led our Developer, Office, and Mobile Devices Divisions, and key parts of Windows NT and our Online Services business. I’ve worked with him in many capacities over the years and I’ve always appreciated his customer focus, technical depth, people leadership skills, and his positive energy. I want to thank Bob for his hard work, many accomplishments, and his focus on putting Microsoft first for 23 years.

We enter this new decade with STB providing the platform for today’s business solutions, and uniquely well-positioned to drive the future of cloud computing. I believe STB will continue to lead the industry with outstanding products and services for our customers and exceptional results for our business.

Thanks,
Steve

---

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110110/head-of-microsofts-servers-and-business-unit-leaving-this-summer/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20110110/myspace-plans-to-lay-off-550-to-600-employees-tomorrow/ http://allthingsd.com/20110110/myspace-plans-to-lay-off-550-to-600-employees-tomorrow/#comments Mon, 10 Jan 2011 11:00:39 +0000 Liz Gannes http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/?p=2183 Myspace, which has been struggling to revitalize itself, is expected to lay off 550 to 600 of its staff of just over 1,000 tomorrow, according to several sources.

NetworkEffect first reported news of the large-scale cuts at the end of December.

But now, the social-network-turned-entertainment-hub has set a date–January 11–and is working on finalizing the people it will let go, which will likely include a significant number of international employees.

The Beverly Hills, Calif.-based company will be touting the changes as a restructuring to shed “legacy” businesses and products.

Unfortunately, the context for that rationale is that Myspace is shedding a full half of its staff.

After the layoffs, the News Corp.-owned Myspace will turn its sights to sale options, as I also reported.

The company is primarily being shopped to private-equity buyers, although one intriguing possibility currently being raised within News Corp. is to try to sell Myspace to Yahoo.

Internally, Myspace staffers have been expecting layoffs in early January for some time, with the numbers circulating being as high as 70 percent of the company’s staff.

(Disclosure: News Corp. also owns this Web site.)

Update: Myspace did make major layoffs on January 11, though it reduced the number to about 500 staff cut.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110110/myspace-plans-to-lay-off-550-to-600-employees-tomorrow/feed/ 13 http://allthingsd.com/20110107/for-linkedin-first-comes-ipo-then-comes-marriage-to-google/ http://allthingsd.com/20110107/for-linkedin-first-comes-ipo-then-comes-marriage-to-google/#comments Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:57:08 +0000 Liz Gannes http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/?p=2069

It’s an open secret in Silicon Valley that LinkedIn, which is perpetually the topic of IPO speculation, is close to finally taking the public plunge.

Reuters reported this week that the company plans to go public in 2011. We’ve heard much the same and that the professional network will likely file papers within the next few months.

But, according to several sources, there are other interesting scenarios for LinkedIn in the coming year.

Top on the list is an acquisition, either right after a filing or even after a public offering.

The quick public-to-private transition is not unprecedented. And early in its history LinkedIn had been courted by bigger companies, including Dow Jones.

Of the potential acquirers these days, many point to Google as the most obvious suitor. (Microsoft would be another.)

Why would Google is interested in buying LinkedIn?

First, LinkedIn is a social service that’s clearly distinct from Facebook.

But would LinkedIn be the solution to Google’s existential questions about getting social?

That’s unclear, but the company does fit in on a thematic level with the search giant’s cloud-hosted enterprise product line. In addition, LinkedIn has created a central repository for corporate information and business people, which is already quite searchable but could be put to more uses.

How much is LinkedIn worth? Recent purchases of its stock have valued the company at more than $2 billion. Pushing the company toward the public markets would help set a price range up higher.

But things could get interesting very quickly if Google also managed to buy Twitter. Google has long eyed the real-time information network, which recently completed a big funding round that valued the company at $3.7 billion.

For under $10 billion then, Google could really shake things up in the social space.

Here’s LinkedIn’s standard comment on the IPO talk, which is no fun at all:

“We don’t comment on speculation. An IPO is one of many tactics that we could choose to pursue. We are focused on building our business and doing what is in the best long-term interest of LinkedIn members and shareholders.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110107/for-linkedin-first-comes-ipo-then-comes-marriage-to-google/feed/ 1