Mike Homer

Exclusive: Tellme Founder and GM McCue Departs, as Microsoft Reorganizes Its Speech Recognition Unit

Kara Swisher in News on May 13, 2009 at 10:20 am PT

After running one of the more successful Silicon Valley acquisitions by Microsoft for several years, Tellme Networks founder and GM Mike McCue will be leaving the company at the end of June. As part of the transition, Zig Serafin, who has been running a lot of the speech technology efforts for the software giant in Redmond, Wash., is taking over the voice services subsidiary and all the other related units and making them into a single team with about 400 employees in total. McCue and Serafin are now meeting with Tellme staff at its Mountain View HQ about the changeover.

Meet Peter Currie, Facebook's New Money Man (For Now)

Kara Swisher in News on April 1, 2009 at 7:11 am PT

Back in the heyday, Peter Currie was the money man to see in Silicon Valley. As CFO of Netscape Communications, he led the famed browser start-up into history, as the first great Internet rocket ship, when it went public on Aug. 9, 1995. Rising to insane levels, the stock was ground zero of the Internet gold rush, despite the fact that it had no profits to speak of. But it did have a 23-year-old co-founder and tech wunderkind in Marc Andreessen and a growth trajectory that was astounding. If you think it sounds somewhat similar to Facebook today–where Currie will now help out as temporary financial adviser after the social-networking site parted ways with its CFO, Gideon Yu, yesterday–you are correct.

Weekend Update, 02.07.09

Beth Callaghan in News on February 7, 2009 at 4:24 pm PT

What spreads faster than economic gloom and doom, and is more infectious than professional anxiety? That phenomenon known as “25 Things.” Just in time for Facebook’s fifth birthday, the record-breaking waste of time may have reached critical mass this week. Elsewhere this week…

Mike Homer Laid to Rest Today

Kara Swisher in News on February 5, 2009 at 5:00 am PT

Many BoomTown readers have asked for more information and also about services for well-known Silicon Valley exec Mike Homer, who died earlier this week after a severe and unusual illness. His funeral is today at 10:30 a.m. at Saint Raymond Catholic Church in Menlo Park. A “Friends of Mike Homer” Facebook group page has also been created, with lots of great memories posted on its wall.

Farewell to Mike Homer

Kara Swisher in News on February 1, 2009 at 4:12 pm PT

We all liked Mike. In fact, we all loved the pugnacious, energetic and restlessly entrepreneurial Silicon Valley exec. Sadly for those who knew him, Mike Homer died today at his home surrounded by family and friends, after a long battle with a severe illness. He was 50. Homer is survived by his wife and three young children: James, Jack and Lucy. His funeral is at Saint Raymond’s Catholic Church in Menlo Park on Thursday.

YouTube and Mike Homer

Kara Swisher in News on June 16, 2008 at 4:10 am PT

Today, Mike Homer, as well as many others suffering from incurable degenerative brain disease and dementias, will get a new video-sharing channel on YouTube, along with a Web site and an interactive widget. Unfortunately, Homer continues to suffer from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), for which he is under treatment at the University of California at San Francisco.