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Tick, Tick, Tick, HP Board: The Time to Act Is Today

Kara Swisher in News on September 22, 2011 at 3:15 am PT

As Hewlett-Packard CEO Léo Apotheker twists painfully in the wind, it’s up to its directors to move quickly to end the latest crisis at the Silicon Valley tech giant.

Don't Rain on Microsoft's Ad Parade (Except It's Raining in Seattle, Natch!)

Kara Swisher in News on March 30, 2011 at 1:10 pm PT

BoomTown scrambled the All Things Digital jet (aka, United Airlines, Seat 7A) late last night to get up to Microsoft’s big event for its online advertising clients today. Called “Imagine 2011: Marketing Leadership Summit” and held at its Redmond, Wa. HQ, the two-day event is designed to wow peeps by trotting out a spate of strategery concepts those who buy advertising on Microsoft’s various digital offerings from its Bing search service to MSN to Xbox to Windows Phone 7.

Exclusive: Microsoft Mulls Legally Poking Facebook Over Ad Talent Raid

Kara Swisher in News on March 2, 2011 at 4:10 pm PT

Microsoft–furious over a recent talent grab of its top advertising exec by Facebook–has been considering a wide range of options, including legal action to block the move, according to sources close to the situation. While it might not come to that, tensions between the two companies, who have partnered closely in the past, are running high over the hiring of Carolyn Everson. She had been head of global ad sales at Microsoft and has been hired to be VP of global sales at Facebook.

Yahoo Restructures U.S. Ad Sales Force–With No New Head (But Apparently a Lot of Princes Charming)

Kara Swisher in News on August 2, 2010 at 1:30 pm PT

Yahoo announced today that it was restructuring its advertising sales force, after being without a head of its key U.S. unit since mid-March. Big news: No new top ad sales exec. Instead, several North American sales execs with larger portfolios will report directly to Hilary Schneider, who is in charge of the Americas for Yahoo. “I have kissed a lot of frogs over the years, but it turned out the Prince Charmings we always needed were back at the ranch,” said Schneider.

Wanted: Online Ad Sales Heads for Both Yahoo and Microsoft

Kara Swisher in News on March 24, 2010 at 12:04 pm PT

Even though they are two of the Internet’s largest advertising businesses, both Yahoo and Microsoft are without top execs to lead those units. Worse, both are just entering a complex online ad sales and search partnership together, which will require a lot of management firepower. Yahoo’s main online ad sales head just left and Microsoft has been searching for one for a year now. So, here’s the skinny on who is in the running.