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Yahoo holds lead over Microsoft in bidding for hot '90s dotcom startup AOL
When it releases its second-quarter numbers Wednesday, Time Warner will also announce it's ready to dump AOL's dialup business. A combination of modem banks, CD-ROM mailers, and ruthless telemarketers which introduced America to the information superhighway in the 1990s, AOL's ISP business still has more than 8 million subscribers who pay through the nose for a quaintly overpriced service. What will be left: A collection of websites and an online-advertising business that has yet to get advertisers to pay anything even vaguely overpriced. Time Warner has flirted with Yahoo and Microsoft for years, but hasn't yet sealed a deal to get rid of AOL, the business which, on paper, acquired Time Warner at the turn of the millennium. More »
Firefox use growing, Internet Explorer slipping
Only four years after its launch, Mozilla's Google-milking cash cow Web browser, Firefox, is now approaching 20 percent market share, reports NetApplications, a website-statistics provider. Just two months ago, over 8 million people downloaded a copy of Firefox 3, in a marketing stunt which garnered Mozilla a Guinness record. Meanwhile, Internet Explorer is dipping below 70 percent market share. [TGDaily]
Only four years after its launch, Mozilla's Google-milking cash cow Web browser, Firefox, is now approaching 20 percent market share, reports NetApplications, a website-statistics provider. Just two months ago, over 8 million people downloaded a copy of Firefox 3, in a marketing stunt which garnered Mozilla a Guinness record. Meanwhile, Internet Explorer is dipping below 70 percent market share. [TGDaily]
great moments in pr
Microsoft's comment on Yahoo, the 17-word version
We didn't even have to condense the latest statement Waggener Edstrom uberflack Frank Shaw sent on Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock's comments at today's shareholder meeting about Microsoft's botched negotiations to buy Yahoo: "Yahoo is attempting to rewrite history yet again with statements that are not supported by the facts.” The three-word version: "So's your mom."
Google testing video AdSense for games
VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi did the reporting so I don't have to: "Sources close to the matter said that Google has developed an in-game advertising technology that allows it to insert video ads into games. In demos of the technology, a game character can introduce a video ad, saying something like, 'And now, a word from our sponsor,' before showing a short video at the end of a sequence in a game. Since testing has been going on for some time, Google could launch the technology fairly quickly, if it so chooses." Microsoft bought Massive, a company which inserts ads into games, in 2006, and Google bought AdScape, a similar startup, in February 2007. Sony's also getting into placing ads in videogames, but most past efforts have dealt with still images, not video.
VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi did the reporting so I don't have to: "Sources close to the matter said that Google has developed an in-game advertising technology that allows it to insert video ads into games. In demos of the technology, a game character can introduce a video ad, saying something like, 'And now, a word from our sponsor,' before showing a short video at the end of a sequence in a game. Since testing has been going on for some time, Google could launch the technology fairly quickly, if it so chooses." Microsoft bought Massive, a company which inserts ads into games, in 2006, and Google bought AdScape, a similar startup, in February 2007. Sony's also getting into placing ads in videogames, but most past efforts have dealt with still images, not video.
Does Windows Vista by another name smell as bad?
Microsoft has finally released the videos from the company's "Mojave Experiment," where it convinced focus-group attendees who had heard bad things about Vista that they were trying a new and better operating system called Mojave — which was ultimately revealed to be Vista all along. Feel-good marketing triumph or sign of desperation? Considering the company had to pull this stunt at all, I'm going with the latter. [mojaveexperiment.com]
jackpot
Kevin Johnson's multimillion-dollar consolation prize for losing Yahoo
How much does one get for bungling an acquisition of Yahoo and leading a huge investment in Facebook at a questionable valuation? For former Microsoft VP and new Juniper Networks CEO Kevin Johnson, it's at least $8.2 million in salary and signing bonus, plus 1.6 million stock options and a shot at 350,000 shares in performance-tied stock grants over the course of four years. More »
Eric Rudder
Microsoft heir apparent looks for life after Windows
Looking past the fail that is Vista, Microsoft is working on a next-generation operating system codenamed "Midori." Eric Rudder, a senior vice president at Microsoft whose name has been floated as Microsoft's next CEO, will be developing the new OS. Shockingly from a company known for slogging away at version after version of its existing software, Midori won't even be based on Windows. Programming for Midori will also be different, designed for many kinds of devices, from cell phones to server farms. More »
Mancrush
Downright adorable Flickr founder wishes Microsoft had bought Yahoo
In an interview with ZDNet, Flickr cofounder Stewart Butterfield says that he wished Microsoft's bid for Yahoo had gone through — and that the now-scuppered deal wasn't the reason he resigned from Yahoo earlier this month. "Once the ball was rolling I would have rather seen the acquisition happen, he said. "I think a lot of damage was done to Yahoo." The admission will likely shock the Yahoo-owned photo-sharing site's faithful core of hardcore fans, who created satirical Microsoft Flickr logos in response to the software giant's bid. Butterfield also implies that Flickr would have been better off under Google's ownership, since that company was more willing to spend on speculative ventures. It's not a purely hypothetical question: Google was very interested in buying Flickr, but the search engine hesitated, and Yahoo ended up buying Flickr instead. I could go on analyzing Butterfield's comments, but I've become too distracted by a Flickr search of photos which demonstrate how fricking cute he is. The results: More »
We would submit that all tattoos are stupid, not just one of a Zune
The man who had the Zune logo and "Welcome to the social" slogan" tattooed on his arm and back is getting the ink removed. [Real Dan Lyons]
steve ballmer
Jon Miller drops out, so who's getting the top online gig at Microsoft?
Former AOL CEO Jon Miller, reportedly Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's favorite to lead the company's new online division, withdrew his name from consideration yesterday because he'll soon be joining Yahoo's board. So if not Miller, who's going to take on the task of saving Microsoft by building its presence on the Web? The top names under consideration: More »
8:40 AM on Fri Jul 25 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
1,586 views,
3 comments
chris liddell
Microsoft CFO: "Yahoo is essentially a declining asset"
Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell told analysts that the "chances of us buying Yahoo on a full acquisition basis are so small that they are essentially negligible." He said that Yahoo isn't worth what is was in February and will be worth less with every passing day. "We took the view and we still take the view that Yahoo is essentially a declining asset. We made a credibly generous bid with a very high premium because we were looking for speed." Maybe Microsoft-Yahoo never worked out because "negging" — the practice of insulting a prospective lover to make them "fall from the clouds and be interested in talking to you," as UrbanDictionary explains it — doesn't work in corporate courtship, either.
facebook
Live Search deal is Facebook's price for dropping Microsoft ads
Microsoft is inking a deal to run its search results and keyword-linked ads on Facebook, CNBC reports. Make no mistake: Facebook employees share every bit as much disdain for Microsoft's lame Web efforts as the rest of Silicon Valley, despite the company's $240 million investment. So this news is unwelcome, and painful. But inevitable. What caused it? More »
microsoft
Ballmer's reorg memo, the 100-word version
Did Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer really need 1,300 words to say the company has to do better against Apple and Google, with or without Yahoo? No, but he just can't help himself. A version you could get through before Microsoft's next reorg, below. More »
hires
There's a bubble in the market for Jon Miller
Everyone wants a piece of beloved former AOL CEO Jon MIller, who was oh so unfairly fired, loyalists say, by Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes. First gossips suggested Miller as a fit to replace ineffectual Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang. Then, on Monday, Yang himself said Miller would fill one of Carl Icahn's new seats on the Yahoo board. Now, a source tells Kara Swisher that Miller is "one of the top outside candidates on the list" to head Microsoft's new Online Services division. Maybe everyone can stop moaning about the way Bewkes handled Miller's dismissal now?
steve jobs
"The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste"
Flashback to 1996. Steve Jobs and Steve Ballmer in PBS' Triumph of the Nerds. Ballmer promises that Microsoft's newfound focus — after cutting ties to IBM — will rocket the company ahead. Just you wait and see!
steve ballmer
"The success of Windows is our number one job"
Shhh, don't tell Kara Swisher, but we kicked back and let Murdoch's most ruthless mommyblogger ferret out the full email from Microsoft's CEO about the pending shuffling of jobs across the company. We'll just link to it from our pedicure seats at the Valleywag spa. Ballmer name-checks Apple, Google, and Yahoo among the company's main targets.
kevin johnson
