Yahoo CEO: "Google Is Going To Have A Problem"

It's no secret that Google has, on a very steady basis, dominated its competition and managed to return big profits. And Carol Bartz may be in no position to question the company's methods. But Yahoo's CEO nonetheless chose to point out a potential weakness this week, and she may be on the right track.

Does Carol Bartz have enough credibility to criticize Google? Tell us what you think.

Bartz told Jonathan Fildes, "Google is going to have a problem because Google is only known for search. It is only half our business; it's 99.9% of their business. They've got to find other things to do."

Also, in terms of how Google will be judged as it attempts to find those other things, Bartz observed, "Google has to grow a company the size of Yahoo every year to be interesting."

The 99.9 percent figure is obviously an exaggeration. Still, if you figure that Google has a market cap of around $169 billion and Yahoo's market cap is closer to $24 billion, the second remark doesn't seem too inaccurate.

So as Bartz indicated, that puts a lot of pressure on Google to succeed at something other than search. Whether that something's Android, Google Apps, the TV Ads program, or a different product doesn't matter, but in this light, Yahoo's rather scattered network of properties starts to look a little more attractive.

UPDATE: A regulatory filing has revealed that Carol Bartz received $47.2 million in compensation for her work in 2009, which is far more than either Eric Schmidt or Steve Ballmer collected.

Source:

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/04/29/yahoo-ceo-google-is-going-to-have-a-problem

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Yahoo Stopping Mobile 'Go' App in 2010

On Wednesday, Yahoo will tell some mobile phone owners that it's pulling the plug on the mobile app called Yahoo Go (video). Yahoo Go was Yahoo's all-in-one native app of Yahoo services for Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, and Symbian phones, since January 2006. It gathers together Yahoo's services around a rotating carousel motif, the application's start page.

Yahoo Go, which first emerged at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2006, was full of content--but information was buried and the app wasn't intuitive to customize. Yahoo pretty much halted work after January 2008 with Yahoo Go 3.0 beta, and began concentrating more on its Web portal. Yahoo's mobile-optimized Web site, m.yahoo.com, contains Yahoo Go's core features, like search, weather lookups, and RSS feeds for information like headline news and stocks. Yahoo's revamped mobile site also lets you check e-mail, send IMs, and track status updates on Social Networks.

Killing Yahoo Go is in line with Yahoo's mobile strategy, says Yahoo's global head of mobile product marketing, Adam Taggart. "In the past 18 months, Browser quality has been increasing at an accelerated rate. We've doubled down on our mobile Web strategy."

While Yahoo pours resources into streamlining its mobile Web presence, it also continues to release Yahoo Mobile applications for some mobile platforms, like the iPhone and BlackBerry. On top of Yahoo Mobile are more focused standalone applications. iPhone owners interested in stocks can download the Yahoo Finance app, for example. Sports enthusiasts have Yahoo Fantasy Football.

Support for Yahoo Go officially stops on January 12. On Wednesday, active users will see an e-mail or an update notice pushed onto the app itself that will inform them of the shut-down, and urge them to start using m.yahoo.com instead. Visiting the mobile site from some phone models will prompt a download for a compatible native app. Yahoo Mobile still isn't perfect, and it can also suffer from information overload. However, active Yahoo Go users will find that their content is intact, albeit somewhat rearranged.

Source:

http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10399819-12.html

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Microsoft, IBM And Yahoo Are Vying To Take Part In India’s Unique ID Project

It appears that both Yahoo and Microsoft are duking it out to help power the technology for India’s Unique Identification project. Spearheaded by Indian tech czar and Infosys co-chairman Nanden Nilekani, the project aims to assign every Indian citizen with a unique identification number that will identify him or her, similar to a U.S. social security number.

This is no small task considering India’s population of 1.2 billion citizens. It will involve a powerful technology to assign the numbers and a vast database to organize each unique ID. That’s where Microsoft and Yahoo come in.

Earlier this year, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates expressed a strong interest in participating in the project, meeting Nilekani and assuring him that Microsoft would be able to assign the IDs swiftly.

This week Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz lobbied India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to use Yahoo for the project, but Bartz says that there’s no commercial interest in the deal and Yahoo would help power the project on a non-profit basis. Bartz added that Yahoo would be the optimal choice because Yahoo has a major presence in India. The company claims that three out of four Indians access the Internet through Yahoo.

While Yahoo is vastly popular in India thanks to sites like Yahoo Cricket that appeal to the population, its hold may be slipping. Gmail recently overtook Yahoo Mail as the most trafficked email site and Yahoo was forced to shut down its Indian social network SpotM a few months ago, as Google’s Orkut and Facebook emerge as the dominant social networks in India.

It’s unclear if Microsoft has the same “non-profit” stance as Yahoo, but obviously both companies want a piece of a highly ambitious project that could be implemented in other emerging countries. And it looks like IBM is also throwing its hat into the ring as well, so it should be interesting to see which tech giant wins out.

Source:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/11/microsoft-and-yahoo-are-battling-to-take-part-in-indias-unique-id-project/

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Yahoo and Microsoft Extend The Deadline to Close Search Deal

The companies originally planned to finalize the deal by October 27; they now say the deal will be done by early 2010

Yahoo and Microsoft have missed a deadline for finalizing their search and advertising deal and have now extended the deadline for an unspecified period.

When the companies announced in July that Microsoft's Bing search engine would power Yahoo's search results, they said that they planned to finalize the deal by Oct. 27 or use an arbitration panel to hammer out their differences.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, Yahoo said the companies have agreed to extend the period to negotiate and execute the deal.

"Given the complex nature of the transaction, there remain some details to be finalized," Yahoo said in the filing. "The parties are working diligently on finalizing the agreements, have made good progress to date, and have agreed to execute the agreements as expeditiously as possible."

The filing does not provide a new deadline for finalizing the agreement.

In a joint statement, Microsoft said it was committed to the agreement and that the companies had mutually agreed to extend the deadline.

"We plan to do this as expeditiously as possible. Both companies are optimistic that we will be able to close this deal by early 2010," Microsoft said.

Yahoo and Microsoft initially estimated it would take them two years to fully implement the deal, which also involves Yahoo providing premium Search Advertising Services for both companies.


Source:

http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/yahoo-and-microsoft-extend-deadline-close-search-deal-986

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Yahoo Revenue Down, But Income Up Sharply

The online company posts a 244 percent increase in net income from a year ago

Yahoo has reported revenue of $1.58 billion for the third quarter of 2009, down 12 percent from the same period a year earlier, although net income was up sharply, by 244 percent, the company said.

Yahoo's third-quarter income was $186 million, the company said Tuesday, up from $54 million for the third quarter of 2008. Earnings per share was $0.13, significantly ahead of analyst estimates of $0.07, according to those polled by Thomson Reuters.

"In the third quarter we saw strength in key areas of our business," Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse said in a statement. "Our efforts to reposition Yahoo are still in the early stages, but we're confident that our investments in the business will enable us to capitalize on growth opportunities as the economy recovers."

The increase in net income was due to a variety of factors, including a slower-than-anticipated growth in hiring and savings in broadband costs, Morse said during a conference call.

Display Advertising Revenue was down 8 percent for the quarter, but there were double-digit decreases in the first and second quarters of the year. "Things are starting to loosen up," Morse said. "The ad dollars are starting to flow a little better."

Revenue from Marketing Services, including Yahoo's online advertising business, was down 12 percent from a year ago. Fees revenue, including money paid for services such as music downloads, was down 11 percent.

Cash flow from operating activities was $355 million, a 2 percent increase compared to the third quarter of 2008. Free cash flow was $258 million, up 20 percent from $215 million in the same period of 2008.

Yahoo expects revenue of $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion in the fourth quarter, Morse said.

Yahoo, after being courted by Google, signed a search advertising deal with Microsoft in July. The agreement will allow Yahoo to continue to receive search revenue and allow the company to innovate in search user experience, Morse said.

"We'll innovate on top of the search results that Microsoft delivers to us," he said.

Source:

http://www.infoworld.com/t/financial-results/yahoo-revenue-down-income-sharply-771

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