The cellphone maker is hoping that its PlayStation phone, combined with several other new smartphones, will help lift the company to the top of the Android race as opposed to being just one of the pack.

In an interview at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Sony Ericsson CTO Jan Uddenfeldt told Mobilized that the company intends to capitalize on Sony technologies beyond gaming, particularly in the areas of screens and cameras.

“We think we have a really competitive edge,” said Uddenfeldt. The Xperia Arc, for example, uses the Bravia Engine that comes from Sony’s television heritage. “We will introduce 3-D technology and that will come from Sony, of course.

Uddenfeldt said that the company is now leading on Android as well, being the first company outside of Google itself to release a Gingerbread-based phone, with its Arc that was announced at CES. At Mobile World Congress, it announced the Xperia Play and two other phones.

“From being a little bit of a laggard when it comes to Android releases, we are now the leader,” he said. “We intend to really stay that way. Our intention is to be the number one player in this Android world.”

First and foremost, Uddenfeldt said the company has to be a leader when it comes to using both the latest version of Android and the newest chips and other hardware. “It is a technology race, so it is very important to be on the latest technology,” he said.

With Xperia Play, Uddenfeldt said, the company has something that takes advantage of the latest and greatest version of Android but also does something unique.

“We don’t see anyone else doing this in the near future,” he said. In addition to being PlayStation certified, it will also work with a lot of Android games, including many customized just for the Play.

“Most of the games that we will launch are actually non-Sony-based games, Android games,” he said, referring to deals with Gameloft and EA Sports to create Xperia Play-optimized titles. “There’s going to be like 50 games when we launch the product in March or April.”

Though most Americans wouldn’t know it, Sony Ericsson is a top-three global player in Android phones, with about 20 percent market share, he said. Until recently, Uddenfeldt said, the company would tend to introduce phones first in Europe and Asia, bringing them to the U.S. several months later–and that, he said, “was absolutely not the right strategy.”

“The U.S. is now the leading market,” he said. “The U.S. is the country where the most advanced products are being launched first. That was not the case two or three years ago.”

Sony Ericsson is realizing this and is changing, he said, noting that Verizon will be among the first carriers to offer the Play. “We will work very closely with AT&T in launching different products as well,” he added.

The company is also shifting more of its design and engineering to the U.S., Uddenfeldt said, noting that the Redwood Shores, Calif., office where he works, established just two years ago, now has about 300 workers doing everything from product design and engineering to business development.

“It’s the right place to be,” he said. “We have Android there. We have Facebook.”

Uddenfeldt has a unique perspective, having been with Sony Ericsson for only six months but at the same time being a 30-year Ericsson veteran and being based in Silicon Valley for the past several years. He’s also not afraid to admit that the company has made mistakes, including in the past year as it tried to move from proprietary Walkman and Cybershot phones to a fully Android-based lineup.

“I don’t think Sony Ericsson fully understood the importance of being on the latest Android release,” he said. “That kind of hindered a little bit the growth of the company during last year.”

However, he said, with the move to Android, the company has stemmed its losses and has now had four profitable quarters. This year, he said, it is time for growth.

Nokia has already announced the key piece of its strategy–a shift to Windows Phone for future smartphones. Now the company is set to talk about the financial implications of that and go through the rest of its strategy, which includes a mix of Symbian and even a dash of MeeGo.

The investor event is scheduled to start shortly and due to run until about 2 pm London time. Mobilized will have live coverage, providing our battery holds out. I’ll try to mention only the high points, however. Mobilized loves numbers, but it is awfully early for a whole lot of financial speak, especially for the U.S. insomniacs tuning in.

12:02 pm: Still waiting for things to get going. But if you really want something to do, we have plenty of earlier coverage, including the press conference and the YouTube video of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, as well as a chat with Elop on how he made his big decision.

12:05 pm: Okay, things are getting going as Elop takes the stage (the same one as the earlier press conference.

12:06 pm: Elop is reviewing things. Lots of talk of both challenges and gems. If you read his memo, or anything else he’s said recently, you have heard this.

Battle of devices to war of ecosystems, etc. Mobilized has this part memorized.

12:09 pm: Smartphone strategy is just one piece.

Reviewing the three alternatives that Elop considered–MeeGo, Android or some partnership with Microsoft.

As for Google, Elop says it is the case there are some advantages for that approach.

“There’s something happening there. There’s no denying that.”

However, Elop says the company was worried it would be late and be just one of many, and was not sure how it could leverage assets like its Navteq location-based services.

“Our sense was differentiation could be a pretty big challenge,” Elop says. “The risk for commoditization would increase dramatically.”

Feels profit would have eventually moved to Google, with handsets becoming a commodity.

“It felt a little bit like giving up and not enough like fighting back,” Elop says.

12:12 pm: As for Microsoft, Elop says both companies are bringing something to the table.

As expected, Elop is characterizing this as more strategic than just taking a license to Windows Phone. Talking about Nokia services like mapping, local advertising and other things that Nokia can bring to the table.

“It’s far more interesting than a simple licensing deal,” Elop says. This was the only strategy that makes it a three horse race with Google and Apple.

Elop says he is convinced that Nokia will be able to differentiate within the Windows Phone ecosystem on a sustainable basis.

12:15 pm: There were some challenges and potential disadvantages, he acknowledges.

Top among these is the fact that Windows Phone 7 is new on the market.

“It’s early,” he says. “Will it succeed?”

12:17 pm: Also, there is the issue of being locked in or a lack of control. Elop does not disclose terms but says the company has flexibility and “substantial control” over the future of the ecosystem.

“This is not your mother’s OEM deal with Microsoft,” Elop says.

12:17 pm: Elop says the deal is at the “term sheet” stage, noting that the companies have yet to sign the “definitive agreement.”

12:18 pm: Already the engineers are working through, and Elop says this deal will allow Nokia to move far faster than it has in recent years.

12:18 pm: He’s also making the cost-saving argument, saying Nokia can focus its investment, which he acknowledges hasn’t been getting the return it should.

Elop earlier acknowledged that the company expects significant cost savings from the move as well as substantial workforce reductions.

“Bottom line: Products that are more competitive,” he says.

12:22 pm: Operators are excited by a third viable option, Elop says.

“A two-horse race is not a satisfactory [situation] for operators,” Elop says.

Elop says that Microsoft-Nokia will be operator-friendly, as compared with Google and Apple.

12:24 pm: Elop talking about differentiation–a key concern of analysts and investors.

Elop talks about Windows Phone as offering differentiation form Apple and Google, but also insisting that Nokia has the assets and business terms it needs to stand out from other Windows Phones. He focuses on camera technologies and “unique relationship.”

Stresses again that this is not a standard handset maker agreement. But he also says that just because Nokia can change lots of things within Windows Phone, doesn’t mean it should.

Nokia, he says, must “resist the temptation to customize just for the sake of customization.”

12:27 pm: Now talking about Symbian. For those that missed it, Elop reiterates this is a transition strategy, but adds that the company still expects to sell 150 million more Symbian devices before that transition is complete.

12:29 pm: Strategy is more than just smartphones. He wants the company to be a leading force in connecting the next billion people to the Internet via phones in emerging markets. “The market for feature phones is pushing down the price curve and that is an opportunity for Nokia.”

Nokia will do incremental work in that area–things like Nokia Money for people that don’t have a bank account or telephone. Another, Nokia Life Tools, helps connect, say, farmers to market information.

This area is still a target for innovation, he says, but it also faces competition from Chinese-made phones based on MediaTek chipsets.

Elop says that the company must also plan for the future so that it can be disruptive down the road. “As they say in Finland, it is time to shoot ahead of the duck,” he says.

That’s where MeeGo comes in–the mobile version of Linux that until recently was seen as Nokia’s future. Nokia said that team will ship a phone later this year and then see where the future is headed.

12:35 pm: Want to point out this New York Times article that said both Google and Microsoft were offering hundreds of millions of dollars in engineering and marketing support in order to woo Nokia.

12:36 pm: Elop now talking about cost cuts, including significant job reductions.

“We are not announcing how many and in what country,” Elop says, but adds that the company wants to move quickly on that front.

He says that he has made changes to the business to ensure speed, including leadership structure changes aimed at ensuring accountability. “If things go well today, I’ll be the CEO.”

Of note, the two of the three business unit leaders are women–Mary McDowell, who will lead lower-end phones, and Jo Harlow, who will head the smartphone business.

12:40 pm: Nokia looking for a new leader for its services and developer division. The acting head is Tero Ojanpera, but he will soon be looking for other opportunities within Nokia, Elop says.

Also of note, Louise Pentland, who is head of the legal and intellectual property unit, is being elevated to the top leadership team.

“We have one of the strongest patent portfolios out there” he says, adding that he would encourage all players to take a license to said patents. (hear that, Apple?)

New leader of North American sales unit to be named in coming days.

“We are creating a different industry,” Elop says in closing his introductory remarks.

12:44 pm: Elop Brings on CFO Timo Ihamuotila to go through the numbers.

12:46 pm: Ihamuotila acknowledged Nokia didn’t meet the targets it had set out to achieve at its last financial analyst day.

“Our execution did not cut it.” he says.

12:49 pm: Ah, Now on to the good stuff. CFO talking financial impact from Microsoft deal. Says should be good over the long term.

Slide shows royalty payments to Microsoft causing lower gross margins, but says sales and marketing support from Microsoft should lower operating expenses.

“We will receive substantial go-to market support from Microsoft,” he says, without giving numbers.

12:52 pm: Ihamuotila talking now about the company’s long-term targets for devices and services period “after the transition period.”

Device sales to grow faster than the market, with operating margins of 10 percent or more–but this is only after the transition period, which the company has said could last this year and next.

Significant uncertainties in this period.

Ihamuotila shows a slide showing Symbian sales slowly giving way to Windows Phone with lower-end mobile phones remaining about half of sales.

12:57 pm: Ihamuotila shows chart of how it expects to cut R&D with the company investing less in services, more in entry-level phones and far less on MeeGo, though still some. The investment in Symbian will be replaced by a far lower investment in Windows Phone R&D. Overall, R&D should be a fraction of what it was.

1:02 pm: Over long term, Ihamuotila says that the Microsoft deal should help significantly boost the company’s Navteq navigation business.

“We think this new strategy is the best way to maximize long-term value, both to our shareholders and to other stakeholders,” Ihamuotila says.

On to Q&A for financial analysts.

1:03 pm: Question on how Nokia will keep employees motivated, something else and when to expect the first Windows Phone.

“Thanks for the one question” Elop quips, before addressing them in turn.

Elop says that the key is on focused innovation so they see the fresh opportunities (at least for the ones who don’t get cut by the large workforce reductions also promised).

He also pointed to his sharply worded memo, which he said was designed to convey the message that “Here is the truth, we’re making decisions and we’re moving forward.”

Won’t give date on first Windows Phone, but says again that the move will allow a substantially faster pace than the company was on with Symbian.

1:07 pm: Elop is asked about some of the challenges with Microsoft and Nokia each responsible for different pieces of software and services, as opposed to Google and Apple, where things are more integrated.

“We wanted to drive operational simplicity,” Elop says, adding that the companies talked about other arrangements, though not a full-on acquisition. The companies, Elop says, decided not to go with the operational complexity of a joint venture.

1:10 pm: Elop says Nokia has opportunities to differentiate from other Windows Phone devices, but adds it is in Nokia’s interest for there to be other strong handset players supporting Windows Phone.

“We’ve got to make Windows Phone successful,” he says.

Nokia’s mapping technology, he says, will benefit rivals like Samsung and HTC. “We’re willing to make those trades,” Elop says.

1:11 pm: Elop is asked why he feels comfortable with a “bet the farm” strategy on Microsoft, a company he clearly knows well.

Elop points out that it was harder to see how Microsoft would rapidly be successful without someone like Nokia.

“But this is now different,” he says, adding that this is now an ecosystem that Microsoft and Nokia are jointly helping to build.

Mapping and local advertising were not part of the ecosystem before the Nokia-Microsoft partnership.

As for impact of the transition, it’s hard to say, Elop says. Symbian is strong in some places where Apple and Google are present today.

1:14 pm: Asked whether Nokia will remain profitable during the transition. “It’s hard to say financially, and I am not going to provide any further specific guidance.”

1:17 pm: Elop won’t say when the first Windows Phone will ship, but lots and lots by next year at various price points.

“We’ll be shipping in volume in 2012,” he says.

1:20 pm: Another two-parter! 1) Why will Symbian be supported if it is transitioning away? 2) Why does Nokia think it will be able to have double-digit operating margins using someone else’s platform?

Elop: They recognize Symbian is key to Nokia being able to transition, but he agrees that consumers will have to want the Symbian phones Nokia builds. CFO also notes that less than half of Symbian phones are sold through carriers.

As for question on margins, CFO says the company has opportunities for higher margins around services and advertising.

1:23 pm: Asked about how the company is confident Windows Phone can get to lower prices, Elop says that was a key consideration, down to which chipsets will be supported, etc.

Between the two companies there was a lot of work to get a high degree of confidence.

“That was a critical evaluation,” he says.

That said, Elop agrees there is a smartphone market below Windows Phone that Nokia will manage with an evolution of today’s Series 30 and Series 40 operating systems.

1:31 pm: Elop: Some of the hardware designs that would have run MeeGo or Symbian will be repurposed for Windows Phone. Some devices may come out with similar models for both Windows Phone and Symbian.

1:32 pm: Question again on who pays whom in Microsoft-Nokia. Is there a lump payment from Microsoft?

Elop doesn’t answer and instead refers to slide that shows opportunities on both sides. Saying value going both ways. As for Microsoft’s payments, “That is a significant part of the conversation,” Elop says.

1:35 pm: Two good questions: Can Windows Phone be put on any current devices? What happens to QT development layer that Nokia bought and had sought to unify developer approach?

Elop: It’s not as simple as plugging in and downloading on to current phones, though some technologies can be repurposed.

QT continues to be the development for Symbian and lone MeeGo device. Also could have a role on low-end devices.

However, Elop says, “We are not proposing a QT on Windows Phone” approach. Adding another development environment could fork the ecosystem, which is not good for Nokia or Windows Phone, he says. Development environment for Windows Phone will be Silverlight and XNA–Microsoft’s current tools.

1:38 pm: Asked about branding, he says in some cases you will see both Microsoft and Nokia brands. Examples could include Nokia Search powered by Bing or Bing maps powered by Nokia, though he says those are examples and not final choices.

1:39 pm: Asking about tablets, questioner points out that Nokia had an early lead in tablets, but Apple “stole the show.”

“We are not announcing today a specific tablet strategy,” he reiterates, saying that Microsoft creates opportunities.

Elop notes that there are rumors of Windows Phone and Windows that could power tablets.

“We could do that,” he says. “We might do that.”

Also an opportunity for Nokia to step back into the game using its own software.

1:41 pm: Elop wrapping up.

“We have set a new course for Nokia,” he says, adding that despite what has been written, Nokia is still an incredibly powerful company, though perhaps not in North America. “Today we are diving forward” he says. “We have a strong partner in Microsoft who is incented as are we in making this successful.”

Investor guy closes by reminding there were forward-looking statements. He’s still going as people leave the room.

COMPLETE COVERAGE:

• Nokia’s Stephen Elop Talks to Mobilized About the Big Microsoft Deal (Video)
• Massive Layoffs Expected at Nokia
• Nokia’s Microsoft Partnership: Does the New Strategy Add Up?
• Live From the Nokia-Microsoft Press Conference: It’s a Windows Phone World After All
• More From Nokia: Forecast Gets Cloudy, Plus Expected Executive Changes
• Nokia-Microsoft: What Steve Ballmer and Stephen Elop Have to Say in Their Joint Letter
• Nokia Confirms Microsoft Partnership With YouTube Video
• R&D Spending: Nokia Vs. Apple Shows Size Doesn’t Matter
• Not Seeing Much Return on That Massive R&D Spend, Are You, Nokia?
• Nokia: Big and Slow

After he was appointed the new president of Microsoft’s important Server and Tools Division from his top engineering post at its come-from-behind Bing search unit, Satya Nadella now finds himself a leader of a business that also needs to keep catching up.

In a wide-ranging interview with BoomTown yesterday, Nadella talked about both his four-year stint at Bing and how he looked forward to the challenges of his new job.

Nadella got the nod, he said, after CEO Steve Ballmer went through a process of what was Microsoft’s “position in this business and a certain set [of ideas] about who should come in next.”

Interestingly, almost 20 years earlier, after working at Sun Microsystems, Nadella had started in the same area of Microsoft he will now lead.

Quoting the famous T.S. Eliot lines–”We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time”–Nadella was an evangelist for Windows NT.

Eventually, his career brought him to the search arena, most recently to the most aggressive and expensive effort yet by Microsoft with Bing to try to eat into the massive and lucrative lead of Google.

“Those were fairly dark days for us,” noted Nadella, pointing out that any market share gains by Microsoft seemed impossible.

But, according to numerous surveys, it has been only uphill for Bing, especially after it started to really spend and also inked its search and online advertising deal with Yahoo, a partnership that Nadella was a key player in striking.

“We have, depending on which one you look at, grown five share points,” he said. “But behind that, I am most proud of launching a brand and a product that is delivering.”

Of the recent controversy in which Google accused Bing of lifting its results, Nadella borrows another quote, this time from Gandhi.

“‘First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win,’” he said, noting Bing has always said it uses toolbar and other public user data. “The real debate is whether we are better.”

In any case, as Nadella sees it, the Bing experience has helped him prepare for his new job, noting he was in charge of building a 200,000-machine grid to serve the various online services at Microsoft.

“I have been CIO of a cloud platform where there are only two of that size,” he said. “So, I know what it is like to be a customer of those services.”

His hope for his next job, he said, is to make it the next-generation cloud platform, while also serving the needs of current customers with its current product.

‘We have a product and brand that are really foundational, but there is a threshold to it,” Nadella said. “We have to serve the needs of our existing customers, while also moving them to the cloud and building a next-generation offering.”

At Bing, he said, “every day is upside, since we came from so far behind, whereas in server and tools, we are the leader.”

Big competitors are different and the same too, when it comes to the cloud.

“Amazon has done a good job, but not in the same game as us,” said Nadella, ticking off Google, Oracle and VMware as rivals in different ways too. “It’s a nascent marketplace.”

Acquisitions, he said, will also be important. “We are always looking at what opportunities there are,” he said.

His overall view?

“I think that the challenge is how to operate in a space where we have a $15-plus-billion-dollar business and we know the paradigm is shifting and managing that shift where we are the disruptors and also the leaders at the same time.”

In other words, between a rock and a hard place, a place Nadella knows well from Bing.

“We can’t be stuck in current paradigm,” he said. “And we can’t shoot too far ahead of ourselves either.”

To get a good sense of his style as he moves from consumers to enterprise, here’s a video interview I did with Nadella back in mid-2009, just after the Microsoft search deal, and another I did this past summer at one of his regular search updates for the media.

Satya Nadella (pictured here), the Microsoft exec who has been in charge of its Bing search effort, has been promoted to president of its Server and Tools Business.

He replaces Bob Muglia, a longtime exec who was ousted recently in CEO Steve Ballmer’s effort to shake things up at the company and stress the company’s technical expertise.

A 19-year Microsoft veteran, Nadella has most recently led the engineering efforts as an SVP in the Online Services Division, which includes Bing, the MSN portal and online advertising efforts.

“Nadella brings deep engineering and online services knowledge to $15 billion business,” said a Microsoft press release just issued.

In related news, Amitabh Srivastava, the SVP in the Server and Cloud Division who runs its Windows Azure cloud and Windows Server efforts, will leave the company. He was considered a leading internal candidate for the top job in the Server and Tools Business that Nadella got.

Both internal and external execs were eyed for the job, but it’s likely Nadella got it because of his early career in the server arena at Microsoft, as well as his experience running one of the biggest and most complex cloud efforts on the Web at Bing.

Indeed, though his efforts were costly and perhaps even futile, Nadella has had some success in innovating search for Microsoft with Bing, including delivering a well-regarded and quickly evolving product and improving market share.

He also was key in striking Microsoft’s advertising and search partnership with Yahoo.

He will have his hands full running the Server and Tools Business, which is critical to the company’s future and its cloud computing aspirations.

Microsoft said Nadella will be in charge of strategy, engineering, marketing and product development for Microsoft’s server, tools and cloud platform efforts.

“This includes developing the technology road map and vision to drive adoption of the company’s products, tools and services, and delivering the company’s next generation of cloud solutions for business customers,” Microsoft said.

Delivering such cloudtastic results will be a tall order, of course.

According to a recent post by New Enterprise’s Arik Hesseldahl:

“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.”

Here is the official press release, but more to come:

Microsoft Appoints Satya Nadella as President of Server and Tools Business

REDMOND, Wash.–Feb. 9, 2011–Microsoft Corp. today promoted Senior Vice President Satya Nadella to president of Microsoft’s Server and Tools Business.

“We’re already making strong traction across our Server and Tools Business by embracing cloud services,” said Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer. “Satya has deep experience in both our server business and online services, which will help accelerate our momentum while setting the course to deliver the cloud computing scenarios of the future.”

As president of the Server and Tools Business, Nadella will oversee the overall strategy, engineering, marketing and product development for Microsoft’s server, tools and cloud platform efforts. This includes developing the technology road map and vision to drive adoption of the company’s products, tools and services, and delivering the company’s next generation of cloud solutions for business customers.

“Our server and tools business is one of the fastest growing and most profitable businesses at Microsoft,” Nadella said. “I see great opportunity for Microsoft to grow the business and also lead the way in the transformation of enterprise IT. I’m excited to work with such a high-caliber team to chart the path for our continued success today and growth in the future.”

Nadella, 43, has been with the company for 19 years and most recently led the engineering efforts in the Online Services Division, which includes overseeing the technical strategy for one of the largest cloud infrastructures in the world, spanning the company’s Search, Portal and Advertising platforms.

Nadella joined the Online Services Division in April 2007, and was instrumental in leading the technical efforts for several critical milestones such as the launch of Bing, new releases of MSN, and the integration of Yahoo! across Bing and adCenter. Under his leadership, the Online Services Division has also built a strong engineering organization by attracting some of the most experienced technical minds from within Microsoft and across the industry.

Before joining the Online Services Division, Nadella led Microsoft Business Solutions, which focuses on the Microsoft Dynamics line of enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management products, and spent several years leading engineering efforts in Microsoft’s Server Group.

As announced in January 2011, Bob Muglia, previously president of the Server and Tools Business, will leave the company this summer. Muglia will work with Nadella as he transitions to his new role leading the Server and Tools Business.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110209/bing-overlord-satya-nadella-promoted-to-president-of-server-and-tools-at-microsoft/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20110207/linkedin-hires-vp-engineering-from-google/ http://allthingsd.com/20110207/linkedin-hires-vp-engineering-from-google/#comments Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:02:03 +0000 Liz Gannes http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/?p=3283 Kevin Scott, formerly an engineering director and manager at Google, both before and after its acquisition of AdMob (where he was VP of engineering and operations), has joined LinkedIn as VP of engineering.

The company said Scott will start today, reporting to David Henke, SVP of operations and engineering, and will be assigned to engineering new products and services.

Scott’s extremely thorough LinkedIn profile says he has expertise in “machine learning, distributed algorithms, large-scale distributed systems, information retrieval, compilers, programming languages, internet advertising and engineering management.”

Late last month, LinkedIn filed to go public in an offering worth $175 million. The company said it had 990 full-time employees as of the end of last year.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110207/linkedin-hires-vp-engineering-from-google/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20110204/exclusive-huffpos-eric-hippeau-stepping-down-from-yahoo-board-as-akamais-david-kenny-steps-in/ http://allthingsd.com/20110204/exclusive-huffpos-eric-hippeau-stepping-down-from-yahoo-board-as-akamais-david-kenny-steps-in/#comments Sat, 05 Feb 2011 00:32:53 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=40300

Eric Hippeau (pictured here), longtime Yahoo board member and one of its earliest investors, will be stepping down as a director, according to sources close to the situation.

In a related move, sources said Akamai President David Kenny will be joining the board of the Internet giant.

The changes become official at Yahoo’s regular board meeting on Tuesday, although Hippeau will not step down until the summer.

Rather than quit immediately, as previous board members have, he will not stand for election at its annual shareholder meeting in June.

The departure of Hippeau and the arrival of Kenny comes at a critical time for Yahoo, which has been under great pressure from investors to revive its growth and re-ignite innovation in the face of more nimble competitors.

Under CEO Carol Bartz, the company is still in the midst of a turnaround, and Wall Street has been losing patience with her and also its somewhat ineffectual board.

Hippeau has been on that board since 1996, which is approximately 132 years in Internet time.

The longtime Web investor and publisher–at Softbank and Ziff-Davis–has a lot of online experience.

Sources said Hippeau felt he had been on the board long enough and it was time to go. It has certainly been a wild ride, from insane Web 1.0 hypergrowth to a bruising takeover fight with Microsoft.

The addition of Kenny to the board is a welcome one. As BoomTown has previously reported, Yahoo had tried to bring him on before and he declined.

With both tech and advertising experience, Kenny is also a natural possibility for a board leader, as well as a potential top exec if Yahoo keeps going sideways.

According to his bio at Akamai, which he joined last fall, he is “responsible for leading Akamai’s business operations, including the company’s product groups; global sales, services, and marketing; engineering; and networks and operations.”

Before Akamai, he ran VivaKi and was a member of the management board of its parent, Publicis Groupe, the huge ad and marketing company.

Kenny ran Publicis’s overall digital and interactive strategy. He came to Publicis after it bought Digitas, where he was chairman and CEO.

Before that, the Harvard Business School graduate worked at consulting firm Bain & Company and also in marketing and strategy at General Motors.

A Yahoo spokeswoman declined to comment and Hippeau did not respond to an email query. And an email to my new bestest friend Kenny also got no response.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110204/exclusive-huffpos-eric-hippeau-stepping-down-from-yahoo-board-as-akamais-david-kenny-steps-in/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20110203/googles-bing-attack-has-larry-page-written-all-over-it/ http://allthingsd.com/20110203/googles-bing-attack-has-larry-page-written-all-over-it/#comments Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:00:42 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=40195 Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

While he won’t officially take over as CEO of Google until April, the recent full-frontal slapfest on Microsoft’s Bing search engine for shoplifting results from the search giant was so Larry Page in tone and temperament that it brought back memories from many years ago when I covered Google more closely.

Like the time in 2004 when he railed on the investment banking system as Google considered its IPO. Or, a meeting in 2005 when Page aggressively argued minutiae about the size of Google’s index size after Yahoo claimed its data trove was bigger.

And my ears are still ringing from a Googleplex lunch we had in the midst of his ire over a 2005 story on CNET that chronicled a lot of personal information about CEO Eric Schmidt, trying to show how much data was easily available on Google.

Page thought it best to be on the offensive and attack the report as a privacy violation, while I took the position that it was accurate and fair game and you don’t argue with the press and win.

It’s unlikely Page remembers any of this, but I do because I kept notes as part of my ongoing assessment of his characteristics as an Internet leader.

In fact, after our first interview in 2001, my notes on the encounter had this one line underlined and in all caps:

LARRY PAGE=BILL GATES.

It was not meant as an insult, but I can tell you I never wrote such a note about Page’s co-founder, the jokey and affable Sergey Brin.

Even then, Gates had a fearsome reputation as a manically competitive exec, a cutting manner to those not as smart as he clearly is and a reputation as a very tough and often eviscerating boss. (And all that was also my experience whenever I was interviewing him.)

While much wonkier, friendlier and more of a sensitive new-aged male, Page, it seemed to me, had the exact same obvious drive and aggression as Gates.

I stopped covering Google as closely years later–for personal reasons (see disclosure above)–and, thus, largely fell out of regular touch with Page.

But in reading the tough quotes and later blog post by Amit Singhal–quite possibly the sweetest dude at Google–accusing Bing of cheating, it felt like he was channeling Page’s very clear and nerdily indignant voice again.

In a nutshell: We have data to prove Microsoft’s stealing. Look at our detailed proof from our complex sting. We are outraged by this violation of geek code. Don’t you lay people get it?!?

I would wager that we’re about to see a lot more of this pugnacious, in-your-face tone from Google under Page’s leadership, which could have far-reaching implications for the company.

While I have no idea if it was his decision to let loose the dogs of algo-war on Microsoft, many with knowledge of how Google manages its public persona observed to me this week that this was just the kind of popping off that the outgoing Schmidt often tried to mitigate and soften.

But such bravado will play well with Google’s elite and pampered engineering corps in Silicon Valley.

And, in any case, PR considerations have never really been the point for Page, who cares not for how it might come off in the media (which he largely disdains anyway).

Which is to say like a temper tantrum of a very smart and very gifted child, who is probably largely right, but should not be quite so exercised given the level of violation.

No matter, since Page likely still lives and breathes data and algorithms and the Spock-like application of information.

It’s the rest of us who are illogical.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110203/googles-bing-attack-has-larry-page-written-all-over-it/feed/ 32 http://allthingsd.com/20110202/live-talking-tablet-from-googles-honeycomb-event/ http://allthingsd.com/20110202/live-talking-tablet-from-googles-honeycomb-event/#comments Wed, 02 Feb 2011 17:59:41 +0000 Ina Fried http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/?p=3377 Although we brought you some of the fun ahead of time, Mobilized is on hand at the Googleplex on Wednesday morning to bring you live coverage of the Honeycomb event starting at 10 am PT.

For those who need a quick recap, Honeycomb, a.k.a. version 3.0 of Android, is designed with tablets in mind and features improved multitouch and notifications, as well as a new user interface and the ability to have applications span multiple panes.

Here’s the liveblog, and there’s a video at the bottom.

10:00 am: Things are just about to get underway here. Everyone has been let in and is in their seats. Presumably to avoid recent issues, we’ve been asked not to use wireless hotspots but, thankfully, there is Google-provided Wi-Fi.

10:02 am: Andy Rubin takes the stage and is welcoming folks. Rubin promises a demo of Motorola Xoom and then we’re going to hear about the future of Android Market.

10:03 am: Rubin on Android: It’s open source. “We consider ourselves the shepherd of it,” he said, noting how many cool Android products he saw at last month’s Consumer Electronics Show.

“With open source, you don’t really know what is going to happen. All the innovation doesn’t happen in this building.”

10:04 am: Rubin is talking about the central role of the cloud, noting that in the future we’ll see more integration between phones and tablets and Google TV (which is also based on Android).

10:05 am: Now up, Hugo Barra, head of Android products, to show off Honeycomb.

10:06 am: First shots of Honeycomb. The bottom left corner has a home button, a back button and a button that brings up recently used items. The bottom left has a clock and various notifications.

“The rest of the screen is dedicated to applications,” Barra says.

10:08 am: Notifications are designed to be non-intrusive, like on phones, but use the extra real estate to provide a bit more information, such as the photo of the person sending an instant message.

In another example, while a music app is active, one can play or pause music from the notification tray.

10:10 am: The notification area also provides quick access to settings such as Airplane mode and to lock the screen orientation.

Barra said that existing apps that follow Android guidelines should run well without modification. Demos existing version of Fruit Ninja, developed before Honeycomb, running well on the tablet.

10:11 am: Of course, Google wants to encourage Honeycomb-specific apps as well. To do that, Google added a number of new tools and concepts, such as fragments, which let apps be split into various panes. Barra is demoing how this works in a Gmail app.

10:12 am: There’s also improved drag-and-drop capabilities in Honeycomb, as well as an application bar at the top that brings common application commands to the forefront.

10:14 am: Barra says that the company spent a lot of time optimizing performance, particularly around 2-D and 3-D graphics.

Existing 2-D graphics code can be hardware accelerated with just a line of code, while a new framework has been added to speed up animations.

There’s also a new engine, called RenderScript, aimed at 3-D graphics. Barra shows this in action in YouTube carousel and turning pages in Google Books.

10:17 am: Barra also shows 3-D in action in Google Body–kind of like Google Maps for the human body.

Now he brings up a game developer to show. Thomas Williamson, CEO of some game maker whose name I didn’t catch, shows Monster Madness, a PS3 game being brought over to Android.

10:21 am: Demo of new camera app, with new design taking advantage of added screen real estate.

Honeycomb supports video chat natively.

They’ve added image stabilization to video chat to improve quality and save bandwidth.

10:23 am: Barra is trying to demo video chat, but can’t find “lady killer” whom he was trying to chat with. Perhaps that user is out, killing ladies.

Decides to chat with his friend Anand instead.

“Sorry I’m not lady killer,” Anand says. “I’m not bad with the ladies, though.”

10:24 am: Now invites CNN exec to show an app they have built for Honeycomb.

10:25 am: Louis Gump, VP of mobile, showing new tablet version of its app for Android. It uses fragments to allow users to choose categories, dive in and swipe from one place to another.

“This is an incredibly immersive experience,” Gump says. “Consumers love it.”

The app includes audio and live video.

10:28 am: It adds iReport for the tablet, allowing people to view user-generated content as well as capture their own photos and videos and upload them from within the app.

10:31 am: Okay, we’re still trying to reach “lady killer” but moving on nonetheless.

10:32 am: Demo of new Android market features with Chris Yerga, an engineering lead at Google.

10:34 am: Release of Android market Web store. It’s the new way for users to get applications on their devices. Previously had to do so only from the Android device. Now users can go to browser.

From the Web, users can purchase and have the app installed directly on their Android devices.

10:35 am: For those who had “cloud-based Android Market” in their Honeycomb Bingo, please mark your square now. (Google Music, anyone?)

10:37 am: Allows you to install app on one or all of one’s compatible Android devices. Moving to the Web allows more graphics and a better sense of the Apps, Yerga says.

He demos buying an app, putting it “on his Google corporate credit card.”

Android Market Web site also makes it easier for friends to share and recommend apps. Email can take a link direct to that app’s page in the store.

In addition to screenshots, developers can post a YouTube video of their app in action.

There’s also a “tweet” button for each app that creates a deep link to that app in the market.

If you are on a computer, the link takes you to a Web market; from an Android device it will take you to the built-in Android Market client.

10:43 am: Okay, if you had “automagically” in your Honeycomb Bingo card, you can mark that one as well.

Next time, perhaps Mobilized will make up actual Bingo cards.

10:44 am: Developers will also have the option to price their app for different currencies. Currently, apps are priced in one currency and then converted.

This will be rolled out in phases, Yerga says.

(Still no “lady killer,” Yerga notes.)

10:45 am: Support for in-app purchases also coming to Android via a new software development kit.

10:47 am: A Disney Mobile rep is up talking about its Android plans. “That number is about to get a lot bigger,” the rep says, noting that the company is bringing Radio Disney and two other apps to Android.

Also bringing Jelly Car, a physics game, as well as Tap Tap Revenge, the company’s biggest mobile title.

The company waited for in-app purchases to be available on Android before porting Tap Tap Revenge, says Disney Mobile exec Bart Decrem.

10:52 am: That allows you to, say, download the latest track from Bruno Mars, who is apparently a really big deal. (Mobilized is old and has to be told who is big these days.)

10:53 am: Yerga is back. Developer code being released for in-app purchases today, though Google has been testing with a few publishers.

In-app purchases will be released for customers before the end of the quarter, Yerga says.

10:54 am: Almost time for the event to wrap up. But first we have “lady killer,” who is apparently music artist Cee Lo Green. (Did we mention we are old?)

10:55 am: Event wraps up and we are off to the demo room to try to shoot some video of Honeycomb in action.

Update: And here it is:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110202/live-talking-tablet-from-googles-honeycomb-event/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110126/paypal-loses-top-payment-exec-to-google-appoints-new-head/ http://allthingsd.com/20110126/paypal-loses-top-payment-exec-to-google-appoints-new-head/#comments Wed, 26 Jan 2011 22:02:55 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://emoney.allthingsd.com/?p=2022 PayPal’s Osama Bedier has resigned after eight years at the eBay-owned company and will take a job across town at Google.

In a blog post, Scott Guilfoyle, PayPal’s CTO, made the announcement and introduced the new head of the platform team, Matthew Mengerink.

But the departure of Bedier to Google is a big blow to PayPal, considering that both companies are racing to build next-generation payment platforms with a strong mobile component.

Bedier held the title of VP of platform and oversaw PayPal’s global payments platform, including mobile.

Mengerink is an internal replacement for the position, having worked at PayPal for 10 years. He previously led the PayPal architecture, infrastructure, payments development, core technologies, international development, customer quality and engineering services teams.

I will update when I hear more on what Bedier will be doing at Google.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110126/paypal-loses-top-payment-exec-to-google-appoints-new-head/feed/ 4 http://allthingsd.com/20110125/facebook-acquires-mobile-advertising-company-out-of-stealth-mode/ http://allthingsd.com/20110125/facebook-acquires-mobile-advertising-company-out-of-stealth-mode/#comments Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:26:14 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://emoney.allthingsd.com/?p=1937 Facebook has acquired Rel8tion and the employees of the nine-month-old Seattle-based start-up, which has been working under the radar to develop a hyper-local mobile advertising service.

Facebook confirmed the acquisition in a statement: “We’re excited to confirm that we recently completed a talent acquisition of Rel8tion, a stealth-mode startup in Seattle. The engineering team will join our growing Seattle office, and we’re looking forward to having them on board.”

Rel8tion was started in part by Peter Wilson, who has dabbled in just about every major company that has set up shop in Seattle.

In addition to his responsibilities at Rel8tion, he was spending one day a week assisting Facebook with setting up its Seattle office. He will now be an engineering director.

Prior to that, Wilson was an engineering director at Google for four years, helping to ramp up Google’s Kirkland, Wash.-based engineering center. He also spent nine years at Microsoft, working on Microsoft Windows, XP, MSN and Visual Studio in a variety of roles.

There’s not much information about the company, but according to the little information available on its site, it was trying to create a system for synching up a person’s location and demographics with the most relevant ad inventory.

A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment on the role the Rel8tion employees would play at the company, or on the terms of the deal.

Another founder, Scott Hannan, was previously a consultant for Microsoft, and worked as VP of Business Development at Pelago–which operates the mobile social network Whrrl–and Nat Brown, who is listed as the company’s CTO. Brown was previously VP of Technology at Myspace in Seattle and CTO of iLike.

Despite Facebook having a gigantic mobile audience, it has yet to monetize that traffic through advertising. With its introduction of Facebook Places, which allows users to check-in at local establishments and find local deals, you can only expect more is coming.

While both Apple and Google have made big bets in mobile advertising with large acquisitions of Quattro Wireless and AdMob, respectively, this can’t really be put in the same category given its relative size.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110125/facebook-acquires-mobile-advertising-company-out-of-stealth-mode/feed/ 4 http://allthingsd.com/20110112/longtime-facebook-biz-dev-leader-ali-rosenthal-to-depart/ http://allthingsd.com/20110112/longtime-facebook-biz-dev-leader-ali-rosenthal-to-depart/#comments Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:00:56 +0000 Liz Gannes http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/?p=2318 Alison “Ali” Rosenthal, a veteran of the Facebook business development team, will leave the company at the end of this week, she told NetworkEffect.

Rosenthal had focused on mobile business development in recent years, overseeing Facebook’s relationships with some 300 mobile operators around the world. She is not departing for a specific opportunity, though she said it was likely she’ll end up involved in another start-up.

Rosenthal had joined the company in February 2006, making her one of its earliest remaining employees. She’s the latest of many early Facebookers, including the three Facebook co-founders other than Mark Zuckerberg, to depart over the years.

“I’ve started to feel the pull of some new ideas,” said Rosenthal, adding that she felt Facebook had “unlocked real opportunities at the convergence of mobile and social” that she wants to explore.

By way of explanation for her own and other early-Facebooker departures, Rosenthal contended it’s just that Facebookers tend to be entrepreneurial, and recognize opportunities to extend the social Web in new directions outside of Facebook’s core mission. “It’s very alluring to try a specific idea in an industry you’re passionate about,” she said.

But for now, Rosenthal wants to take some time off. The only specific future plan she would share is to ditch her smartphone for a feature phone for a while in order to “extract myself a little from technology.”

Rosenthal has her MBA from Stanford and previously worked at General Atlantic Partners and Zazzle. She said her replacement has not yet been found, but that Facebook is hiring internationally to have biz dev folks overseeing carrier relationships on a local basis from offices in Europe, Asia and elsewhere.

Other significant recent Facebook departures have included ad sales head Mike Murphy, engineering director Aditya Agarwal and PR head Brandee Barker.

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110112/longtime-facebook-biz-dev-leader-ali-rosenthal-to-depart/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20110105/qualcomm-makes-it-official-grabs-atheros-for-3-1-billion/ http://allthingsd.com/20110105/qualcomm-makes-it-official-grabs-atheros-for-3-1-billion/#comments Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:42:04 +0000 Arik Hesseldahl http://newenterprise.allthingsd.com/?p=1358 Qualcomm, the chipmaker devoted to the wireless handset business, announced today the first major tech acquisition of the year, and the biggest deal in its history, saying it will pay $3.1 billion in cash for Atheros, a chipmaker whose business is in wireless networking.

As I noted yesterday, there are lots of reasons for Qualcomm to want Atheros, not the least of which is its extensive customer list.

Qualcomm’s specialty has always been in CDMA technology, the flavor of mobile phone technology favored by Verizon Wireless and Sprint, and it collects considerable royalties around its patent portfolio there. It has struggled to penetrate other markets, and last year shuttered its FloTV operation amid minimal demand. The good news was that it sold its FloTV spectrum to AT&T for $1.93 billion, which is no doubt offsetting the cost of this deal. Add that to the $10.3 billion in cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet as of Sept. 26 and this is an easy deal to do.

It’s also the biggest deal in Qualcomm’s history and the first significant one under CEO Paul Jacobs, who is the son of founder Irwin Jacobs.

Atheros shareholders have plenty of reasons to smile today as well. The company’s stock price surged by 19 percent yesterday. At $45 a share, Qualcomm is paying more than Atheros has ever been worth in its entire history as a publicly held company. As Shira Ovide over at Deal Journal notes, its highest price before yesterday was $43.90. Happy New Year, indeed.

I caught up with Qualcomm Executive Vice President Steve Mollenkopf and Atheros CEO Craig Barratt to talk about the deal.

NewEnterprise: Steve, let’s start with you. What got Qualcomm interested in Atheros?

Mollenkopf: Historically Qualcomm has been focused on the cellular phone, though recently we’ve done much more than that. We had some integration relationships with some companies that allow us to deliver a platform to our customers. They’re essentially technical relationships, and one of those companies was Atheros. So we were familiar with them. But the real reason, the why Atheros and why now question comes down to this. We think the industry is moving to a place where a lot of the technology and use cases that are being created as part of the shift to smartphones will be used outside of just phones, and will move into many adjacent spaces. The requirement of technology and different customers overlap a lot with Atheros. They’re a leader in their space, we’re a leader in ours and we want to go into markets that will require the expertise from both of us. It seemed natural, actually.

Craig, the idea for the acquisition seems to have grown out of an existing partnership. When did the talk turn from being Qualcomm’s partner to becoming part of Qualcomm?

Barratt: The partnership has gone on for about five years, where we’ve cooperated on joint reference and designs and software and feature integration. Over the years we’ve broadened out from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, powerline and optical networking. We do have a much more horizontal business. Qualcomm has a very strong vertical business. Through our partnership we saw the teams had a good cultural fit, the engineering teams really respect each other. When we looked at our own strategic imperatives over the long term, we saw that cellular technologies are going to be applied in a much broader markets over time, beyond just smartphones and tablets. There’s an intersection between the Qualcomm technology and our technology, and that’s only going to increase. You’ve probably heard that set-top boxes and things like that are going to start to run Android. So a lot of these mobile technologies are going to start showing up in things like the connected home. Strategically it all started to make sense.

And what will your new job be at Qualcomm?

Barratt: After the acquisition closes, which should be in the first half of 2011, my role will be president of Qualcomm Networking and Connectivity, reporting to Steve.

Steve, if I’m not mistaken, this is the biggest deal that Qualcomm has ever done.

Mollenkopf: You’re correct. For us on the Qualcomm side this is a big step toward expanding our business beyond our traditional platform business and we’re doing it in a way that is in line with how the industry is changing. A lot of the things we’ve been doing with Atheros are things we’ve already been doing as part of our relationship, so this is a natural next step.

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