Kara Swisher in News on February 25, 2011 at 6:00 am PT
Despite all the polite throat-clearing in the various internal memos coming out of AOL today, with a rejiggering of its content management–including the ousting of Media and Studios President David Eun–what really happened was what sources said will be an about-face from a recent strategy of how to run its media business.
That is likely to begin with the hip-checking of “The AOL Way,” which many sources tell BoomTown was Eun’s brainchild, once the $315 million acquisition of the Huffington Post is completed.
Kara Swisher in News on October 3, 2010 at 9:45 am PT
Jimmy Pitaro, who is leaving his job running the powerful media properties at Yahoo, has taken a job as co-president of Disney Interactive Media Group, with John Pleasants.
Pleasants was CEO of Playdom, the online game company that Disney acquired for $763 million in late July.
The appointment of the pair, both of whom will report to Disney President and CEO Robert Iger, is a big move by the entertainment giant and looks like another attempt to clarify and bolster its Web strategy, which has had a long and often rocky history.
Peter Kafka in Media on September 27, 2010 at 9:42 am PT
Gilt Groupe, the earliest and best known of the U.S. “private sale” shopping sites, has a new boss: Founder Kevin Ryan, who previously served as the company’s chairman, is now running the company. Susan Lyne, brought in as CEO two years ago from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, has been moved into Ryan’s old chairman slot.
Kara Swisher in News on June 22, 2010 at 8:43 am PT
Oh dear, here it comes round again, like a bout of the flu–the indefatigable narrative about how Microsoft is headed downhill at an alarming speed, how CEO Steve Ballmer is about to get the boot and how it is all really, really true since the echo chamber of tech keeps repeating it.
But is the sky really falling?
Kara Swisher in News on April 16, 2010 at 9:54 am PT
You have to give Yahoo an A for effort, if perhaps the ultimate grade in its ongoing quest to buy hot mobile social network Foursquare is an F.
While Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley, who controls a large chunk of the shares of the start-up, has so far turned down several $100 million-plus offers from Yahoo, sources said the company’s newish head of mergers and acquisitions, Andrew Siegel, is back in New York today still trying to convince him to sell.
So far, Foursquare appears to have developed a case of cold feet about marrying the Internet giant and seems more likely to opt for a large round of funding from venture firms.
Peter Kafka in Media on February 25, 2010 at 12:15 pm PT
Interested in buying Associated Content, which specializes in generating lots of low-cost, search-friendly content? The company isn’t technically for sale, and there’s no pitch book. But if you’ve got an offer, you can go ahead and contact Allen & Company, the media bankers that Associated Content hired late last year.
Kara Swisher in News on January 25, 2010 at 3:47 am PT
While AOL denied a report last week suggesting that CTO Ted Cahall is leaving, he actually is, um, leaving. Oops! Perhaps to defocus from the CTO-is-not-leaving-oh-yes-he-is snafu, AOL also announced the acquisition of StudioNow, a video creation and distribution platform, as well as the opening of a new tech center in New York, helmed by Jeff Reynar.
Peter Kafka in Media on January 21, 2010 at 4:32 am PT
Hard times? Sure, for mere mortals. But at Google, things are back to normal: The company signaled months ago that it had made it through the recession without much problem. Wall Street has gotten the message. It expects serious numbers from the search giant when it hands in its earnings report card this afternoon.
Kara Swisher in News on October 21, 2009 at 12:12 am PT
Yahoo has hired a new head of mergers and acquisitions–former General Electric M&A exec Andrew Siegel, who will now be VP of corporate development.
Yahoo CFO Tim Morse dropped the news with no details about that title in an interview with The Wall Street Journal about the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s third-quarter earnings.
One question apparently not answered was what exactly is the status of its current top M&A exec, Greg Mrva–who has had the title Siegel now has posted on his LinkedIn profile–as well as that of VP of mergers and acquisitions more recently.
Peter Kafka in Media on September 2, 2009 at 9:53 am PT
Five months after Google sales boss Tim Armstrong left for AOL, his old company is still reshaping its sales group. The latest move: David Fischer, who ran the company’s core self-serve ad business, is going on sabbatical later this month and will return to a different post. Newish sales boss Nikesh Arora says he hasn’t found a successor for Fischer and will step into his shoes in the meantime.