Demand Media Adds a Dash of Social to Its Ads, With Help From Facebook and Twitter

Demand competes with Mark Zuckerberg for ad dollars. But it can also use his service to give itself a boost.
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Ex-Yahoos Getting Downloaded by PE Firms and Others on Possible Deals

Former employees are good for something, apparently!
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My Picks for Yahoo’s Next CEO — Maybe Snoop Dogg, Ya Digg?

While the Yahoo board has yet to begin a search, I have already been hard at work on selecting the next CEO.
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Liveblogging Demand Media's (and Richard Rosenblatt's) First Earnings Call: The Avocado Difference!

BoomTown always enjoys the maiden voyage of a newly public company, so liveblogging Demand Media’s first quarterly earnings seems like a must-do. It’s also the first public outing for CEO Richard Rosenblatt, who has sold off his previous entrepreneurial efforts. His first point: Where else can you find out how to ripen an avocado?

Exclusive: Facebook Grabs Microsoft Global Ad Head Carolyn Everson

Apparently, it’s not only in Google’s pond where Facebook fishes for talent–the social networking giant has recruited Microsoft’s global advertising head Carolyn Everson as one of its top sales execs. A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the hiring, after a query by BoomTown. The move will surely cause some tensions with the software giant, which is both a prominent partner of and investor in Facebook, especially since Everson was only hired at Microsoft last June after a long search.

Exclusive: Yahoo Courts Former News Corp. Digital Exec Ross Levinsohn as U.S. Head

He’s baaaaaack. Former Fox Interactive Media President Ross Levinsohn, that is, who is the top candidate to replace Hilary Schneider as Yahoo’s U.S. head, according to several sources close to the situation. While the deal is not completely struck, sources said Levinsohn is very close to taking the job as the exec primarily in charge of Yahoo’s powerful media properties and giant advertising business.

Exclusive: Former Yahoo and Microsoft Exec Dossett to Demand Media

According to sources, Jeff Dossett–who has held top online jobs at both Yahoo and Microsoft–has taken a job at Demand Media as its SVP of Content Partnership Development. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based Demand, which sources said is now prepping its road show for its upcoming IPO, has been picking up big company execs to add to its roster.

No Massive Reorg at Yahoo, But More Exec Departures (Plus the Schneider Goodbye Letter)

Sorry, folks, but–despite reports–Yahoo will not be unveiling another new organizational structure this week. In actuality, the beleaguered Internet giant is just cleaning up from last week’s shake-up–in which it announced that a chunk of its top media and sales leadership was leaving–as well as settling in new hires made in recent months by its relatively new product head, Blake Irving. In fact, those changes in Irving’s unit have resulted in the departure of two more execs. That would be former SVP of Media Products and Solutions Jeff Kinder and SVP for Cloud Computing Shelton Shugar, who are on their way out.

Yahoo Troops Skittish With No Word From Top on Exec Departures (So's Microsoft)

“We are wandering around and people are asking us questions and we don’t know what’s going on ourselves,” said one very nervous Yahoo ad salesperson this morning in New York for Advertising Week, the most important gathering of the year for online sales. “There’s a lot of uncertainty from an employee perspective.” You can say that again. Today, as news BoomTown broke about the departure of Yahoo’s U.S. head Hilary Schneider and two other key execs at the Internet giant spread, I have been on the receiving end of a spate of emails and calls and text messages from staffers at the Silicon Valley icon searching for information about what’s up at their own company.

Here Comes the Yahoo Spin Cycle–So Try BoomTown's Soap-Free Guide to What's Actually Happening

Here’s how Yahoo’s top brass and board–with the help of its newly re-engaged crisis-management PR firm, Abernathy MacGregor–are already trying to spin the latest executive turmoil to hit the company: Trashing those on the way out, to take focus off those remaining who have been just as responsible for driving the Internet icon, and claiming that this is all part of yet another well-planned reorganization at Yahoo. Don’t believe most of it for a second. Some of it is corporate politics as usual, some of it rejiggering of events, some just not true at all.