AllThingsD » MSN

BermanBraun to Launch Three Non-HuffPost Sites -- Including Weather -- for AOL

Kara Swisher — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:27:24 +0000

In a deal that was struck some time ago and is close to fruition, BermanBraun is prepping three major Web properties for AOL that will focus on pets, men and, interestingly, the weather.

After I inquired, AOL confirmed that the Hollywood production company — headed by former Yahoo and ABC exec Lloyd Braun and former Paramount exec Gail Berman — will debut the trio of sites around March. The new sites will use rich features and a slick design to attract premium advertisers.

The pair will jointly sell the advertising, but the sites themselves will be operated by BermanBraun in cooperation with AOL’s media unit, the Huffington Post Media Group. The deal was struck in late 2010, before AOL bought the Huffington Post for $300 million in January of this year.

While AOL has partnered with many outside sites, this will be the most prominent one since that acquisition.

Since then, much of the new content development on AOL has been aimed at drastically increasing the number of sites with that brand. There have been more than two dozen of those since March.

In this case, the Huffington Post Media Group, run by Arianna Huffington, has typically either created new topic sites or relaunched old AOL ones.

This week, for example, the company rejiggered AOL TV as HuffPost TV, as well as announcing El Huffington Post, an international Spanish-language version of the Huffington Post that will debut in early 2012, in partnership with El País.

The BermanBraun effort, though, is more independent and large-scale. It will feature extensive video and heavy use of imagery. Huffington Post will be involved in editorial selection, and has been working closely with the firm on incorporating social elements.

“It’s been a very dynamic and collaborative partnership — we’ve worked together on everything from design to picking the editors,” said Roy Sekoff, founding editor of the Huffington Post Media Group, about the arrangement. “BermanBraun brings a distinctive approach to their sites, and we’ve helped infuse that with our focus on real-time, social, and building community.”

Sekoff declined to give more details, such as the names of the sites. (They won’t be HuffPost Pets, HuffPost Weather and HuffPost Dudes, though!)

Pets could be a strong category if done in a new way, especially if designed with new tablet devices in mind. And weather, to my mind, is a sleeper category if reimagined freshly.

BermanBraun — which also develops television shows and movies — has a lot of experience in the online content arena. It has previously created Web sites for Microsoft’s MSN unit, including the high-profile celebrity site Wonderwall.

It will be interesting to see how the collaboration turns out. In the meantime, here’s my favorite weather song — Lena Horne rules! — to enjoy until the three sites launch:

The Rise of Google, the Ascent of Facebook and the Decline of Everyone Else

Peter Kafka — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:33:08 +0000

If you pay the slightest bit of attention to Internet advertising, you know this. But it’s always good to see it spelled out: Look how ginormous Google is!

This exclamation point comes courtesy of Zenith Optimedia, via its new (scaled back) ad forecast today. It pegs Google’s share of the overall Web ad market at 44 percent, a number that has been steadily increasing for years, with the exception of a one-year hiccup in 2009.

The other takeaways are also old news: Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL are foundering and have been for years (hence their new alliance). And Facebook is starting to generate a real ad business — as opposed to just a very sticky Web site.

And based on everything we’ve heard this year, the 2011 column will look just like the ones preceding it. Except it might show even steeper gains for both Google and Facebook, given the moves both are making (YouTube and display ads for Google, new tricks like “Sponsored Stories,” plus the overwhelming attractiveness of an 800 million user base for Facebook).

Quite reasonable to assume the two of them will end this month with more than 50 percent of global spending.

eBay Adds Former Microsoft Employee Ken Moss to Its Executive Team

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:54:36 +0000

EBay has appointed Ken Moss to the position of VP of technology and science for the Marketplaces services team.

Moss will report to eBay’s CTO Mark Carges and be responsible for managing and developing the back-end buyer and seller experience on eBay’s marketplace, where items are auctioned off or sold new for full price.

Most recently, Moss co-founded CrowdEye, a start-up focused on search technology.

While CrowdEye’s Web site has been taken down, it’s expected that its co-founder (and Moss’s wife) Becca Moss will continue working on the technology, which was once being described as a Twitter search engine.

Prior to CrowdEye, Moss spent 20 years at Microsoft, where he started and led the Bing search technical team. He also worked on MyMSN, MSN Money and other parts of MSN.

Over the past year, eBay has been redesigning its site to simplify the user experience and to offer both items sold at auction or for full price. In the past few months, it has hired a number of new executives to fill several roles to complete the turnaround.

Moss will presumably assist with those goals in a more behind-the-scenes technology role.

Ex-MSN Head Moore Joins Yell Group

John Murrell — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:05:59 +0000

We knew Microsoft veteran Scott Moore was leaving his job as head of the MSN portal, and now we know where he’s landed: Yell Group, the U.K. yellow pages and marketing outfit. Moore will take the newly created job of chief digital officer, targeting products to small and medium-size businesses.

Exclusive: MSN U.S. Head Scott Moore to Depart Portal

Kara Swisher — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 09:51:53 +0000

Scott Moore, who runs the U.S. arm of Microsoft’s MSN portal, will depart the company, according to sources.

The well-known content exec is reportedly headed to another job, sources said.

Moore has worked at Microsoft twice in this career — first as publisher of its Slate online magazine. He came back to the software giant in early 2009, after a stint at Yahoo running its media operations.

At MSN, he was U.S. executive producer, responsible for leading the content and programming strategy for the service. Some of his most prominent initiatives were several innovative sites with Hollywood producers BermanBraun, as well as a rehaul of MSN in 2009.

What Microsoft does next with its portal business is a big question, of course, as it has aimed all its firepower — and gigantic piles of money — at its Bing search service. Thus, MSN, while one of the more highly trafficked sites on the Web, has often taken a back seat.

My Picks for Yahoo's Next CEO -- Maybe Snoop Dogg, Ya Digg?

Kara Swisher — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:00:32 +0000

The firing of Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz leaves open one of the bigger and more difficult jobs in tech — one that has taken its toll on many.

Nonetheless, rapper Snoop Dogg stepped right up to the Twitter plate yesterday, as soon as news broke of the ouster.

Tweeted Snoop Dogg:

“Im takn over as tha CEO of Yahoo. Need sum of tha Snoop Dogg content ya digg. Nuff Said.”

Not nearly nuff!

Thus, while the Yahoo board has yet to begin a search, I have already been hard at work on selecting the next CEO.

(Last time, the company took none of my suggestions, but after the most recent result, the directors might want to pay mind!)

Sources said Yahoo is looking for an experienced Internet type, either from inside or outside the company.

“Yahoo has put its flag in the ground as a digital media company with a technology base,” said one source. “The job requires big buckets of expertise and needs someone who will grow the company.”

Here I go with the outsiders:

Peter Chernin: The former News Corp. exec has been eyeing Yahoo for a possible takeover with other investors. Both Yahoo and I had picked him when co-founder Jerry Yang stepped down as CEO almost three years ago, and he had declined the offer. This time, perhaps a big chunk of the company and total autonomy would work, even if making a hit like “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is more fun.

Sheryl Sandberg: The COO of Facebook is sort of the anti-Bartz, with a smooth and efficient persona, and she is an experienced tech exec. But the former Google exec is at a place of growth at the social networking site, and is unlikely to want to leave the big show, especially since a blockbuster IPO is looming.

Jason Kilar: The Hulu CEO is in the midst of the process of selling the premium video service, with Yahoo as a bidder. While he has some tense relations with the studios, Kilar is top notch in his dedication to consumer products, and has a lot of experience from his stint at Amazon, too.

Dan Rosensweig: Currently CEO of IPO-headed Chegg textbook rental service, the former Yahoo exec never got a chance to run the company as its top leader. Well-connected and still well-liked by the troops at Yahoo, it still would be pretty hard for him to go home again.

Dave Goldberg: Sure, he’s married to Sandberg (see above), but the savvy CEO of polling phenom SurveyMonkey is one of the sharpest thinkers in Silicon Valley. He sold his music company to Yahoo many years ago and has a strong background in consumer online services.

Jon Miller: The chief digital exec at News Corp. almost got the CEO spot years ago when Carl Icahn was agitating for change at Yahoo, before Time Warner blocked him via a noncompete. With the mishegas at the media giant, and dwindling digital businesses there, it might be a good escape hatch for Miller.

Susan Wojcicki: The accomplished Google exec, who runs all its ad products, has the kind of calm, cool, collected persona that Yahoo could use right about now. The search giant was founded in her garage, and she has been a key part of its success since then. Wojcicki is also an understated class act in hey-look-at-me Silicon Valley.

Todd Bradley: The Hewlett-Packard exec just got blindsided when the company kicked webOS to the curb. While he is in line to run a possible spinoff of the device business, Bradley might also want to jump out of the frying pan into the fire.

Mike McCue: The CEO of Flipboard would certainly energize Yahoo with his intense focus on quality and consumer delight. The news app start-up could be a good addition to Yahoo, and McCue, the former Netscape and Microsoft exec who is well-liked in the Internet scene, would be, too.

Joanne Bradford: The former Yahoo advertising head bolted Bartz’s regime early on to run revenue for Demand Media. Well-liked in the ad business, she also knows where all the bodies are buried at Yahoo. Since ads and media are key at the company, she’d make an interesting choice.

Yusuf Mehdi: The Microsoft online exec would also be a left-field candidate to run Yahoo, given his even-keeled personality and longtime experience in the sector. And, though pricey, Mehdi’s impact on Bing search has been important. But he’s also been involved in the software giant’s lackluster ad and search partnership and still has not turned around the situation at MSN.

Kevin Johnson: The former Microsoft exec and current CEO of Juniper was once slated to be the CEO of Yahoo, had Microsoft managed to win the company in its hostile takeover attempt. In fact, Johnson was the architect of the idea of Yahoo running the media and Microsoft running the tech.

Tim Armstrong: Well, he might have been a good candidate before the downward slide of AOL and a recent series of questionable judgments. If Armstrong can’t keep a loud tech blogger in line, it’s not clear he can wrangle the Yahoo beast.

And here’s the insider scoop:

Ross Levinsohn: The former News Corp. exec is running the Americas for Yahoo, which puts him in charge of the company’s key businesses. But he’s still struggling to turn the ad business around, and how well he does that could be a major determinant of his success. But fantastic hair!

Blake Irving: The former Microsoft exec has an amiable nature and is well-liked at Yahoo, but he still needs to show that the company can ship some innovative products, and quickly. Like Livestand, the news reader, which is muchly late.

David Kenny: The Yahoo board member is now president of Akamai, which might preclude him from the job. But the well-regarded exec — he’s a snazzy dresser, too — ran one of the Internet’s top digital ad agencies and now has tech chops from the content delivery network.

Memo to Yahoo board: I have a million more ideas, from former Viacom exec Tom Freston to former Yahoo board member Eric Hippeau. Or why not bring back a passel of former Yahoos to advise, such as former CEO Terry Semel or former president Sue Decker?

Or Oprah! I hear Winfrey will be in Silicon Valley later this week, and she has a lot more free time now.

Like Snoop Dogg, she would fo shizzle be the bomb to cover.

Latest in Web Tracking: Stealthy "Supercookies"

Julia Angwin — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 07:01:58 +0000

Major Web sites such as MSN.com and Hulu.com have been tracking people’s online activities using powerful new methods that are almost impossible for computer users to detect, new research shows.

The new techniques, which are legal, reach beyond the traditional “cookie,” a small file that Web sites routinely install on users’ computers to help track their activities online. Hulu and MSN were installing files known as “supercookies,” which are capable of re-creating users’ profiles after people deleted regular cookies, according to researchers at Stanford University and University of California at Berkeley.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

EBay Hires Ex-Yahoo Exec Don Bradford to Head Up Social

Tricia Duryee — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:30:32 +0000

Ebay has hired Don Bradford to fill a new position at the company in charge of leading its social commerce efforts.

As the VP of social at eBay, Bradford will head up one of the company’s four main focus areas that it identified earlier this year. In addition to social, the other three areas are mobile, local and digital payments.

While most of those areas have already been accounted for through recent acquisitions, including Milo and Where–and eBay’s PayPal division–social was mostly unspoken for.

We are hearing that Bradford started at the company on Monday and will be reporting to Dane Glasgow, eBay’s VP of global product management. A company spokesperson declined to comment.

While it’s a unclear what Bradford will be working on exactly, the e-commerce company has been experimenting with some social projects, including group gifts, which makes it easy for multiple individuals to collectively chip in to pay for a gift for someone else.

Bradford is known for being a long-term Microsoft employee, having left only seven months ago to join Yahoo. At Microsoft, he worked on Bing’s user interface team in Mountain View, Calif., and previously worked on Microsoft Live Search communities and MSN Hotmail.

In October, he joined Yahoo as VP of Communities as engineering lead for Answers, Address Book, Delicious, Flickr, Groups, Koprol, Meme and Pulse, according to LinkedIn.

Bradford will be based in San Jose.

Will Yahoo Be In Play Again? Here's a Few Scenarios (That Could Be More Than Just Scenarios)

Kara Swisher — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 17:58:51 +0000

One of the results of Yahoo’s weak earnings report earlier this week has been the renewal of chatter about possible changes in its leadership and even ownership.

And continued investor discomfort with its troubled stock price–Yahoo shares are down 7.25 percent year over year and an astonishing 49 percent on a five-year basis–and the level of renewed grumbling by major institutional shareholders is causing some key players to go back to their PowerPoints to reevaluate various options.

(By way of contrast, Google is down about 4.5 percent year over year–largely due to last week’s earnings release with higher than expected expenses–but still up more than 20 percent for the five years.)

As many might recall, last year Yahoo was under scrutiny by a number of interested parties–from big media companies to other digital players to private equity firms–considering a number of takeover scenarios.

Most of them were just talk and no action resulted, but that did not mean that interest went away.

The truth is, they are still out there and ruminating–this time with what sources describe as a much more amenable Yahoo board, with several of its key members willing to entertain any legitimate offers or ideas to improve the Silicon Valley search giant’s prospects.

In the last go-round, by contrast, Yahoo’s top execs–including CEO Carol Bartz–denied any interest in the swirl of rumors related to a variety of ideas.

That’s definitely changed–at least at the board level–so here are three very credible scenarios of what could happen:

Peetie, Peetie, Yahoo-Sweetie

Late last year, BoomTown wrote a post about the interest that former News Corp. COO and President Peter Chernin–who now owns his own entertainment production company–had in the situation at Yahoo.

As I wrote in November:

But multiple sources from a variety of sides said that Chernin, a well-liked and deeply experienced media and entertainment exec, has been contacted by a number of private equity firms and other investors about his interest in becoming involved should any of the various and sundry scenarios around the Internet giant pan out.

And Chernin, many sources said, has expressed a definite interest in the situation, perhaps because he was deeply involved in a previous deal when running News Corp.

At the time, it involved combining the media giant’s Myspace social networking site with Yahoo and also Microsoft’s portal MSN and creating a new company, code-named “TrafficCo.”

Indeed, that interest remains for Chernin, who has also been an increasingly active investor, including in the digital sector. He is an angel funder of the hot social media app start-up Flipboard, and also just joined the board of the popular Pandora music service.

The most likely possible scenarios have him joining with deep-pocketed partners, including Providence Equity Partners and, yes, Microsoft, as well as investment banks or advisory firms, such as Morgan Stanley and Code Advisors.

The approach being considered–which would only be done in a friendly way, with the cooperation of Yahoo’s board–would center on making a large enough investment in its shares, allowing the group to take control of the management and the board, putting Chernin in as chairman and maybe CEO (or with a new CEO–see next section).

If Microsoft were involved–and Chernin has strong ties there–such a scenario might include folding all its online properties into Yahoo and renegotiating its rocky search partnership, too.

This is an idea that intrigues a lot of people–including current Yahoo board chairman Roy Bostock, co-founder Jerry Yang and other board members–who have indicated recently to several investors and dealmakers a willingness to listen to credible player such as Chernin.

But, in this scenario, it would be up to Chernin and his partners to make a prosposal, said sources, and he might decide that the complexity of getting the power to make big changes at Yahoo is too big to tackle.

In addition, Chernin remains a successful Hollywood player, with several major television and movie projects in the works, as well as big investment possibilities in Asia.

“Does he want the headache of Yahoo at this point in his career?” asked one person, among many Chernin has talked to recently about becoming involved in the company. “Would you?”

Maybe so, if it would provide a big financial windfall. Many think an exec with a reputation like Chernin’s could easily begin to move Yahoo’s moribund stock upward quickly.

ABC (Anybody But Carol)

Here’s one truth: Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz does not get proper credit for a number of moves she has made since coming to the company two years ago, including cleaning up the messy corporate structure, de-complexifying garbled systems, cutting costs and bringing its far-flung operations into line.

Yahoo’s stock is certainly doing better than when she arrived in early January of 2009, when it was in the $12 range compared to its current $16 price point.

But here’s another: That stock price now includes more than $10 in solid assets–cash and Yahoo’s much more valuable stakes in China’s Alibaba Group and Yahoo! Japan–leaving very little true share appreciation.

And here are more truths: Bartz’s inability to get revenues growing, innovations flowing, promising start-ups acquired and–most importantly–to stop the continual exodus of talent out the door of Yahoo has made her tenure shakier than ever.

Add to that making its relationships with Asian partners more tense, almost no traction in key mobile, video and social arenas, a record of loud public declarations that have fallen flat and serious troubles in Yahoo’s search and online partnership with Microsoft–a deal Bartz struck and is charged with managing–recently highlighted in Yahoo’s earnings earlier this week.

As shareholder activist Eric Jackson, who has long agitated for change at Yahoo, wrote this week in a post:

“The truth is that investors are fed up with Bartz. Their enmity towards Bartz is palpable when you talk to them. Bartz talked a big game coming into the job and she hasn’t delivered. It’s that simple.”

Well, not that simple and maybe not fair, but it’s also clear that no one thinks Bartz will be re-upped when her contract is up in 18 months.

Thus, it’s no surprise that ideas of other possible leaders of Yahoo are being contemplated now.

Here’s the short list I have made of my choices: Akamai President and Yahoo board member David Kenny; former Microsoft exec and current Juniper Networks CEO Kevin Johnson; former AOL CEO and current News Corp. digital head Jon Miller; and Nikesh Arora, current Chief Business Officer and sales head at Google.

There are plenty more to pick from, of course, and any could be installed in conjunction with an effort such as Chernin’s.

AOL Under the Hoop

No good Yahoo scenario plotting can be contemplated without including AOL and its flashy CEO Tim Armstrong.

Armstrong has made no secret of wanting to get ahold of Yahoo properties to apply the strategy he has been trying at AOL to get it moving again.

Which is: To become the premiere digital media company.

Which is actually Yahoo’s new motto–although arguably, in word and deed, Armstrong has been much more active in pushing the concept and narrative.

That includes his incessant acquisitions of all kinds of online media properties, including the big fish–the $315 million purchase of the Huffington Post and the coronation of its even-flashier co-founder Arianna Huffington as content chief.

Armstrong has certainly not been averse to the idea of a Yahoo-AOL hookup with him at the top, and has been actively talking to anyone interested in such a deal.

And things could get a lot more interesting if AOL linked with a bigger strategic partner, such as News Corp. or Disney or even Google, Armstrong’s former stomping grounds.

Still, wishing does not make it so, especially with a much smaller and weaker set of assets than Yahoo and a still poor record on goosing its advertising sales.

AOL’s stock is down 30 percent year over year, as investors still worry about Armstrong’s ability to turn the company around, which kind of puts him in the same situation as Bartz.

“AOL is waiting under the hoop for whatever happens, which is a good place to be,” said one person close to the situation. “Why not?”

Why not, indeed–so, let the games begin.

Exclusive: Yahoo Nabs Microsoft Exec Brett Wayn to Help Local Efforts

Kara Swisher — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 07:26:46 +0000

After it struck its online advertising and search partnership with Yahoo, Microsoft tapped longtime Internet exec Brett Wayn (pictured here) to work with Greg Nelson during the integration.

Well, Wayn must have liked what he saw at the Silicon Valley Internet giant, since he is bouncing there from his job at the Redmond, Wash. software giant to help run local efforts at Yahoo.

[UPDATING local roles at Yahoo.]

Wayn will be working for Chief Product Officer Blake Irving and will be responsible for product management of Yahoo’s local “horizontal.”

He will work closely with whoever Yahoo finds as a replacement for Matt Idema, a longtime Yahoo exec who shuttled over to Facebook as a director of business operations, working on the local arena.

Luke Beatty, who heads up Yahoo’s Americas region community and local businesses, including Flickr, Groups, Answers and hundreds of local sites, is doing Idema’s job for now within Americas head Ross Levinsohn’s unit.

Local is a hugely hot space right now, with a spate of Web focus from giants like Google and Facebook to powerful start-ups such as Foursquare and Groupon.

Wayn has more recently been working on international for Microsoft’s MSN portal. The Australian native has also worked at AOL and, interestingly, has an actual medical degree.

In other words: Paging Dr. Local, stat!

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

Kara Swisher — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 20:10:47 +0000

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 gathering 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.

Some program topics: “Elsewhere USA,” “Teens Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out” and “Audience Buying Goes Real-Time: True or False?”

Presumably the goal of all this heavy-duty thinkery is to get these marketers to buy more ads from Microsoft by warning them about being left behind on the platform as the train chugs inevitably off to the digital future.

And just in case that doesn’t work, there will be a free concert tonight featuring the hipster band Train for the Imagine 2011 attendees at Microsoft Co-founder Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project venue to open those ad wallets.

Hey, Geek Mister: Stop sending all those digital marketing bucks to Google and Facebook and give them to us!

Before a panoply of various social, design and anthropology experts pontificated, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off the day with his patented loud and lovable Ed McMahon act, complete with the booming catchphrases.

Hey-Yo!

“You have to move forward or die!” (About the Web.)

“If you wanna get big, you have to think big!” (About the Windows 7 Phone smartphone deal with Nokia.)

I love the U.S. government, I don’t want to give it a hard time.” (About its crappy Web site, not the antitrust conviction thing.)

Ballmer outlined some key trends, which are not new to anyone paying attention over the last five years: Location; social; pervasive displays; ubiquitous connectivity; computers everywhere; cloud; data; and natural user interaction

He also joked about how there were 10 fake Steve Ballmers on Facebook, all using Steve Ballmer photos. Imagine that!

You’d think Microsoft’s badillion-dollar investment in the social networking site would get you a verified account!

Status: Monkey boy mad!

Actually, pissed off is more related to the fact that the person who conceived and organized the Imagine 2011 event was former global ad sales head Carolyn Everson.

But, she left the company in mid-February after only six months, for essentially the same job at Microsoft partner Facebook.

Since then Microsoft and Facebook have been wrangling over the talent raid, including Microsoft even considering legal action to block the move.

Nonetheless, the show must go on and it did in a pretty classy way.

But not without another road bump in today’s action–the news that Microsoft’s own marketing head, longtime company veteran Mich Mathews, was leaving the software giant later this year.

The departure had the halls buzzing about what happened and who will be taking over the big job with a $1 billion marketing budget.

Maybe some external CMO sitting right there in the audience or perhaps some internal Microsoft candidate such as Yusuf Mehdi or Capossela?

I suppose it’s time for some strategery stat!

Until it is all figured out, here is the music video for Train’s hit song, “Hey, Soul Sister”:

Microsoft’s Advertising Arm Still Weighing "Do Not Track"

Jennifer Valentino-DeVries — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:57:49 +0000

The latest version of Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer includes a do-not-track tool that broadcasts users’ wishes not to be monitored online–but that doesn’t mean Microsoft’s advertising unit is honoring those requests yet.

“Our view is that that’s an industry discussion,” Erich Andersen, deputy general counsel for Microsoft, told Digits. “We’re trying to take a leadership role in helping users send a signal of their intention. But the key thing is that a definition of ‘tracking’ needs to happen.” Microsoft Advertising serves ads based on users’ browsing behavior as well as on Bing searches and sites like MSN.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Exclusive: Facebook Grabs Microsoft Global Ad Head Carolyn Everson

Kara Swisher — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:19:48 +0000

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 this afternoon by BoomTown. Everson will be VP of Global Sales at the Silicon Valley company, although is likely to be located in New York.

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.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg addressed that issue in a statement:

“Microsoft was one of our earliest partners and is still one of our most valued. We have a long and strong relationship that includes search ads on our site, a social layer on Bing search results and a deep and popular integration with Xbox. They are a leader when it comes to unlocking the power of social for their already popular products and services. We look forward to continuing to expand our relationship with them.”

A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment.

Despite the possible awkwardness between Facebook and Microsoft–hey, we stole your top sales exec, but you rock!–the move to Facebook is a big opportunity for Everson.

But, according to sources, the former MTV Networks ad exec had become frustrated by the intense focus on pushing traffic to Microsoft’s Bing search service from its MSN portal at the expense of premium ad sales.

In addition, with the massive search and advertising partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo now in place, Everson was also not able to offer search advertising from Microsoft to marketers in packages. Yahoo is now in charge of that offering.

Everson will essentially be replacing longtime and well-regarded Facebook ad exec Mike Murphy, who left the Palo Alto, Calif., company last fall. She will report to former Googler David Fischer, VP of Advertising and Global Operations.

But it was COO Sheryl Sandberg, said sources, who was most focused on Everson. In fact, she just “friended” Everson on Facebook this week, as did another top ad exec, Tom Arrix.

Having a top exec who is amenable to and well known by Madison Avenue is key for Facebook as it ramps up its business, in anticipation of an IPO next year.

Despite being private, Facebook has recently been valued at between $50 and $60 billion by investors, who have been eagerly buying up shares of the company on secondary markets.

Under Murphy and Fischer, ad sales have been doing well already. Facebook’s share of online display advertising has more than quadrupled, from about three percent to almost 14 percent of the nearly $9 billion U.S. market, according to a recent survey.

In growing so quickly, Facebook has grabbed ad revenue–reportedly $2 billion last year–from old online powerhouses, especially Yahoo and AOL, and is also in a big fight with Google over premium ad sales.

Facebook’s surging usage and engagement are the reasons for the increased interest from advertisers, as well as its global growth in both market share and mindshare of consumers.

Thus, the search for a Murphy replacement was far-ranging, and included interest in a number of prominent ad execs from traditional media giants and also ad agencies.

The appointment is a big move for the dynamic Everson, who has mostly worked in the mainstream media for much of her career.

Everson came to Microsoft from a job as EVP of Strategy and Operations for the MTV Networks U.S. ad sales department.

Interestingly, she was also on the short list of candidates Yahoo was once perusing to fill the key U.S. ad sales job after Joanne Bradford departed for Demand Media.

Bing Overlord Satya Nadella Promoted to President of Server and Tools at Microsoft

Kara Swisher — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 16:24:56 +0000

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

Nadella brings deep engineering and online services knowledge to $15 billion 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.

Microsoft Takes Another Stab at Selling Its Own Ads–By Getting Someone Else to Do It

Peter Kafka — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 11:00:53 +0000

It’s about time! Or, more accurately, “real time”: It’s taken Microsoft several years to get its head around the idea, but the company is finally going to start selling its ad space via a “real-time bidding” exchange, just as Google does.

The difference: Instead of running the exchange itself, as Google does, Redmond is going to outsource the work.

In February, ad tech start-up AppNexus will begin selling Microsoft’s “non-premium” display ads via its own exchange. And Microsoft will essentially pull the plug on AdECN, the exchange it bought in 2007 but only began testing a year ago.

If you’re not remotely interested in advertising technology, here’s the takeaway: Lots of smart people predict that display advertising will be moving to “real time bidding,” which allows buyers and sellers to set the price of a single ad impression in milliseconds.

That efficiency makes plenty of sense from a buyer’s perspective, but it will inevitably chip away at publishers’ pricing power–which is one reason big sellers like Microsoft haven’t embraced it yet.

Microsoft sort of announced the move last October, when it participated in a $50 million investment in AppNexus. Microsoft and AppNexus have been deliberately playing down the move, for reasons I can’t quite fathom–it’s not as if players like Google haven’t picked up on it.

(And that Microsoft-AppNexus connection may or may not have had something to do with a falling-out between AppNexus and Google last year.)

In any case, it’s now formalized: Microsoft will throw all of its unsold inventory into an exchange that AppNexus will power, starting with ad space on Windows Live Hotmail. Then it will add in all of the inventory on MSN properties, and eventually ads from third-party publishers that Microsoft is working with, like Viacom.

Which doesn’t mean Google will be quaking in its boots.

At the start, AppNexus figures it will be moving more than 10 billion ad impressions a month through the exchange, which sounds like a lot. And it is! But Google’s AdX is many times larger–it’s a safe bet that it’s doing more than one billion impressions a day, and likely much more.

Still, Google’s giant lead isn’t necessarily insurmountable. For starters, the universe of display advertising is much more fragmented than search. So no matter how much inventory AdX picks up, there’s always going to be lots of ad space that Google doesn’t get its hands on.

And because Google’s so big, there’s a very deliberate effort by lots of buyers and sellers to make sure they have other options. So underdog Microsoft–I can’t get over how odd it is to type that–will get at least a look-see for quite some time.

Microsoft Sees Business Tech Spending Continuing to Rebound, Benefiting Office and Windows

Ina Fried — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:42:14 +0000

Microsoft began its earnings conference call on Thursday by touting the company’s record earnings and revenue–results that topped expectations amid strong performance in the Office and Xbox units.

“Business and consumer response to our latest wave of innovation…helped drive yet another quarter of healthy revenue growth,” CFO Peter Klein said during the call. “Kinect in particular exceeded our expectations,” he said, calling Kinect the fastest-growing consumer electronics product in history.

Earlier on Thursday, Microsoft posted earnings and revenue that topped expectations, amid strong performance in the Office and Xbox units. The company was also quite literally ahead of expectations as it released earnings before the close of trading after one or more media outlets got a hold of a draft version of its earnings release. The company said it will re-evaluate procedures to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The company reiterated, as it told Mobilized on Wednesday, that its partners shipped two million Windows Phone 7 devices to carriers during the quarter. While Klein is pleased with those results, he said, “We realize we still have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Office 2010 is the strongest consumer version of the product in company history and also doing well among businesses, Klein said.

Update, 2:48 pm: Enterprise IT spending expected to grow this year, and Office and Windows remain among businesses’ top tech priorities this year, Klein said.

On the search side, Klein acknowledged that the Yahoo-Microsoft partnership has created some disruption in the marketplace, with the company hoping to get more benefit from the deal in the coming quarter.

2:52 p.m.: Microsoft’s product portfolio “has never been stronger,” Klein said.

On to Q&A.

3:05 pm: As it typically does, Microsoft noted that emerging markets are growing faster than mature ones. One analyst asked Microsoft to provide some more detail on how Microsoft’s business differs in such markets. Among other things, Microsoft said its pricing tends to be about half what it gets in mature markets.

3:08 pm: Microsoft said on the call it sees a bit of a drag from consumer devices like the iPad, though it didn’t use the “i” word.

3:11 p.m.: Call ends.

Facebook Acquires Mobile Advertising Company Out of Stealth Mode

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:26:14 +0000

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.

Viral Video: BermanBraun Doesn't Just Make Web Sites ("The Cape" on NBC Debuts Soon)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 08:15:49 +0000

Here is a new teaser trailer for a midseason replacement television show on NBC called “The Cape.”

It’s from Hollywood multimedia production company BermanBraun, which is known in tech for the handsome content sites it makes for Microsoft’s MSN portal, such as the celebrity-focused Wonderwall.

And partner Lloyd Braun also ran Yahoo’s media unit for a bit.

“The Cape” is about a good cop who is framed and has to turn himself into a crime-fighting hero to regain his old life and family. With a cape, natch.

There is a lot of broodiness and moodiness and there are also carnival misfits in the show, which premieres January 9.

Here is the trailer for the show:

Fitbie: MSN and Rodale Launch Health and Fitness Site

Kara Swisher — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 09:00:02 +0000

MSN is launching a new health and fitness site called Fitbie today, in partnership with Rodale.

It’s yet another move into niche content sites by the Microsoft portal, similar to those being made by AOL, Yahoo and Demand Media in an effort to dominate key consumer categories.

In a press release, Microsoft said Fitbie was “similar to lifestyle sites Glo.com and Wonderwall.com,” which it created with Hollywood’s BermanBraun.

Fitbie will be powered by MSN, which will sell advertising for it. Rodale is providing both original content and also material from its magazines, such as Men’s Health.

“We think we can really bring our content to a much larger audience with this partnership,” said Steve Madden, VP of Creative Services & Digital Product Development at the New York-based publisher, in an interview yesterday.

Added MSN’s Scott Moore: “The premise is to bring best of breed content about fitness and content and our distribution together.”

Here is the official press release:

Rodale Introduces Fitbie With MSN on the MSN Network

New Health Channel to Provide Free Trials for Expert Fitness, Nutrition and Weight Loss Advice Within One Comprehensive Web Destination

NEW YORK, NY, December 1, 2010–Rodale Inc., the authoritative source for health, fitness and wellness content around the world, proudly launches Fitbie [fitbie.msn.com] on the MSN network today. The latest property from Rodale’s stable of award-winning brands, Fitbie is a new health channel that will deliver original groundbreaking fitness, nutrition and weight loss content via an interactive, multimedia experience. Available on MSN.com, Fitbie is the latest addition to the MSN Lifestyle portfolio and will fuse information, inspiration and innovation in one unique web destination.

“Working with MSN to launch Fitbie is a perfect fit for Rodale,” said Steve Madden, Vice President, Creative Services & Digital Product Development. “Our mission is to improve personal health, and teaming up with a digital pioneer as respected as MSN to introduce this new property puts us squarely at the forefront of the digital health revolution.”

Said Scott Moore, Regional Partner Executive Producer for MSN at Microsoft Corp., “MSN takes great pride in relationships with leading brands like Rodale to deliver expert lifestyle content to our vast audience in compelling and engaging ways. Rodale is the authority in the health space, and we’re excited to expand our lifestyle offerings with this unique online experience.”

The Fitbie collaboration is the most recent one for MSN with Rodale, who has served as a trusted content provider for the site since 2003. As the new online health powerhouse, Fitbie capitalizes on the massive MSN audience reach and the category expertise of Rodale to provide both exclusive premium content and content from the company’s expert brands, including Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Prevention, Runner’s World and Bicycling, for customers and advertisers.

Fitbie provides advertisers with the opportunity to engage with the diet and fitness-conscious MSN audience, offering prominent ad units and deep, rich content. Advertisers will be able to directly target their specific audience in addition to leveraging the larger opportunities on MSN Health.

Similar to lifestyle sites Glo.com and Wonderwall.com, Fitbie will be powered by MSN and is accessible at fitbie.msn.com, as well as on the MSN home page and editorial programs across the MSN network. Access to Fitbie can also be found across Rodale magazines and online properties.

Enter the Chernin? Former News Corp. President and COO in Yahoo What-If Mix

Kara Swisher — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 21:58:26 +0000

Things have certainly quieted down in the swirl of mostly vapor plots about the future of Yahoo, although the pondering, machinating and such on the parts of a variety of players have most certainly continued.

And that includes the introduction of a new character into the drama: Former News Corp. President Peter Chernin.

Let’s be very clear–there is no active plan for Chernin to join Yahoo or its board, nor is he currently part of any possible takeover plan related to the Silicon Valley Internet giant.

But multiple sources from a variety of sides said that Chernin, a well-liked and deeply experienced media and entertainment exec, has been contacted by a number of private equity firms and other investors about his interest in becoming involved should any of the various and sundry scenarios around the Internet giant pan out.

And Chernin, many sources said, has expressed a definite interest in the situation, perhaps because he was deeply involved in a previous deal when running News Corp.

At the time, it involved combining the media giant’s Myspace social networking site with Yahoo and also Microsoft’s portal MSN and creating a new company, code-named “TrafficCo.”

“He is asking a lot of questions and is nosing around, but there is not a plan,” said one source. “Yahoo has always been an interesting opportunity to him.”

Indeed, especially since Chernin has had a longtime interest in being more involved in digital business after a long career in traditional media.

He currently has a Santa Monica, Calif.-based media company, called Chernin Entertainment, which has a lucrative first-look production film and television deal with News Corp.–as well as the Chernin Group, which “pursues strategic opportunities in media, technology, and entertainment.”

And, in recent weeks, Chernin (pictured here) has also unveiled a new media venture in Asia called CA Media, which will “focus on a broad range of opportunities in content creation (specifically, film and TV production), television networks, sports, education, advertising, and digital media.”

But so far, since he left News Corp. in early 2009, Chernin has done very little in the digital arena.

In contrast, at News Corp., he was a key exec behind its co-founding of the Hulu premium video site, for example, among other digital initiatives.

And when Microsoft was vying to acquire Yahoo several years ago, Chernin and News Corp. CEO and Chairman Rupert Murdoch were actively trying to forge some solution that involved the company.

One possibility floated by numerous sources was that Chernin could once again work with Microsoft on settling all the turmoil around Yahoo of late.

In a related matter, sources said he had been in very early talks with the company about doing a subscription original-content channel on its Xbox–a kind of digital-only HBO–aimed at young men. Those discussions have not resulted in any project.

And, in fact, Chernin was a guest speaker at a Microsoft board retreat just yesterday in the Seattle area, where the theme was “Three Screens.”

He reportedly addressed television, the other two screen being the computer and the mobile phone.

A tighter relationship between Chernin and Microsoft would be interesting and possibly helpful to both.

“Microsoft is very worried about making sure there is a stable Yahoo,” said a source close to the situation, who noted the software giant has been quietly eyeing the situation and considering options. “Involving a well-regarded executive like Chernin makes a lot of sense.”

That makes sense given the key online search and advertising partnership Microsoft and Yahoo are now in, which tightly ties their fates together.

Of course, much about the Yahoo situation and any scenario being thought of–from spinning off its Asian assets in China’s Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan, to taking it private, to replacing its management and board–is, as BoomTown has frequently noted, a lot of shadows and dust at this point.

But–as a longtime admirer of Chernin’s curiosity about the digital realm, refreshingly minus the requisite horror over its growth that is so characteristic of much of Hollywood–his interest is a welcome one into the debate over what Yahoo needs to do to reinvigorate itself going forward.

Asking his thoughts might be a good question at the Web 2.0 Summit conference, where Chernin is being interviewed later today on the topic of content.

More Yahoo Deal Scenarios Keep the Goat Rodeo Going Strong!

Kara Swisher — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:29:46 +0000

If wishes were horses, as the old proverb goes, all beggars would ride.

Or, in the case of the incessant corporate drama around Yahoo: If wishes were deals, all bankers would get big fat fees.

Even BoomTown has been harboring a big wish that there were some new scenario–instead of the same retreads that have been bandied about for more than a month–that was at least possible.

But because making up scenarios about the fate of Yahoo is all fun and games, it goes on and on and on.

Today’s latest intrigue is from Reuters, which reports that the Alibaba Group’s Jack Ma is considering entreaties by moneybags private equity folks to give him the many billions of dollars needed to buy back Yahoo’s 40 percent stake in the Chinese Internet giant and perhaps even participate in a takeover of Yahoo itself.

As has been reported here and in many places many times already, private equity and other investor interest has centered for a while on working with Ma to unlock critical financial value for anyone interested in doing any kind of buyout of Yahoo.

And, as it turns out, Ma has long been explicit about wanting to rid himself of Yahoo and to take back control of Alibaba completely.

There’s no doubt the government of China would also look kindly on that result too, many sources say, given the huge size of the vexing foreign ownership of one of the country’s brightest Internet stars.

But, as most also know, wishing–and even offering a giant pile of money–doesn’t make it so, unless Ma can convince Yahoo to sell to him.

And, of course, he also does not have to do anything either, since Yahoo management has little say over his actions at Alibaba, in spite of the large stake Yahoo holds.

As you can see, you can spin these ideas all day long, which is what bankers apparently get paid so much for.

Luckily, I will do it for free.

You could, for example, add Microsoft into the Yahoo mix once again. Would it engage, in order to get the search business in China from Alibaba? Or to finally unload its pricey MSN unit?

And what of News Corp., with its extensive ties in Asia and interest in trading its weak digital properties, such as Myspace, for something better? Wasn’t CEO Rupert Murdoch sniffing around before?

There is also a renewed scenario for Demand Media to become involved.

Of course, let’s not leave out the old faithful plots about how tiny AOL, with its high-Q-quotient CEO Tim Armstrong, could still be a contender.

Just for fun, I will add another interesting idea I recently heard: Comcast. Could the cable and now media giant swoop in at some point and pick up a lot of digital assets it might need going forward?

Don’t forget Disney either–the Hollywood entertainment giant, which has a key interest in moving into the digital space even more boldly.

On consolation: Google is probably out, having been burned before, because of all the antitrust issue inherent in any hookup with Yahoo.

Of course, it will not be a party until Twitter gets here, with its date Zynga.

Finally: Where, oh, where is the holy union of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Steve Jobs when you need them to knock this corporate drama into the stratosphere?

Until it is all sorted out for real, here is a reprint of some of the many similar scenarios I cooked up way back in late September–most of which were investor fantasies, but now are being taken more seriously–in a post titled “Could AOL Merge With Yahoo? Could News Corp. Make a Play? Takeover 2.0 With a Little Help From China’s Alibaba?”

Enjoy–although, as you will see, it’s the same scenarios floated then as now:

Today, as news of the departure of Yahoo’s U.S. head Hilary Schneider and two other top execs got around Wall Street, investors and dealmakers were actually thinking of things other than executive turmoil.

As in: Does the uncertainty, along with a naggingly lackluster stock price and weak growth, create pressure on its CEO Carol Bartz and its board to do something dramatic?

In addition, does the messy public situation even provide an opportunity to put Yahoo into play, despite its market cap of $19 billion?

These and many more are the scenarios being debated in boardrooms of big media and Internet companies today, as well as at private equity firms, investment banks and even in Asia.

That’s because many are focusing on Yahoo’s Asian investments. Yahoo itself owns almost 35 percent of Yahoo Japan and a 40 percent stake in China’s Alibaba Group, assets that now make up–along with cash on hand–most of the company’s valuation.

Alibaba and Yahoo have recently gotten into an ugly public tussle over the Chinese firm’s desire to buy back the shares now, with Bartz holding out for more appreciation.

Now, she might have to do a deal with Alibaba, according to one theory, because a sale of its stake would give Yahoo’s stock a significant boost.

One problem: Alibaba CEO Jack Ma has made it known to anyone who will listen that he loathes Bartz personally, after a series of awkward encounters. That said, he has a close relationship with former Yahoo CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang, who is on both companies’ boards.

That puts Ma in an interesting position, according to another theory, because other U.S. companies with an interest in Yahoo might try to make a deal with him to do some kind of deal with Yahoo.

Most frequently mentioned by big investors in Yahoo: AOL and its CEO Tim Armstrong.

Armstrong, said sources, has not shied away from the idea of Yahoo acquiring AOL and installing him as CEO with Bartz as chairman. AOL’s valuation is just $2.65 billion.

Although AOL has also been trying to turn itself around and is in a much less powerful position than Yahoo, Wall Street likes Armstrong’s story for AOL as a modern-day media and media distribution company.

“At least he has a narrative that is believable,” said one big investor in both companies. “Bartz has no vision.”

Another plus for Armstrong: His friendly and Don Draper-smooth demeanor, in contrast to Bartz’s tough-talking and now too-often curse-laden patter.

And while, Armstrong has assembled an experienced staff. And he himself has deep online advertising sales experience, given his last job as head of U.S. sales at Google.

Also likely to be interested: News Corp. The reason is that its own digital efforts, especially at the MySpace social networking site, have gone sideways.

And there’s history: News Corp. tried to facilitate a merger of MySpace, MSN and Yahoo into a company codenamed “TrafficCo” at the time Microsoft was attempting a takeover of Yahoo.

It was supposed to be headed by former Microsoft exec and now Juniper Networks CEO Kevin Johnson, another possible Yahoo CEO candidate.

That plot did not pan out and News Corp. has been trying mightily to revive MySpace ever since. It certainly would trade it into Yahoo for some stake.

Another hook: Its digital head Jon Miller, who used to be CEO of AOL, almost was CEO of Yahoo, during that same takeover fight. But a noncompete agreement with Time Warner was enforced by CEO Jeff Bewkes at the time.

Both AOL and News Corp. could certainly make approaches to Ma or Yahoo Japan’s Masayoshi Son to agree to help them get back their Yahoo stakes.

Son was the one who made the move recently to switch out Yahoo search for Google in Japan.

And, by the way, Son was one of Yahoo’s earliest investors.

Confused? Well, it is certainly shaping up to be a lively Silicon Valley goat rodeo, as there are also all kinds of private equity companies with spreadsheets already figured if Yahoo shares decline enough.

And there are other ideas spinning on spins into Yahoo, such as Demand Media, which is prepping an IPO, and its perpetually enthusiastic CEO Richard Rosenblatt.

One unlikely player is Microsoft. The once hostile suitor is now a partner to Yahoo in search and online advertising.

Of course, the last and biggest question is what happens between Bartz and the board. While they seem to have backed her this far, she has not performed as she has promised and now seems to have gotten publicly grumpy about all the pressure to do so.

Will the directors, who proved themselves pretty ineffectual in the past, continue to support her? Or will they find some self-protecting way to ease her out?

Some directors are definitely unhappy, sources said, but no one seems to be in charge or particularly influential.

Which could mean even more confusion as Yahoo moves unsteadily forward.

Exclusive: Former Yahoo and Microsoft Exec Dossett to Demand Media

Kara Swisher — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 08:23:06 +0000

According to sources, Jeff Dossett has taken a job at Demand Media as its SVP of Content Partnership Development.

That means Dossett, who has held top online jobs at both Yahoo and Microsoft, will be focused on content distribution partnerships for the online content company’s Demand Media Studio platform.

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.

In March, it hired Yahoo U.S. advertising sales head Joanne Bradford, who worked with Dossett at Microsoft.

When BoomTown last checked in with Dossett in mid-2009, he was leaving Yahoo for an adventure-focused start-up.

As its SVP for North American Audience, Dossett had been in charge of all of Yahoo’s media assets, including its powerful News, Sports and Finance content sites.

Dossett had joined Yahoo in late 2008, coming to the company from Microsoft, where he was MSN executive producer and general manager.

In his job at MSN, Dossett was the lead for audience, content and programming strategy and execution in the U.S.

He had worked at the company since 1991, in a variety of sales and marketing jobs in Canada, and later worked on strategy and business development for MSN.

Dossett was also CEO of Carpoint, now MSN Autos, and was GM of its real-estate arm.

He also took two years off from Microsoft in 2002 to climb the highest mountains on each of the seven continents, finally reaching the summit of Mount Everest in May of 2004.

Dossett reached the summit of Everest for a second time in 2008.

Wonderwall Goes Latino

Kara Swisher — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 07:46:34 +0000

Hola Sofia Vergara!

In an interesting brand extension, the popular celebrity and entertainment site Wonderwall has launched a version aimed at the U.S. Hispanic market called Wonderwall Latino.

The main Wonderwall site, which is a partnership between Hollywood production company BermanBraun and Microsoft’s MSN portal that launched in early 2009, now has 11.3 million unique users and 337 million page views a month.

That site is getting a design overhaul, with new features including voting buttons, a dedicated video page and a buzz stream with breaking news and tweets, as well as apps for the Apple iPhone and IPod Touch.

According to an MSN blog on the Wonderwall extension, “BermanBraun will spearhead the design, programming, and operations of the digital brand. MSN will provide unique content and lead the advertising efforts in partnership with Microsoft and BermanBraun.”

BermanBraun also recently debuted a political site called BLTWY with MSNBC.com.

Exclusive: New MSNBC.com-BermanBraun Online Political Site BLTWY Launches

Kara Swisher — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:12:41 +0000

While it seems to be a stealth launch, the new online political site for MSNBC.com, created by Hollywood production firm BermanBraun, is now up and running.

Called BLTWY–as in “Beltway,” presumably for the road that rings the nation’s capital–the striking rich-media content site is now live. (You can see it above.)

BLTWY seems to follow along the sweeping horizontal wall and extensive use of larger photos and videos that characterize BermanBraun’s popular Wonderwall celebrity site.

In May, BermanBraun and MSNBC announced the collaboration in a blog post, noting:

“Politicians have now become part of popular culture, and de-facto celebrities, attracting considerable media attention. BermanBraun and the Msnbc Digital Network announced a partnership to create an original destination site which will go beyond policy and polls to explore the celebrity side of politics…It will take you inside the beltway to explore the lives of politicians as celebrities, giving politics the Wonderwall treatment.”

BLTWY is definitely aimed at meshing celebrity and politics and has a lot of interactive elements, such as polls and Facebook Connect.

In fact, the main feature at the moment is a diva depiction of the Supreme Court.

The slick site also appears to be developed in HTML5, rather than using Adobe (ADBE) Flash technology and fits to the entire screen with the homepage remaining in a persistent manner.

BermanBraun has already created several sites for Microsoft (MSFT) and its online properties. Wonderwall debuted in 2009 on its MSN portal, where its women-focused Glo also resides.

Could AOL Merge With Yahoo? Could News Corp. Make a Play? Takeover 2.0 With a Little Help From China's Alibaba?

Kara Swisher — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 18:54:11 +0000

Today, as news of the departure of Yahoo’s U.S. head Hilary Schneider and two other top execs got around Wall Street, investors and dealmakers were actually thinking of things other than executive turmoil.

As in: Does the uncertainty, along with a naggingly lackluster stock price and weak growth, create pressure on its CEO Carol Bartz and its board to do something dramatic?

In addition, does the messy public situation even provide an opportunity to put Yahoo into play, despite its market cap of $19 billion?

These and many more are the scenarios being debated in boardrooms of big media and Internet companies today, as well as at private equity firms, investment banks and even in Asia.

That’s because many are focusing on Yahoo’s Asian investments. Yahoo (YHOO) itself owns almost 35 percent of Yahoo Japan and a 40 percent stake in China’s Alibaba Group, assets that now make up–along with cash on hand–most of the company’s valuation.

Alibaba and Yahoo have recently gotten into an ugly public tussle over the Chinese firm’s desire to buy back the shares now, with Bartz holding out for more appreciation.

Now, she might have to do a deal with Alibaba, according to one theory, because a sale of its stake would give Yahoo’s stock a significant boost.

One problem: Alibaba CEO Jack Ma has made it known to anyone who will listen that he loathes Bartz personally, after a series of awkward encounters. That said, he has a close relationship with former Yahoo CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang, who is on both companies’ boards.

That puts Ma in an interesting position, according to another theory, because other U.S. companies with an interest in Yahoo might try to make a deal with him to do some kind of deal with Yahoo.

Most frequently mentioned by big investors in Yahoo: AOL (AOL) and its CEO Tim Armstrong.

Armstrong, said sources, has not shied away from the idea of Yahoo acquiring AOL and installing him as CEO with Bartz as chairman. AOL’s valuation is just $2.65 billion.

Although AOL has also been trying to turn itself around and is in a much less powerful position than Yahoo, Wall Street likes Armstrong’s story for AOL as a modern-day media and media distribution company.

“At least he has a narrative that is believable,” said one big investor in both companies. “Bartz has no vision.”

Another plus for Armstrong: His friendly and Don Draper-smooth demeanor, in contrast to Bartz’s tough-talking and now too-often curse-laden patter.

And while Bartz is losing execs, Armstrong has assembled an experienced staff. And he himself has deep online advertising sales experience, given his last job as head of U.S. sales at Google (GOOG).

Also likely to be interested: New Corp. The reason is that its own digital efforts, especially at the MySpace social networking site, have gone sideways.

And there’s history: News Corp. (NWS) tried to facilitate a merger of MySpace, MSN and Yahoo into a company codenamed “TrafficCo” at the time Microsoft was attempting a takeover of Yahoo.

It was supposed to be headed by former Microsoft exec and now Juniper (JNPR) CEO Kevin Johnson, another possible Yahoo CEO candidate.

That plot did not pan out and News Corp. has been trying mightily to revive MySpace ever since. It certainly would trade it into Yahoo for some stake.

Another hook: Its digital head Jon Miller, who used to be CEO of AOL, almost was CEO of Yahoo, during that same takeover fight. But a noncompete agreement with Time Warner (TWX) was enforced by CEO Jeff Bewkes at the time.

Both AOL and News Corp. could certainly make approaches to Ma or Yahoo Japan’s Masayoshi Son to agree to help them get back their Yahoo stakes.

Son was the one who made the move recently to switch out Yahoo search for Google in Japan.

And, by the way, Son was one of Yahoo’s earliest investors.

Confused? Well, it is certainly shaping up to be a lively Silicon Valley goat rodeo, as there are also all kinds of private equity companies with spreadsheets already figured if Yahoo shares decline enough.

And there are other ideas spinning on spins into Yahoo, such as Demand Media, which is prepping an IPO, and its perpetually enthusiastic CEO Richard Rosenblatt.

One unlikely player is Microsoft (MSFT). The once hostile suitor is now a partner to Yahoo in search and online advertising.

Of course, the last and biggest question is what happens between Bartz and the board. While they seem to have backed her this far, she has not performed as she has promised and now seems to have gotten publicly grumpy about all the pressure to do so.

Will the directors, who proved themselves pretty ineffectual in the past, continue to support her? Or will they find some self-protecting way to ease her out?

Some directors are definitely unhappy, sources said, but no one seems to be in charge or particularly influential.

Which could mean even more confusion as Yahoo moves unsteadily forward.

Until it all settles down, please enjoy this video of an actual goat rodeo: