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 October 4, 2010 at 1:05 am PT
Sorry, folks, but–despite reports–Yahoo will not be unveiling another new organizational structure this week.
In actuality, the beleaguered Internet giant is just cleaning up from last week’s shake-up–in which it announced that a chunk of its top media and sales leadership was leaving–as well as settling in new hires made in recent months by its relatively new product head, Blake Irving.
In fact, those changes in Irving’s unit have resulted in the departure of two more execs. That would be former SVP of Media Products and Solutions Jeff Kinder and SVP for Cloud Computing Shelton Shugar, who are on their way out.
Drake Martinet in News on May 29, 2010 at 8:06 pm PT
We’re in the final countdown for the
D8 conference, which kicks off this Tuesday with Steve Jobs, live and unscripted. The pillows are being fluffed, the furniture arranged and the festive D8 crew bowling shirts distributed. You do not want to miss this. But before we can bring you all the
D8 awesomeness, we should, as always, do a little wrap up of what was a fairly wild week in tech news, Weekend Update-style.
Kara Swisher in News on May 28, 2010 at 10:43 am PT
Another longtime Yahoo exec is departing–this time Tapan Bhat, who had purview over the Internet giant’s important front page.
News of the departure came from new Chief Product Officer Blake Irving in an internal email titled “Busy Week” that highlighted the Yahoo investor day that took place yesterday.
Buried at the end of the memo was a paragraph noting that “there’s always a downside to a productive week” and that Bhat had decided to leave the company.
Kara Swisher in News on November 3, 2009 at 8:15 pm PT
The new MSN homepage debuts tonight and you would be completely correct in thinking the recipe Microsoft has cooked up to inform its design ethos–white, clean and hiply modern–has definite echoes of a certain longtime tech rival.
That would be Apple, of course, with a big dollop of Twitter and Facebook tossed in, and finished off with a generous sprinkling of Microsoft’s new Bing search service.
For those who care: The MSN butterfly logo remains, although it appears to have lost a lot of weight.
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.
Peter Kafka in Media on September 22, 2009 at 8:19 am PT
CEO Carol Bartz explains what Yahoo is getting for its $100 million ad campaign, its first global marketing effort, which was launched today in New York during Advertising Week.
Here’s the rundown of Bartz’s press conference on the branding blowout.
Kara Swisher in News on July 20, 2009 at 6:00 pm PT
Although it’s not news that Yahoo was readying a new version of its homepage and has spent a lot of time doing so–in fact, it’s gone all Handy Manny with a whole lot of test renovations–the Internet giant begins the massive rollout of it tomorrow.
The official launch of what was code-named “Metro,” which Yahoo had previously said was coming in the fall, will take place on an opt-in “beta” basis for the hundreds of millions of users in the U.S. and will be extended to France, the U.K. and India later this week.
The change is an important one for Yahoo, since its front page–one of the most trafficked on the Web–is perhaps its most powerful calling card to users and advertisers, as well as to Wall Street.
Here are the details and also an interview about it all with Yahoo SVP Tapan Bhat, as well as screenshots of the new page.
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.
Kara Swisher in News on February 25, 2009 at 2:28 pm PT
“It’s being changed every minute,” joked one Yahoo source about the reorg now in process at Yahoo, which is being shepherded by new CEO Carol Bartz.
Actually, it’s kind of true, as execs at the troubled Web company are being moved around the board like chess pieces, while others players are added.
According to numerous sources, mostly in Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, Calif. HQ, things are still in flux and not completely settled as yet.
But one thing is clear: Layers are being collapsed quickly, as fewer people are in charge of more, with all roads leading to Bartz.
