plane

Carol Bartz’s Last F%*& You — Now Aimed at Yahoo Board

Kara Swisher in News on September 6, 2011 at 4:48 pm PT

Of course, she went out with a bang.

DARPA: That’s Mach 20, Baby

Kara Swisher in News on August 10, 2011 at 6:50 am PT

The Defense Department’s secret project agency is launching an aircraft today that does 13,000 miles per hour, or 20 times the speed of sound. Sweeeet.

G5 Idled? Check! Name Tags On? Check! Weeklong Mogul Fest in Sun Valley Will End With Zuckerberg-Gates Chit-Chat.

Kara Swisher in Media on July 5, 2011 at 5:47 pm PT

In case you haven’t heard, the tech and media moguls have jetted their private planes to Sun Valley, Idaho, for the exclusive annual Allen & Company confab and are probably easing into the cocktail hour just about now. Break out the Kistler Chardonnay and name tags!

Amazon Poised to Make a Major Strategic Investment in LivingSocial to Counter Groupoogle (or Goopon?) Threat

Kara Swisher in News on December 1, 2010 at 1:15 pm PT

With the red-hot acquisition dance between Google and Groupon sucking up all the attention, it’s easy once again to ignore the No. 2 player in the fast-growing social buying space–LivingSocial. But not everyone is. According to sources close to the situation, the Washington, D.C.-based company that also focuses on local deals is in advanced talks for a major strategic investment–as high as $150 million–by online retail giant Amazon, at a very hefty valuation of over one billion dollars, to counter a possible Groupoogle challenge.

Socializing Vacation Rentals: The AirBnB Guys Speak!

Kara Swisher in News on November 22, 2010 at 10:38 am PT

A few weeks ago, BoomTown sat down in a hipster coffee place in a hipster section of San Francisco to talk to the hipster trio of founders of AirBnB. Which, if you think about it, is a very hipster name for what is essentially the ability to rent out your apartment, home or wack-a-doo space (such as a shoe-shaped hotel or Frank Sinatra’s Palm Springs estate). It’s an alternative to other fast-growing similar sites such as VRBO–Vacation Rentals By Owner, only with more style and niche cool. But it did get the traditional venture funding, of course.

It's Now Official: Yahoo Hires Ross Levinsohn to Head Key Americas Unit

Kara Swisher in News on October 27, 2010 at 3:54 pm PT

As BoomTown reported yesterday as likely, Yahoo has finally hired former News Corp. digital exec Ross Levinsohn. He replaces Hilary Schneider as EVP of the Americas region, the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s most critical unit. That means Levinsohn will be in charge of both Yahoo’s powerful media properties and also its advertising business. He just signed and here is the official Yahoo press release.

Meet the Yahoo Board: Something Old, Something New–But Will They Do Something?

Kara Swisher in News on October 14, 2010 at 9:00 am PT

With all the noisy swirl around Yahoo of late–from its executive turmoil to its flat growth to its dashed partnerships in Asia to its brash CEO–its board has been unusually quiet of late. Comatose, some might say. But with private equity firms, media companies, Web rivals, big shareholders, Wall Street and others all machinating about trying to grab all or some of the Internet giant, it will be interesting to see if its directors will shake themselves out of their typical comfort zone of inactivity to actually do their job. Thus, time for their moment in the BoomTown spotlight!

Voices

Three Tesla Employees Killed in Plane Crash

Stu Woo, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on February 17, 2010 at 2:55 pm PT

Three employees of electric-car maker Tesla Motors Inc. died Wednesday when their small plane crashed in a residential neighborhood in California’s Silicon Valley, causing a major power outage in the city of Palo Alto but injuring no one on the ground.

Flying the Digitally Friendly Skies: Gogo, Google and the Facebook PR Guy in 17D

Kara Swisher in News on November 13, 2009 at 2:11 pm PT

So, BoomTown–who cannot be unplugged from the matrix for very long without breaking into a cold sweat–was pretty excited to have free Wi-Fi on my Virgin America flight to Washington, D.C., early this morning. Lots of Web companies are footing the bill for people to use wireless for free, in an attempt to boost use and, of course, their brand. While that should be a given in this country, I won’t look a digital gift horse in the mouth.