Excite

Bye-Bye, Thrive Tablets; Hello, Toshiba Excite

Lauren Goode in Product News on April 10 at 5:00 am PT

Toshiba is rolling out a line of new tablet devices, including a giant 13-inch stay-at-home device.

At Tomorrow’s AOL Investor Day, Will “Execution” Focus Mean Cylinders Firing or Heads Rolling?

Kara Swisher in Media on June 15, 2011 at 6:04 am PT

Talking to AOL CEO Tim Armstrong earlier this week about its investors day tomorrow, he used the word “execution” a lot. No, not the kind evoking a firing squad if he did not succeed at turning around the New York-based Internet giant soon as he has long promised. He means the good kind.

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur (and Google Exec) Joe Kraus Moves to Google Ventures

Kara Swisher in News on November 3, 2009 at 5:14 am PT

Joe Kraus–the longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur who sold his most recent start-up, JotSpot, to Google in 2006 and has been a director of product management since–has moved to its Google Ventures unit as a partner, said several sources. Sources added that Kraus is likely to be the first of several well-known appointments at the relatively new venture arm of the search giant.

Back to the Future: AOL Goes Local With Two Acquisitions (Including CEO's Company)

Kara Swisher in News on June 11, 2009 at 9:29 am PT

Adding the final leg of its new strategy to reinvigorate AOL, the Time Warner online unit said it was buying two small local start-ups, Patch Media and Going. Each acquisition–which focus on hyperlocal community news (Patch) and events (Going)–is small, about $10 million. Ironically, local has previously been a big arena for AOL, which launched its Digital City unit with great fanfare more than a decade ago. AOL still runs Digital City, as well as its CityGuide listing offering. But, in a move that will surely be scrutinized, Patch is a company whose principal investor has been AOL’s new CEO Tim Armstrong. AOL declined to say how much he had invested in the company, but sources said it was less than $5 million.

When GeoCities Grabbed the Web's Golden Ticket–A Trip Down Silicon-Valley-Has-No-Memory Lane

Kara Swisher in News on April 24, 2009 at 12:13 am PT

In Web years, BoomTown is now officially 143 years old. Why? Well, I was the one who got to write the big Page One piece in The Wall Street Journal after GeoCities was sold to Yahoo in January of 1999 for $5 billion in stock. GeoCities was, in its way, the Facebook of its time. But, instead of “friends,” its users were “homesteaders.” As Cher so eloquently sings: Those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end. Except they did. Yahoo announced yesterday that it was closing the GeoCities unit down, part of new CEO Carol Bartz’s war against useless assets at the troubled company. But let’s take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?

The Sweet, Sweet Irony of Mark Cuban and Yahoo

Kara Swisher in News on May 15, 2008 at 4:25 pm PT

Of the amazingly Internet-experience-free board that billionaire investor Carl Icahn has proposed to replace Yahoo’s current directors in this proxy fight, there is one name who does have a lot of Web-related experience, especially with regards to Yahoo. Specifically, in how to make bank from Yahoo’s desperation. That would be entrepreneur and all-around bon vivant Mark Cuban, who sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo in the heady days of 1999 for $5.7 billion in Yahoo stock.