Voices

The Big Email Opportunity

The decades-old enterprise email model to which users are so firmly wedded is cracking.
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Smartsheet — Spreadsheets Reimagined — Lands $26 Million From Insight and Madrona

If emailing spreadsheets as attachments is your idea of office collaboration, Smartsheet has something it would like to show you.

Flash Madness Part 3: Pure Storage Comes Out of Stealth

The summer that flash memory began to transform the data center continues as Pure Storage unleashes an all-flash storage array.

Yahoo's Q1 Earnings: The Revenue Growth Drought Continues Due to MicroHoo Search Fall-Off

Yahoo announced its first-quarter earnings today, showing a continued worrisome revenue growth stall, due in large part to declines in search revenue from its partnership with Microsoft. The Silicon Valley Internet giant reported revenues of $1.06 billion, down six percent from a year ago, on net earnings of 17 cents a share, down 28 percent.

Exclusive: Yahoo Loses M&A Head to Zynga

Taylor Barada, Yahoo’s recently appointed head of M&A, is joining Zynga in an unspecified role. Barada replaced Andrew Siegel, who left Yahoo earlier this year to join Condé Nast Yahoo staff was told of the move yesterday.

Exclusive: OutCast's Wennmachers Joins Andreessen Horowitz as Partner

Margit Wennmachers, one of Silicon Valley’s leading public relations and communications execs, is joining Andreessen Horowitz as a partner. Wennmachers co-founded OutCast Communications. The move will make her one of a handful of women at high-profile venture outfits. At Andreessen Horowitz, she’ll focus on bringing marketing expertise to the firm and its portfolio companies.

Yahoo Shows Big Profit Increase on Still-Soft Revenue (All the Slides and Numbers Here)

Yahoo said its net income spiked to $310 million, or 22 cents a share, in the first quarter. Revenue, after subtracting what Yahoo pays in advertising commissions, was $1.13 billion. Wall Street was expecting earnings of nine cents per share and net revenue of $1.17 billion. It is the best performance under the leadership of CEO Carol Bartz yet, helped by a turnaround in the online advertising industry.

HotJobs Sold to Monster in Yahoo Garage Sale

Apparently, Yahoo’s efforts to sell off some of its noncore properties are going quite a bit better than previously thought. Moments ago, the company said it will sell Yahoo HotJobs to Monster Worldwide, proprietor of rival online career site Monster.com. Price: $225 million in cash.

The One-Year Report Card of Yahoo's Carol Bartz–Deal-Making: Incomplete

Sorry for the break in grading Yahoo’s Carol Bartz on her one-year anniversary as CEO. But BoomTown was swanning around the Sundance Film Festival in Utah this weekend, went partying with those boozy Hollywood types and ended up in Provo with the crazy gals from “The Runaways”! I wish! Actually, running away from issuing any grade for deal-making for Bartz is a pretty good way to put it. Because today, after much thought, I have to give the Yahoo leader an incomplete for deal-making.

As BoomTown Said: VMware Buys Zimbra From Yahoo (Plus the Full Press Release)

As BoomTown previously reported, VMware officially confirmed today that it is buying Yahoo’s Zimbra open-source email unit. Financial terms were not disclosed, but sources said the price was well below the $350 million Yahoo paid for the start-up in late 2007. Sources also said there is a large employee-retention element to the sale to encourage Zimbra’s 110 employees to make the move to VMware. VMware said the acquisition is expected to close in the first calendar quarter of 2010.