Tag Archives: yhoo

Yahoo Sets Panel To Seek Deals; Verizon Says No To ‘Falling Knife’

Yahoo ’s ( YHOO ) board on Friday formed a committee of independent directors to entertain offers for its core Internet business, if they come. One of the prospective buyers , Verizon Communications ( VZ ), this week said it does not want to “catch a falling knife,” referring to the state of Yahoo’s business. Private equity firms are said to be interested in Yahoo, but   IAC/InterActiveCorp ( IAC ) has signaled it’s not in the running. Aside from forming a committee of independent directors to explore possible transactions, Yahoo on Friday announced that it will bring in Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and PJT Partners as financial advisors, along with law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Yahoo stock was up 2.5% in midday trading in the stock market today , near 30. Bloomberg reported earlier this week that activist investor Starboard Value, which has been pushing for changes, could wage a proxy fight at Yahoo. Yahoo dropped plans last year to spin off its stake in Alibaba Group ( BABA ). Executives have said they might create a separate company that would house Yahoo’s Internet business and its stake in Yahoo Japan, but a lot of options appear to be on the board for the struggling Internet company. Verizon has talked up its interest in buying some Yahoo assets “at the right price.” Verizon last June acquired AOL for $4.4 billion, including about $300 million in AOL debt. AOL’s Internet business had been improving, while Yahoo’s display advertising growth has slowed, but Yahoo has been focusing on mobile and other growth areas. UBS telecom analyst John Hodulik, in a research report Thursday, said Verizon seems in no rush, based on a meeting with AOL’s chief executive, Tim Armstrong. Armstrong told UBS that Verizon would need more information on the state of Yahoo’s business under due diligence, according to Hodulik’s report. “They’d have to start a process, share all the data regarding audience, distribution, monetization and talent,” Armstrong told UBS. “Everything at this point is theoretical. Assets with rapidly a growing number of users are very expensive. Even those with a stable number of users are expensive. That said, you don’t want to catch a falling knife. Hard to know until we get a look.”

Mayer Touts Yahoo’s Mobile Growth At Developers Conference

SAN FRANCISCO — Amid a generally falling stock and an uncertain future, Yahoo ( YHOO ) opened its mobile developers conference in San Francisco on Thursday with a keynote by CEO Marissa Mayer that avoided addressing the company’s troubled state of affairs . Speaking to several hundred developers of mobile apps — the balconies at the historic Masonic venue were empty — she kicked off the daylong affair with an optimistic tone, a day after the company’s latest round of layoffs. “We’re continuing to invest in tools that will help developers build great apps, reach new audiences and grow into great businesses,” Mayer said in the prepared speech. “Today we’re pleased to announce that we have passed 800,000 applications. That means we’ve had almost 500 applications added each day of the past year.” Mobile has been a Yahoo focus since Mayer came aboard as the heralded new CEO in 2012, recruited away from a top role at Google, which is now a unit of Alphabet ( GOOGL ). On Wednesday, tech news website Re/code reported  that the company had designated it as the day of the week to implement the job cuts  that the company announced would be coming early this month, when it said it was mulling its strategic options. The company has said it plans to lay off 15% of its workforce, cutting about 1,600 jobs . Mayer reportedly intends to spread the layoffs over several Wednesdays. One Yahoo employee told the New York Times that it was “kind of a blood bath” at Yahoo’s offices. “Only a handful of people are staying,” the employee, who requested anonymity, told the Times. Yahoo stock edged up a fraction Thursday, to 29.42. Shares last week touched a 31-month low of 26.15. In her speech, Mayer touted the $1 billion annual revenue being brought in by apps developed on Yahoo’s mobile ad and analytics property, called Flurry. “We want you to know that you’re in the right place,” Mayer said. Yahoo Touts ‘Long-Tail’ Mobile Apps Mayer also told developers that, though mobile growth in general is “plateauing,” developers should focus on capturing more of the time that people spend on mobile devices. “At Yahoo, we believe that the mobile industry is going to be defined by many players, not just a handful,” she said, adding that long-tail apps — designed for less common tasks such as a virtual dressing room — are growing far more quickly than those designed for common tasks such as email or instant messaging. Simon Khalaf, Yahoo vice president of publishing products, also warned that mobile is a maturing industry, which some took to mean that 2016 might see a slowdown. “Mobile is growing so fast,” Khalaf said in his prepared remarks, following Mayer’s. “There was a phenomenal growth year, but growth rates are declining.  Wall Street thinks that hardware is on the decline due to saturation, but there’s more opportunity in software. It’s the sign of a maturing industry.” Mayer spoke for just over 10 minutes, though she was scheduled to talk for 25 minutes. At last year’s conference, she took questions from reporters, but this year Yahoo declined to make her available, substituting Khalaf instead. Mobile has been a significant focus for Mayer, part of what the company calls its “MaVeNS” strategy — focusing on the growth areas of mobile, video, native ads and social. Yahoo has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire firms such as Flurry and BrightRoll. The company reported 45% growth in its MaVeNS revenue in 2015 and 26% year-over-year growth in Q4, compared with 8% and 2% growth for the company overall. Mobile represented about 20% of Yahoo’s revenue last year. The embattled CEO has also made big bets on its media properties — bets that did not pay off, as Yahoo on Wednesday said it’s shutting down several of its online magazines, such as food and travel. It plans to reduce the size of its tech reporting staff and eventually fold it into Yahoo News . Yahoo’s revenue growth has now stalled for nearly a decade. Advertising dollars continue to slip away to rivals such as Facebook ( FB ), Netflix ( NFLX ), Google and others. Yahoo’s Q1 2016 guidance disappointed analysts. Nomura analyst Anthony DiClemente said that it implies that net revenue and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) will decline by 19% and 53%, respectively. Nomura lowered its price target on Yahoo stock to 34 from 40, citing changes in the valuation of Yahoo’s stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group ( BABA ). Yahoo executives forecast modest revenue growth acceleration in 2017 and 2018.

Apple’s iPhone Privacy Stand Draws Tech Industry Support

Apple ‘s ( AAPL )  refusal to give in to federal demands to loosen iPhone security for law enforcement agencies has earned praise from tech industry executives and civil liberties groups. But some politicians and criminal investigators have slammed Apple’s actions, as the privacy vs. security debate rages. A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Apple to provide “reasonable technical assistance” to the FBI to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the killers in the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings. The order calls for Apple to create software that can get around or disable the security option that erases data from an iPhone after 10 unsuccessful attempts to unlock it. Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, shot and killed 14 people on Dec. 2. The radicalized Muslim couple, described in press reports as supporters of terror group ISIS, later died in a gun battle with police. But late Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook said complying with the court’s order would create a “ dangerous precedent .” The government’s demands threaten the privacy and security of all of its customers, he said. It would create a backdoor for hackers, criminals and government spies to exploit. Among the earliest to support Apple’s pushback to the court order were digital rights groups Electronic Frontier Foundation and Fight for the Future, as well as Edward Snowden, the ex-NSA contractor who revealed the government’s widespread surveillance programs. Also jumping in to support Cook’s message were Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet ( GOOGL ) unit Google, and Jan Koum, Facebook ( FB ) board member and WhatsApp founder. Reform Government Surveillance, a coalition of major online companies, also supported Cook’s actions. Members of the group include AOL, Apple, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn ( LNKD ), Microsoft ( MSFT ), Twitter ( TWTR ) and Yahoo ( YHOO ). Officially, though, few companies have issued a public opinion, nor have many tech CEOs. “RGS companies remain committed to providing law enforcement with the help it needs while protecting the security of their customers and their customers’ information,” the group said in a statement . Other groups backing Apple in its stand include the Information Technology Industry Council, American Civil Liberties Union and the Consumer Technology Association. Government Order Seen Opening ‘Pandora’s Box’ “Government should not mandate that technology companies weaken security that has been developed to protect consumers, even when investigating crimes,” Gary Shapiro, chief executive of the Consumer Technology Association, said in a statement. “Granting government such power could open a Pandora’s Box, setting a troubling precedent and weakening security standards that could be exploited by the very people the government seeks to protect our citizens from — terrorists, hackers and foreign governments.” Mark Cuban, billionaire investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, defended Apple’s decision in a post on his blog Thursday . He said Apple did the “exact right thing by not complying with the order.” “Every tool that protects our privacy and liberties against oppression, tyranny, madmen and worse can often be used to take those very precious rights from us,” Cuban said. “We must stand up for our rights to free speech and liberty.” Meanwhile, politicians who favor giving the federal government greater powers to combat terrorism spoke out against Apple’s decision to fight the court order. The White House backed the FBI’s demand and court order. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sided firmly with law enforcement on the issue. “To think that Apple won’t allow us to get into her cellphone? Who do they think they are? No, we have to open it,” Trump said during an interview on Fox. New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton also backed the feds. “We are increasingly blind for terrorism purposes and for general law enforcement purposes with the new devices and the continuing effort to make them even more secure against even court orders authorizing law enforcement to have access,” Bratton said. The family of a British soldier murdered by Islamic extremists also criticized Apple’s refusal to abide by the court order. Apple is “protecting a murderer’s privacy at the cost of public safety,” Ray McClure, the uncle of Fusilier Lee Rigby, told the BBC. Rigby was off duty when he was killed near his barracks in Woolwich, England, in May 2013. Two men who committed the attack said they were avenging the killing of Muslims by British soldiers.