This morning, Yahoo said it had hired PayPal President Scott Thompson as its newest victim, oops, CEO.

(You can read my interview with him too, here.)

AllThingsD.com had reported the pending development last night — which is how we roll here.

Now we will roll into the conference call on the matter, and are hoping that the head of the lucrative eBay payments unit will make an appearance, given that he does not start until next week.

One piece of advice I will extend Thompson: I would refrain from cursing, as previous Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz did on her first outing. (She was fired in September, although not precisely for the cussing she so enjoyed partaking in.)

Here we go!

7:02 am: It’s on, with Thompson present.

Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock begins, and he is “very excited, very excited.”

I’d be very excited if Thompson talked and not Roy, who has been to this particular Yahoo CEO rodeo a few too many times before.

Bostock is making promises that this time it’s going to be different. Really!

He also notes that the company will continue its “strategic review” — but who knows what that means now.

And he thanks Tim Morse, the interim CEO who is moving back to the CFO job. (Agreed — nice work, Tim!)

7:06 am: Scott Thompson is on and is “just thrilled” to be the new Yahoo CEO.

I like his accent, which seems like he might be from Boston. He does look and sound like Cliff Clavin, the mailman guy at the Beantown bar from the television classic “Cheers.”

Except, given he has been the darkest of dark horses in this CEO race, nobody knew Thompson’s name.

Thompson is saying all the right stuff, about wanting to increase shareholder value and such.

He sounds so hopeful! Urgency! Thoughtfulness! A bright new morning at Yahoo!

I have been to this rodeo before too, but I am still hoping this time it’ll work.

Scott, if you let me down, I might cry, because you sound so nice.

7:09 am Q&A time already.

Congrats from the Wall Street analyst peanut gallery.

Then, it’s right into a question for Bostock, about the progress of the Asian assets deal.

Also, is Thompson too much of a technologist and not a media dude?

Bostock wants to talk about only Scott, but notes that there will be “no slowdown and no delay” in the Asian process. And Thompson will be all onboard when he comes on board, folks.

Bostock sounds tired, but starts to talk about how a “great customer experience” is the key to the advertising business. He notes that Thompson knows how to do this, hence he’ll be fantastic.

“I have every expectation he’ll be out there calling on advertisers,” says Bostock. I would hope so, given that is where Yahoo makes most of its lettuce.

Bostock is saying Yahoo has been “treading water” and now needs to swim fast. Treading water? I wonder who the top honcho at Yahoo has been while the company has been listlessly dangling its legs in the drink?

Roy — that’s who!

7:15 am: Another analyst asks about margins.

Thompson is not having any of it! He is polite when asking for time to get on the job to make proper statements.

But he does focus on the need to build “great, innovative” products. True, but Yahoo has been incredibly unable to do this of late.

Thompson gives no specifics, though. My big idea: I would steal the self-driving car from Google.

7:17 am: A question about what the core of Yahoo is, and about what lessons Thompson is bringing from his experience at PayPal.

Well, he has not met the team — literally. Yahoo’s board consulted almost no one in the top ranks of execs on this appointment.

But Thompson “suspects” there is talent there. Given the recent attrition, he’ll need a big Inspector Clouseau magnifying glass to find it!

From eBay’s PayPal, he says that the key was balancing the customer experience with network effect and, well, blah, blah, blah Internet-speak.

I am still thinking shoplifting the self-driving car is the bestest idea.

7:20 am: A question about Yahoo’s display business versus Google.

Thompson notes it is too early for him to say — though he had better say soon! — but notes that data is key. He is a well-known by-the-numbers guy, and that is clearly where we are going at Yahoo, now that he is the big dog.

Thus:

“The data these Internet businesses create, the ability to use analytical technology to build a better businesses for your customers … I feel certain that wealth of data is going to be exploitable for next generation products, next generation experiences … My instinct says down in that data we’re going to be able to find ways to compete and innovate that the world hasn’t seen yet.”

I am really liking this accent, which is almost lulling. And so polite! Sources tell me that being “collaborative” was a big goal in this hiring.

7:22 am: A question about the identity of Yahoo, and whether it should be public or private.

Thompson harps on the need for innovation, and hopes it will be the future.

“I would not be here if I didn’t think it was possible,” says Thompson.

Bostock takes the public/private question. Yahoo will be public, he declares! Mostly, because it would be too pricey to take private.

“It’s a moot point,” he says.

7:25 am: More questions about what Yahoo is.

Thompson declines to run off the rails on this dicey one, but he says he believes that Yahoo has great assets.

It does. It’s just that it has been crashed many times — by the people who just hired him — right into a wall.

Just sayin’ — a self-driving car would have done a better job.

7:27 am: A brain-drain question, and more on Asia and on mobile.

Bostock butts in again. He said that Thompson will not be distracted by that, and will concentrate on the core business. Hush up, Roy.

Thompson says that he looks forward to meeting the peeps of Yahoo. (’Cuz he has not, as yet!)

He also loves mobile — which Yahoo has largely borked.

7:32 am: A content strategy question. Early days, so Thompson is still keeping his yap shut.

In this, he’s like the anti-Bartz. Is this good? It’s certainly different.

He says again that, “I can’t wait to meet” everyone at Yahoo. Vice versa, because this dude came from left field.

Thompson promises that he will be a “sponge.”

He closes by noting that he is “genuinely excited,” and says he believes in Yahoo.

Indeed, when it comes to Yahoo, you definitely gotta have faith.

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

Oh joy — my boss is on Twitter. I guess I have to watch myself now.

Or not!

In fact, News Corp. potentate Rupert Murdoch, who happens to own this Web site (and more!), just inexplicably joined Twitter.

And, like any newbie, he has already had to retract a tweet.

The controversial 140-character-or-less utterance from @rupertmurdoch: “Maybe Brits have too many holidays for broke country!”

He quickly deleted the saucy tweet, apparently at the behest of his wife, Wendi Deng, who publicly tweeted to him on her Twitter-verified account, as if she were in private instead of chatting globally: “RUPERT!!! Delete tweet!”

Then, to all, she tweeted: “EVERY1 @rupertmurdoch was only having a joke pROMSIE!!!”

[UPDATE: My mistake: It was confirmed by Twitter that this Wendi Deng Twitter account was a fake one, even though it had been previously verified and marked so prominently by the online communications company. Whoever is writing the tweets also said they were spoofing Deng. I had relied on that verification as accurate, since I had assumed Twitter had confirmed both at the same time. Obviously, I am a dope and should not have.]

But Murdoch, already infected with the classic Twitter and-just-one-more-thing disease, then noted: “I’m getting killed for fooling around here and friends frightened what I may really say!”

Oh, joy, indeed — as I am counting on it.

Murdoch, controversies and all, has the kind of socially attuned personality tailor-made for Twitter, even though many point out that he has not been a fan of the Internet and interactive media in the past.

While I am no expert on that, that’s actually not been my experience in my encounters with the mogul at many of our D: All Things Digital conferences and elsewhere. In fact, he seems keen on understanding online media, even if it most certainly is not his first language, which has been print.

In fact, Murdoch’s tweets are listed as coming from his Apple iPad, which I have seen him carry like a precious jewel, another part of what became a truly interesting and complex relationship with Steve Jobs in the years before he died. (And it also appears as if Murdoch took his Twitter profile photo — posted here — from said iPad, judging from the angle.)

So let’s hope he keeps up the lively patter going forward — unlike many Twitter celebs who trail off after an initial burst of activity — as he pokes and prods the Twitterverse. A place, it should be noted, he once famously said would not make a good investment.

Still, so far, he seems to like the product, and will only more so, if he sticks to yet another tweet: “My resolutions, try to maintain humility and always curiosity. And of course diet!”

Because curious is what Twitter is all about — we can only hope the snaps of his dinners are not far behind.

Remember when Fortune magazine wrote in September that Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had reportedly bagged a bison as part of a “personal challenge” to eat only what he had killed?

Well, proof of that is hard to miss, now that the ginormous mounted head of said dead bison has been hung on the wall of a Facebook conference room used by the social networking site’s COO Sheryl Sandberg.

Zuckerberg placed it there recently as a prank, to surprise his top exec with the installation of the very hairy bison when she was away from Facebook’s Silicon Valley HQ.

And surprised she was when she got back and was faced with the creature, which pretty much takes up the whole room, as you can see above and below.

(And, let me just say on a personal level, like a digital version of the “Murder She Wrote” lady, solving the mystery of this geek-on-bison killing is a whole lot more satisfying than getting a pile of internal Yahoo memos.)

The bison has now been nicknamed Billy and also sports a Facebook-branded baseball cap and occasional hoodie — natch! (My suggestion if you want to use a dead beast metaphor most effectively here would be to clad it all in Google swag.)

While he never confirmed it, Zuckerberg had teased the crowd about the possibility of his hunting prowess at the f8 developers conference this fall in his keynote speech, displaying his Facebook page that had a picture of what he had tagged “Bison Burgers.”

In fact, it’s been quite a lot of bison for the famous entrepreneur since he felled the majestic beast. According to Wikipedia, bison usually weigh 700 to 2,200 pounds, but can be as much as 3,800 pounds. That’s a lot of burgers!

To get them, Zuckerberg learned the most humane approach and then shot the beast in California, after obtaining a hunting license and, presumably, a very big gun.

Clearly, he was serious when he told Fortune in May that “the only meat I’m eating is from animals I’ve killed myself.” Among the early victims, which grew in size, were a lobster, a chicken, a pig and a goat.

At this time, the Winklevii are still roaming the plains — and it would be illegal and just plain mean on Zuckerberg’s part to frag them any more than he already has.

So, he went for the bison, the next biggest beast in his cross-hairs.

Its head will be moved to Facebook’s new headquarters today along with the rest of the company, who will now work in spacious new digs.

Which, I am told, could easily fit a herd of elephants — but let’s not go there.

Two of the more interesting online media properties are apparently joining up for a year-end online idea festival.

The AOL-owned Huffington Post, and TED, the massive conference organization and online site dedicated to its offerings, will jointly feature 18 of the best onstage speeches from TED’s excellent year-round global events.

The idea-thon will be called “Best of TED 2011: A Countdown of 18 Groundbreaking Ideas to Reshape the World in 2012.” A post on the Huffington Post site noted that it will feature the popular TEDTalks and combine them with “new blog posts written by the people who delivered them, examining how their ideas were impacted by being shared with a global audience.”

Out of a total of 300 possible choices, the number of speeches has been narrowed down to 18, because TEDTalks are limited to no more than 18 minutes. The talks range over a wide array of topic areas, including science, art, music, tech and more.

In an interview today, HuffPost majordomo Arianna Huffington said that the aim was to spur thinking around big problems the world faces.

“We are trying to be people to rethink everything in a super engaging way,” she said. “That is what TED is famous for and we wanted to shed a lot of light on it.”

Here’s today’s, with game developer Kevin Slavin on “How Algorithms Shape Our World”:

Here’s a panel I did last week at the Privacy Identity Innovation conference on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley.

The panel was called “Social Sharing and the Data-Driven Economy.” And while that sounds a little dry, it was a lively session that included: Jim Adler, Chief Privacy Officer and GM, Data Systems at Intelius; David Glazer, director of engineering for Google+; Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners; and Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures.

All have deep experience in the social networking space and insights into its implications, so it’s a good video to watch if you’re interested in where it’s all going.

Enjoy:

Social Sharing and the Data-Driven Economy from Marc Licciardi on Vimeo.

How shall I put this as delicately as I am known for: So I went to AsiaD in Hong Kong and all I got was this lousy transient ischemic attack.

First off: I’m doing great, have recovered all functions completely, and have even had a couple of scoops while bedridden. (And, yes, I am a bad patient!)

In all seriousness, as it happened, a 14-hour plane flight sandwiched into a window seat with two big dudes sitting next to me, combined with a not-uncommon but undetected-until-now heart condition, seems to have spelled trouble for me this week and sent me right into a hospital here in China.

(Note to everyone: When they tell you to walk around on long-haul air trips and drink plenty of water, you might want to listen.)

Without going into the gory details, what I thought was jet lag and a bad migraine actually rendered me speechless for a few hours on Tuesday morning, and in need of some serious medical attention and recuperation, which is why I will not be appearing at our first international D conference tonight.

As you might imagine, I am pretty bummed, since I was looking forward to the event and interviewing the stellar list of speakers we are hosting. It is the first D in a decade that I am not part of, except in spirit.

But, as usual, I know that my fantastic partner Walt Mossberg and the amazing AllThingsD staff here and in the U.S. will do me proud and deliver yet another memorable D. ATD phenoms Peter Kafka and Ina Fried will take over my interviewing duties.

It all starts tonight, with an interview with Google Android chief Andy Rubin by Walt, so I hope you’ll be following it as closely as I will be from the Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital (no flowers, please!).

Speaking of my sickbed, here’s a little video I did from my room with a view, this time turning the lens on myself for once. The message, in living color and for those who care: I really am doing well and am as snarky as usual.

And, as you also might guess, I will be back in California this weekend and back to scooping as usual:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111019/what-not-to-do-in-hong-kong-trust-me-on-this-one/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111004/final-asiad-speakers-apples-phil-schiller-and-former-vp-al-gore/ http://allthingsd.com/20111004/final-asiad-speakers-apples-phil-schiller-and-former-vp-al-gore/#comments Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:15:32 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=128535

And then there was Schiller and Gore.

That would be Apple’s SVP of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller and former Vice President Al Gore, who round out the stellar list of speakers at our upcoming AsiaD conference.

Taking place from Oct. 19 to 21 in Hong Kong, the lineup is already impressive, with a mix of speakers from China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, as well as Silicon Valley and elsewhere.

The previously announced speakers include: Alibaba Group’s Jack Ma; Google Android head Andy Rubin; Twitter inventor and product guru, as well as Square co-founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey; Nvidia founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang; Asus Chairman Jonney Shih; Sony president and second-in-command Kazuo “Kaz” Hirai; Google+ guru Bradley Horowitz; Hollywood big shot Peter Chernin; Huawei’s North American R&D head John Roese; Microsoft’s Windows Phone head Andy Lees; and a panel of Silicon Valley start-up stars — Joyus’ Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, SurveyMonkey’s Dave Goldberg and Airbnb’s Brian Chesky; Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and Asia head Rose Tsou; LivingSocial’s Tim O’Shaughnessy, along with founders of two of its Asian units, Daniel Shin and Paul Srivorakul; Samsung mobile head Dr. Won-Pyo Hong; HTC CEO Peter Chou, who replaces Chairwoman Cher Wang.

Schiller, who reports to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook (and before that, Steve Jobs) is a member of the executive team of the tech icon, where he has worked for 17 years. He is responsible for a swath of Apple’s outward-facing businesses, including product marketing, developer relations and business marketing.

Today, in fact, he was onstage at Apple’s iPhone event, outlining some of its new product offerings. In addition, Apple just opened its first retail store in Hong Kong.

Gore, who had a memorable interview at the fourth D: All Things Digital conference in 2006, needs little introduction. The former VP and Nobel Peace Prize winner is now chairman of Current TV and also continues as a prominent environmental activist.

Gore is on the board of Apple, while also being a senior adviser to Google, which is a neat trick. At the same time, he is a partner in the famed Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins, and co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management, a partnership that is focused on sustainable investing.

And, as most people know, he knows a thing or two about the Internet.

Walt Mossberg and I could not think of two better people to add to the lineup we have for AsiaD, which has very few seats left.

See you in China in two weeks!

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111004/final-asiad-speakers-apples-phil-schiller-and-former-vp-al-gore/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110929/yahoos-bartz-also-gets-fired-from-fortunes-powerful-womens-list-while-hps-whitman-gets-hired/ http://allthingsd.com/20110929/yahoos-bartz-also-gets-fired-from-fortunes-powerful-womens-list-while-hps-whitman-gets-hired/#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2011 19:48:47 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=126578

Today, Fortune magazine released its annual “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” and, as usual, it had its share of tech execs on the list.

And off it, too — first and foremost being ousted Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, who was jacked completely from her 2010 No. 10 rank. She was No. 8 in 2009.

In her place: Newly designated Hewlett-Packard CEO and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman grabbed the No. 9 spot.

Also on the list: fast-rising IBM sales, marketing and strategy exec Ginni Rometty at No. 7; Xerox CEO Ursula Burns at No. 8; Oracle President and CFO Safra Catz at No. 11; Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg at No. 12; Google execs Susan Wojcicki and Marissa Mayer at No. 28 and No. 38, respectively; IBM North America GM Bridget Van Kralingen at No. 39; and Best Buy Americas President Shari Ballard.

Catz was the highest paid of the group, with $42.1 million in total 2010 compensation.

And also taken off this year: 2010 No. 14, HP’s Ann Livermore, who left her top job there, but still is on the tech giant’s board; 2010 No. 28 Cathie Lesjak, CFO of HP; 2010 No. 44 Lorrie Norrington, a former president at eBay; and Apple’s communications head Katie Cotton (she was robbed!), who was No. 50 in 2010.

The new list will be in the magazine on Monday, which is when a related conference will take place in Southern California. (I will also be in attendance there, along with other less powerful ladies.)

Whitman is scheduled to speak at the conference in the afternoon on Tuesday, October 4.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110929/yahoos-bartz-also-gets-fired-from-fortunes-powerful-womens-list-while-hps-whitman-gets-hired/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110922/get-ready-facebook-apps-will-only-require-asking-for-your-permission-once/ http://allthingsd.com/20110922/get-ready-facebook-apps-will-only-require-asking-for-your-permission-once/#comments Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:15:38 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=123773 Facebook is redesigning the way users interact with applications, which no doubt will raise concerns from those seeking privacy and prefer approving permissions one at a time.

At Facebook’s developer conference today in San Francisco, CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled what he is calling “real-time serendipity.”

The announcement will change the way that all users interact with applications, and what information will automatically appear in the new ticker feed that scrolls quickly down the right-hand side of the page.

Yesterday, Liz Gannes explained what Facebook’s new features mean and how they will promote a lot more sharing without clogging everyone’s main news feed.

Well, this is how over-sharing will begin to work.

Before today, applications commonly would request permission to publish a story to your feed one at a time. For example, “Zack just found a mushroom in Super Mario Brothers!”

The audience applauded the action since oftentimes these permissions can be slow and annoying, but without them, it will no doubt disturb people seeking privacy.

Now users will be asked to give permission up front when they start using an application, so all these little alerts will show up automatically. This is being called “frictionless” sharing.

Now when you listen to a song, it will appear in your feed that you have started using Spotify, or are playing a game.

CTO Bret Taylor explains, “Adding an app to your timeline is like wiring a real-time connection between your app and Facebook… There is no step two.”

Zuckerberg says this is the best way to discover new music.

Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek made an appearance on stage to applaud the actions, saying it will lead to more music discovery and ultimately more music sold.

This announcement is tied to Facebook’s announcement that it is now adding verbs to your feed, other than “like,” such as “read,” “hike,” and “want.”

So, on the “read” front, Zuckerberg announced relationships with Yahoo news, the Washington Post and The Daily, where users will be able to click on an item in the stream and read it within Facebook. “This has the potential to rethink the way we read news, but also the way the whole news industry works,” Zuckerberg said.

The open graph will also change the way games are played. “Social games are killing it,” he said. “They’ve been the most succesful apps on Facebook.”

So, from the activity feed on the right of the screen, you’ll be able to see that your friend just played a word in a game of Zynga’s Words with Friends. From the feed, you can click on the alert to open the game board and see the game play.

Facebook is working with a ton of game companies to enable the games for the open graph, including EA, lolapps, Wooga, Digital Chocolate, and Zynga.

Facebook clearly worked with developers in advance to create examples of using the open graph, but Taylor said other developers should be able to update their current applications in one afternoon.

Still don’t get it? Here’s a video:

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