AllThingsD » records http://allthingsd.com Fri, 25 May 2012 20:26:24 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://allthingsd.com/theme/images/logo-rss.jpg All Things Digital http://allthingsd.com/ 144 22 CEO Says Sorry to Yahoos for Borked Bio "Distraction" -- But Will Mea Culpa Work Without an Apology for Error? (Memo) http://allthingsd.com/20120507/ceo-apologizes-to-yahoos-but-will-the-mea-culpa-work-without-an-explanation-for-the-borked-bio-memo/ http://allthingsd.com/20120507/ceo-apologizes-to-yahoos-but-will-the-mea-culpa-work-without-an-explanation-for-the-borked-bio-memo/#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 23:59:45 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=204971

He’s sorry. Deeply regrets. Apologizes. Takes full responsibility for the unfortunate distraction to the people.

No, it’s not a scandal-ridden politician caught in some compromising position, but Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson talking about the hubbub created by the addition of a fake computer science degree on his bio.

This kind of move is, of course, PR 101, but it still took Yahoo several days after activist shareholder Daniel Loeb uncovered the resume problem, which the Silicon Valley Internet giant said was an “inadvertent error.”

In his new memo, which comes after a terse one on Friday, Thompson said he was upset by how the controversy has impacted the company.

“As I told you on Friday, the board is reviewing the issue and I will provide whatever they need from me. In the meantime, I want you to know how deeply I regret how this issue has affected the company and all of you,” he wrote. “We have all been working very hard to move the company forward, and this has had the opposite effect. For that, I take full responsibility, and I want to apologize to you.”

It is interesting to note that he said nothing in the new email about being actually sorry for the still-mysterious inaccuracy in his bio.

It was present since 2004 when he worked at eBay and also somehow got into the Yahoo regulatory filings after he was hired earlier this year.

Presumably, that information is to come after an investigation by Yahoo’s board, headed by independent director Fred Amoroso, which is proceeding now.

It will be announced officially tomorrow, but it is already in the works, as Thompson noted.

Earlier today, Loeb demanded all books and records about the circumstances of Thompson’s hiring and has made hay out of the issue.

To calm the story, said Thompson to his new troops: “I am hopeful that this matter will be concluded promptly.”

Unfortunately for him, that hope is probably also going to turn out to be inaccurate.

But read it for yourself. Here’s the internal memo that just went out to all Yahoo employees from beleaguered Thompson, which I obtained from the company.

Yahoos:

I wanted to share some additional thoughts with you related to the disclosure of my academic credentials.

As I told you on Friday, the board is reviewing the issue and I will provide whatever they need from me. In the meantime, I want you to know how deeply I regret how this issue has affected the company and all of you. We have all been working very hard to move the company forward, and this has had the opposite effect. For that, I take full responsibility, and I want to apologize to you.

In my note Friday, I said I would be focused on continuing to do what needs to get done. That’s because I feel I owe it to all of you to make sure that nothing disrupts the progress we’ve made in just a few short months due to all of your focus, commitment, and hard work. As you’ve heard me say many times, we have a tremendous business with incredible assets, and we can win by putting our customers first. The progress I shared with you in the first quarter should make clear that we intend to move fast and deliver on the potential of the business for our customers, shareholders, and all of you.

I know the board plans to conduct the review thoroughly and independently, and I respect that process. I am hopeful that this matter will be concluded promptly. But, in the meantime, we have a lot of work to do. We need to continue to act as one team to fulfill the potential of this great company and keep moving forward. You have my word that all my energy and attention will be on that mission.

Scott

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120507/ceo-apologizes-to-yahoos-but-will-the-mea-culpa-work-without-an-explanation-for-the-borked-bio-memo/feed/ 0 Loeb Lobs Lawsuit, as Expected, at Yahoo's Borked Bio Mess http://allthingsd.com/20120507/loeb-lobs-lawsuit-as-expected-at-yahoos-borked-bio-mess/ http://allthingsd.com/20120507/loeb-lobs-lawsuit-as-expected-at-yahoos-borked-bio-mess/#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 16:23:59 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=204506

Botched CEO bio. Activist shareholder. Screwy board of directors. Mix it all together and what do you get?

More legal filings, natch!

This — as I reported this weekend would happen today — from Dan Loeb of Third Point, which is waging a proxy fight against Yahoo.

The aggressive hedge-fund investor — who owns close to 6 percent of Yahoo — recently scored a direct hit by revealing that new CEO Scott Thompson had added a faux degree in computer science to his bio, which somehow made its way into regulatory filings of the Silicon Valley Internet giant.

This, despite a supposed thorough vetting by Yahoo’s board of the former president of eBay’s PayPal payments unit.

Not so much, as it turns out — which is why Loeb is asking for all the information about Thompson’s hiring process and more.

Third Point said it was making a demand “under Section 220(b) of the Delaware General Corporation Law to inspect books and records relating to the hiring of CEO Scott Thompson, the appointment of Patti Hart to the Yahoo! Board, and the selection of Board Members Peter Liguori, John Hayes, Thomas McInerney, Maynard Webb, Jr., and Fred Amoroso.”

And its press release added:

“Third Point believes that Yahoo! shareholders and employees will be best served if the Board accepts responsibility quickly for this latest debacle … We believe that this internal investigation by this Board must not be conducted behind a veil of secrecy and shareholders deserve total transparency.”

Well, it looks like it will eventually be all out in the open, what with all the legal motions flying.

Expect a Yahoo response soon, which sources said will focus on a board investigation — using an outside law firm, and headed by independent director Amoroso.

Here you go on Loeb’s shot today:

Third Point May 7 Demand Letter Release

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120507/loeb-lobs-lawsuit-as-expected-at-yahoos-borked-bio-mess/feed/ 0 Yahoo Should Expect Incoming Lawsuit Lobbed by Loeb Tomorrow on CEO Hiring http://allthingsd.com/20120506/yahoo-should-expect-incoming-lawsuit-lobbed-by-loeb-tomorrow-on-ceo-hiring/ http://allthingsd.com/20120506/yahoo-should-expect-incoming-lawsuit-lobbed-by-loeb-tomorrow-on-ceo-hiring/#comments Sun, 06 May 2012 16:01:48 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=204107

On Friday, Third Point’s Dan Loeb — the activist shareholder who is waging an ever-nastier proxy battle against Yahoo — said in a letter regarding the inexplicable errors in the resume of its CEO Scott Thompson that he would take “further action” if he did not get answers.

Let me translate that for Yahoo and any other interested observers: Come Monday, the Silicon Valley Internet giant is likely to be on the receiving end of an official lawsuit demanding all the notes and records related to the hiring of Thompson.

Presumably, Loeb hopes that if he gets ahold of the material on the quick hiring of the former president of eBay’s PayPal payments unit that it will show a sloppy vetting by the board, which led to it not catching inaccurate educational information about Thompson.

Last week, Loeb discredited Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson’s academic credentials and credibility by showing that his bio listed a computer science degree, even though he never obtained one while at Stonehill College.

Perhaps most problematically, that data got into official regulatory filings Yahoo made.

After proven correct, Loeb than quickly lobbed in another letter, making an explicit legal threat to get the resume information:

Third Point will consider it grounds for further action if the Board does not take the following steps by Noon EDT on Monday, May 7th:

1) Publicly reveal the process by which it vetted Mr. Thompson as a potential CEO candidate. This disclosure should include the release of all minutes of any meeting at which Mr. Thompson’s candidacy was discussed and any reports or other materials upon which directors relied to evaluate Mr. Thompson’s candidacy.

2) Disclose whether any Board member, including Maynard Webb, who has long-standing ties to Mr. Thompson, and Ms. Hart, who headed the Search Committee, was aware of Mr. Thompson’s deception prior to receipt of Third Point’s letter yesterday.

3) Provide shareholders with all information regarding the director nomination process, including the so-called “skills matrix” referred to in the Company’s preliminary proxy statement, which the Board purportedly used to determine the qualifications of various candidates, including Third Point’s nominees.

How such a legal demand will be greeted by Yahoo will be interesting, especially given the tension internally. While Yahoo initially reacted to Loeb’s allegations about the inaccurate bio by saying the insertion of a computer science degree was an “inadvertent error,” the board quickly backpedaled and said it would conduct an investigation into the matter.

But that will not be speedy enough for the aggressive Loeb — so, I expect his lawyers have been working all this weekend to prep for his next attack.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120506/yahoo-should-expect-incoming-lawsuit-lobbed-by-loeb-tomorrow-on-ceo-hiring/feed/ 0 Silicon Valley's Tom Perkins -- Who Quit HP Board Over Phone Hacking -- Backs News Corp. Execs in New Scandal http://allthingsd.com/20110719/silicon-valleys-tom-perkins-who-quit-hp-board-over-phone-hacking-backs-news-corp-execs-in-new-scandal/ http://allthingsd.com/20110719/silicon-valleys-tom-perkins-who-quit-hp-board-over-phone-hacking-backs-news-corp-execs-in-new-scandal/#comments Tue, 19 Jul 2011 07:02:42 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=99534

Back in 2006, one of the most dramatic moments of the “pretexting” scandal at Hewlett-Packard was when a very high-profile board member — legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tom Perkins — quit in indignation over the company’s efforts to obtain the phone records of reporters.

“I resigned solely to protest the questionable ethics and the dubious legality of the chairman’s methods,” he said at the time about HP’s sneaky indiscretions, which included spying on a journalist from The Wall Street Journal.

But yesterday, in an interview with the New York Times, Perkins sounded a very different tone as a current independent board member of News Corp., which owns the Journal (and this site too) and, more importantly, is knee-deep in its own phone-hacking disaster.

Noting that the directors are “fully supportive of the top management,” Perkins added: “There’s no reason to believe top management was lying. That’s my very strong belief.”

Ironic? You bet, but apparently not to Perkins.

“This is not like the HP situation,” he told the Times. “The board supports top management.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110719/silicon-valleys-tom-perkins-who-quit-hp-board-over-phone-hacking-backs-news-corp-execs-in-new-scandal/feed/ 0 Mark Hurd Really Wants to Keep the Jodie Fisher Letter Private http://allthingsd.com/20101228/mark-hurd-really-wants-to-keep-the-jodie-fisher-letter-private/ http://allthingsd.com/20101228/mark-hurd-really-wants-to-keep-the-jodie-fisher-letter-private/#comments Tue, 28 Dec 2010 21:45:30 +0000 Arik Hesseldahl http://newenterprise.allthingsd.com/?p=1117 Lawyers for former Hewlett-Packard CEO and now Oracle Co-President Mark Hurd today asked a judge in Delaware to allow him to intervene in a shareholder lawsuit against HP.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are seeking records related to Hurd’s departure from HP in August, including a letter that accused him of sexually harassing Jodie Fisher, a sometimes-actress who worked as a contractor for HP. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is also looking into the possibility that Hurd told Fisher about HP’s then-confidential plans to acquire IT services firm EDS.

Hurd has been trying to keep the letter from being made public, and argued to the judge that since it is his personal property, he should be allowed to join the lawsuit as a party to that end. In the motion, Hurd’s lawyers argue that the letter was sent to “achieve private resolution of a potential dispute” between Hurd and Fisher.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101228/mark-hurd-really-wants-to-keep-the-jodie-fisher-letter-private/feed/ 1 QOTD http://allthingsd.com/20100514/qotd-292/ http://allthingsd.com/20100514/qotd-292/#comments Fri, 14 May 2010 19:18:34 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=40627

“We’ve gone through a period where everyone downloaded everything for nothing and we’ve gone into a grey period it’s much easier to pay for things–assuming you’ve got any money….People only made money out of records for a very, very small time. When The Rolling Stones started out, we didn’t make any money out of records because record companies wouldn’t pay you! They didn’t pay anyone!

Then, there was a small period from 1970 to 1997, where people did get paid, and they got paid very handsomely and everyone made money. But now that period has gone.

So if you look at the history of recorded music from 1900 to now, there was a 25 year period where artists did very well, but the rest of the time they didn’t.”

– Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger on music downloads

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100514/qotd-292/feed/ 0 Cloudy With a Chance of Computing: BoomTown's NPR Debate With Harvard Law Prof Zittrain http://allthingsd.com/20090810/cloudy-with-a-chance-of-computing-boomtowns-npr-debate-with-harvard-law-prof-zittrain/ http://allthingsd.com/20090810/cloudy-with-a-chance-of-computing-boomtowns-npr-debate-with-harvard-law-prof-zittrain/#comments Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:00:23 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=17242 cloudy-with-a-chance-of-meatballs-nashville-tn-fun-places-to-eat-with-kids

This morning, BoomTown was interviewed on the very terrific National Public Radio talk show, “On Point,” along with Harvard law professor Jonathan Zittrain.

The program, moderated by Tom Ashbrook on Boston’s WBUR station, was titled “From Desktop to the Digital Cloud” and dealt with the increasing move of data of all kinds online and into the so-called “cloud.”

In other words, eventually, a completely virtual life for music, photos, records and more, and the end of packaged software.

Zittrain, who was co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, also wrote the scary-sounding book, “The Future of the Internet–and How to Stop It”–a kind of ladies-lock-up-your-daughters title it’s hard not to love for its chutzpah.

He also penned an op-ed piece for the New York Times recently, with another corker of a title: “Lost in the Cloud.”

Some of the “real dangers” of the move to cloud computing that Zittrain cited in the piece: Losing control of data, losing data itself, privacy issues, federal government overreaching, even more nefarious governments abroad and a damper on innovation.

Zittrain is a smart cookie, to be sure, although I did not really agree with him at all on the show about pretty much any of his concerns.

For some non-cloud-friendly reason, WBUR does not allow me to embed the show here; you can listen to it in its entirety by clicking here.

Also, here is a posted response by Zittrain after the conversation, in which I failed to assuage him. He remains “still worried.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090810/cloudy-with-a-chance-of-computing-boomtowns-npr-debate-with-harvard-law-prof-zittrain/feed/ 2 The Mystery of the Vanishing Videogame Boom Solved: Gamers Reduce, Reuse, Recycle http://allthingsd.com/20090706/the-mystery-of-the-vanishing-video-game-boom-gamers-reduce-reuse-recycle/ http://allthingsd.com/20090706/the-mystery-of-the-vanishing-video-game-boom-gamers-reduce-reuse-recycle/#comments Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:47:16 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=8960 pacmanAs we lurched into the recession a year ago, pundits predicted that the videogame business would do fine during the collapse. When times are tough, they argued, people might not go out to see movies, but  gamers would huddle in their basements and play Grand Theft Auto over and over and over.

But game sales have been weak in 2009, even as movie theaters set box office records. What gives?

I’ll let someone else try to explain the movie side of the ledger (although those box office numbers aren’t always what they seem to be). But it turns out that there’s a simple explanation for game slump: It’s that gamers are huddled in their basements playing Grand Theft Auto over and over and over.

Gamers are indeed spending more time playing videogames, say new data from Nielsen. It’s just that gamers aren’t spending more money on games. Instead, they’re playing the games they have, buying used games, and increasingly turning to game subscription services.

Here’s the argument in chart form–you can get a summary here or download the full report here (PDF). Click on the charts to enlarge:

Hours played:

hoursplayed

Used games purchased:

usedgames

Subscription rate:

subscription-rate

All of which explains why Best Buy (BBY) and Wal-Mart (WMT) are both getting into the used game business and why Blockbuster (BBI) and GameFly are expanding their game rental business. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to my game of Hover Kart.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090706/the-mystery-of-the-vanishing-video-game-boom-gamers-reduce-reuse-recycle/feed/ 0 Google's YouTube White House Privacy Policy: "Trust Us" http://allthingsd.com/20090622/googles-youtube-white-house-policy-trust-us/ http://allthingsd.com/20090622/googles-youtube-white-house-policy-trust-us/#comments Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:00:17 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=8256 the_conversationHow do we know that Google isn’t tracking the viewing records of people who watch YouTube videos at the official White House Web site? Because Google says so.

That’s the short version of a followup to a post I wrote earlier this month in which I noted that Google said it was no longer logging data from tracking cookies sent out from WhiteHouse.gov. That move was applauded by the privacy advocates like the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

But there’s a bit of important nuance that I should have highlighted the first time around, and I’m doing so now at a reader’s behest.

Long version: After I wrote my story, I got a note from Daniel Brandt, who runs Scroogle.org, a nonprofit that tries to foil Google’s attempts to track its users’ online behavior. He contended that that Google was still tracking YouTube views on the White House site. “I just clicked on a video at whitehouse.gov…and the YouTube Flash code phoned home to Google about two seconds into the video,” he wrote. “Nothing has changed. What is Google/YouTube talking about?”

I relayed that question to Google (GOOG) spokesman Scott Rubin, who said that Brandt was correct–up to a point. YouTube is still sending viewing data back to the mothership when you watch a video at WhiteHouse.gov. It just doesn’t pay attention to said data.

Rubin’s explanation:”Even though the cookies are still sent as before when playback starts (since we did not change the domains of the video or playback functionality), we no longer log this information.” Just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything, I asked Rubin what exactly becomes of the cookie data that YouTube receives from the site. “We don’t store it anywhere,” he wrote.

Is that an adequate answer? It’s OK with me, but then again, I don’t ever assume that the Web offers real privacy. And if you have a rigid distrust of Google or other institutions in general when it comes to privacy issues, I’m guessing it won’t cut it.

But the EFF, which is about as vocal and aggressive as it gets when it comes to the stuff, is OK with the answer. Pretty much. Here’s legal director Cindy Cohn’s response to me when I relayed Rubin’s explanation:

It doesn’t satisfy us entirely, but it’s a small good thing. The part that is especially troubling here is how difficult it has been to get YouTube to publicly disclose the nature of this change, much less get a clear idea of what logging/tracking is still going on through other means. This information should be in the whitehouse.gov privacy policy, which right now is remarkably vague about what information is going to YouTube, much less what it does with the information it receives. YouTube should also disclose it, at least on their blog if not elsewhere. Basically now citizens won’t know unless they happen to follow EFF’s blog, your blog or one of the other tech media outlets who have followed the story. That’s a real problem. The public deserves to know–clearly and in nontechnical language–what is happening with their viewing information, both on Whitehouse.gov and elsewhere.

To sum up: If you’re the kind of person who’s worried about the information that Google collects about you when you surf the Web, you can feel a little more secure about what happens when you visit WhiteHouse.gov–if you’re the kind of person who’s placated by Google’s assurances. I’m guessing that’s a very narrow Venn diagram.

And in case you’re wondering, All Things Digital has its own cookie policy, which the site breaks out separately from its privacy policy. You can find it here.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090622/googles-youtube-white-house-policy-trust-us/feed/ 0 Ministry of Love. How May I Detect Your Call? http://allthingsd.com/20080702/ministry-of-love/ http://allthingsd.com/20080702/ministry-of-love/#comments Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:24:53 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=2672 Is the Government Tracking Us Through Our Cellphones? Of course it is. If the National Security Agency hopes to create an accurate “database of every call ever made” within the nation’s borders, it needs to know the locations from which they were made, right? And if the Justice Department ever gets around to complying with the Freedom of Information Act request seeking records related to such tracking practices and the apparently gutted definition of “probable cause” that governs them, we’ll find out just how far along it is.

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