6 posts and columns on Yale

Fired Facebook Acquisitions Exec Lands at Twitter

in Social on May 2, 2011 at 10:02 am PT

Mike Brown, the former Facebook corporate development executive who was dismissed for buying its stock on secondary markets, has taken a similar job at Twitter.

National Broadband Plan Guru Blair Levin Speaks! (Plus the Press Release and Exec Summary)

in News on March 19, 2010 at 5:34 am PT

While trolling around Washington, D.C., this week, BoomTown dropped in on Blair Levin, the executive director of the National Broadband Plan, the opus just released by the Federal Communications Commission. Aimed primarily at boosting the proliferation of high-speed access across the United States, the plan has been shepherded by the telecommunications analyst and former FCC staffer.

Boola, Boola!: Yahoo Marketing Head's Cheerleading Memo Post-MicroHoo

in News on August 12, 2009 at 1:07 pm PT

BoomTown just got this interesting memo that Yahoo CMO Elisa Steele sent out to her staff immediately in the wake of the deal for Microsoft to take over Yahoo’s search technology business two weeks ago. I render it unto you, dear readers, since it shows just how intent the top managers of Yahoo are, especially internally, in reassuring those concerned that Yahoo had not just gutted itself and how it would remain as innovative as ever. Also amusing–for reasons I cannot understand since it is an internal memo–is the use of the code name for Yahoo, which is called Yale, after the famous university in New Haven, Conn.
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When the Misery Index Is Too Upbeat

in News on July 23, 2009 at 10:32 am PT

The Huffington Post has launched a new monthly feature it’s calling the “Real Misery Index,” which it says offers a more accurate snapshot of the economic struggles Americans face today than the original one. Developed in the 1970s by Arthur Okun, a Yale and Brookings Institution economist, the Misery Index is calculated by adding the unemployment rate and inflation rate.

Facebook's Privacy Chief (And California Attorney General Candidate) Chris Kelly Speaks!

in News on May 12, 2009 at 2:52 am PT

BoomTown tried to get Chris Kelly to give up more during an onstage interview I did with the Facebook chief privacy officer last night at the third “Tech Policy Summit” and was only moderately successful in the endeavor. Oh he is a smoothie all right, as a lawyer and now as a wannabe politician. Kelly–who is still working at the social-networking site, where his job is to make sure consumer data, privacy, the children and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s reputation are all safe and sound–is also running for the job of California’s attorney general.
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The Yahoo-AOL Jabberfest Continues Ad Infinitum (Plus Some Jerry Yang Chitter-Chatter on Video)

in News on November 12, 2008 at 5:00 am PT

Last week–in a clear sign that BoomTown has spent way too much face time in front of the idiot box–I compared the endless bickering back-and-forth between Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to the annoying push-me-pull-you antics of Ross and Rachel on the television show, “Friends.” But the continuing discussions–oh, yes, there have been more this week–between Yahoo and AOL execs over the merger of their struggling online companies have their own TV comparison: The never-ending roundelay on “The View.” In other words: Blah, blah, blah. Chitter-chatter. Pointless arguing. Chin-scratching. More blah, blah. More chatter. Blah.