Kara Swisher in News on March 19, 2013 at 9:39 pm PT
Frankly — and I would know — the Internet pioneer also seems better than ever.
News Byte
Mike Isaac in Social on February 26, 2013 at 10:11 am PT
Polar, an app made for sharing opinions and polling your friends, announced a new funding round of $1.2 million today, and released a new version of the application, now available for
download in Apple’s App Store. Investors in the round include Jerry Yang at AME Cloud Ventures (formerly of Yahoo, of course), John Lilly at Greylock Partners, Maynard Webb from Webb Investment Network, Ash Patel at Morado Ventures, Sam Pullara (formerly of Twitter) and others.
Kara Swisher in News on November 15, 2010 at 12:53 pm PT
A new $10 million micro-venture fund, led by former Yahoo top engineering exec Ash Patel–called Morado Ventures and funded by a group largely made up of ex-Yahoos–is about to launch, according to sources close to the situation.
Expected limited partners in Morado, which means “purple” in Spanish, include former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, former COO Dan Rosensweig and former sales head Greg Coleman. Ex-Yahoo President Sue Decker is also considering investing, said sources.
Also on deck: Yahoo’s two founders Jerry Yang and David Filo, both of whom are still at the company.
Kara Swisher in News on April 19, 2010 at 6:15 am PT
Yahoo said it has hired former Microsoft exec Blake Irving as its chief product officer.
Reporting directly to CEO Carol Bartz, Yahoo said in a statement, Irving will “lead the company’s products organization, which is responsible for the vision, strategy, design and development of Yahoo!’s global consumer and advertiser product portfolio.”
The move confirms a post BoomTown wrote last week about Yahoo’s efforts to hire the longtime Microsoft exec, whose last job there was corporate VP of its Windows Live Platform group.
Kara Swisher in News on April 8, 2010 at 3:52 pm PT
As BoomTown reported earlier today, Yahoo is searching for a new CTO and chief product officer. Its current exec in charge, Ari Balogh, confirmed in an interview this afternoon that he is leaving the company due to family issues.
The leading candidate for Balogh’s job at Yahoo, said several sources, is former Microsoft exec Blake Irving.
Kara Swisher in News on April 8, 2010 at 9:38 am PT
According to numerous sources, Yahoo has been seriously courting former Microsoft exec Blake Irving to take over as one of its key execs, running its product organization and essentially becoming the Internet “visionary” many think the company lacks.
While it is unclear if Irving has agreed to take the job, sources said Yahoo management was keen on him working there.
It’s unclear what the move means for current CTO and Chief Product Officer Ari Balogh. But sources said Balogh has been involved in the search, and was planning on taking some time off from Yahoo soon for personal reasons.
Kara Swisher in News on March 19, 2010 at 11:15 am PT
Yahoo Chief Technologist Sam Pullara is leaving the company to become an Entrepreneur in Residence at Benchmark Capital.
BoomTown inquired about the departure earlier in the week and got a call from Yahoo PR today confirming the move.
He’s the second major exec to leave Yahoo for greener pastures in a week. The company’s head of North American Revenue, Joanne Bradford, quit Monday to take a top job at social media start-up Demand Media.
Kara Swisher in News on November 3, 2009 at 1:59 pm PT
Longtime Yahoo tech leader Ash Patel is taking some time off until early 2010.
Yahoo confirmed the break to BoomTown.
In recent days, some inside the company had mistakenly thought the 44-year-old EVP for Product Architecture & Strategy was departing the company for good.
Actually, it’s more of a sabbatical for Patel.
Kara Swisher in News on February 26, 2009 at 11:46 am PT
Along with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz’s external email earlier today, the company also outlined the new management structure in another memo.
It’s pretty much what BoomTown has been reporting all week. Top-down simplification, which is another word for: Carol rules over Yahoo.
CTO Ari Balogh gets a lot of stuff as new head of products, and so does U.S. head Hilary Schneider, including mobile, as EVP of North American Region. Bot report to Bartz.
Here’s the entire memo of Yahoo’s new organization.
Kara Swisher in News on February 25, 2009 at 6:29 pm PT
There’s no question Yahoo owes longtime veteran exec Ash Patel a lot, as it has grown into a global Internet behemoth.
Since getting to the company in 1996–which essentially means he was present at the creation–Patel has pretty much been involved in all of Yahoo’s well-known consumer products.
But, because of his impact and longevity, Patel has also become a symbol for many inside Yahoo right now, who mention him most often in the should-he-stay-or-should-he-go-now debates about who should lead the company into the future.