. Energy News .




.
INTERNET SPACE
Yahoo! chairman, three directors stepping down
by Staff Writers
San Francisco (AFP) Feb 7, 2012


Yahoo! chairman Roy Bostock announced Tuesday he was stepping down from the board of the struggling Internet company along with three other directors.

Bostock, in a letter to shareholders, also said Yahoo! was in "active discussions" with its partners in Asia on restructuring its holdings in the Alibaba Group and Yahoo! Japan.

Bostock said he had decided not to stand for re-election at Yahoo!'s next shareholders meeting, along with board members Vyomesh Joshi, Arthur Kern and Gary Wilson.

He said the board elected two independent directors Tuesday: Alfred Amoroso, former president and chief executive of Rovi Corp., and Maynard Webb, a former chief operating officer at eBay.

Bostock said a strategic review of Yahoo! has made "significant progress" and has included "a wide range of discussions with potential partners.

"We have engaged with potential investors and reviewed proposals concerning an equity investment in the company, although at this time there have not been any proposals which have been deemed by the committee to be attractive to our shareholders," he said.

"We are also in active discussions with our partners in Asia regarding the possibility of restructuring our holdings in Alibaba Group and Yahoo! Japan," Bostock said.

"While we continue to devote significant resources to these discussions, we are not in a position at this time to provide further detail or to provide assurance that any transaction will be achieved," he said.

Yahoo! shares were virtually unchanged at $15.83 in after-hours trading that followed the release of Bostock's letter.

The boardroom house cleaning comes just two weeks after Jerry Yang, who co-founded Yahoo! nearly 17 years ago and had an ill-fated stint as chief executive, resigned from all of his positions with the California-based firm.

Yang, 43, one of the original dotcom billionaires, had been on the boards of Yahoo!, Yahoo! Japan and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Yang served as chief executive of Yahoo! from June 2007 to January 2009, during which time he notably turned down a $47 billion takeover bid from Microsoft, earning the ire of many shareholders.

Bostock and Yang have been the targets of stockholder anger as Yahoo!'s stock price sank to about half of what it was when company leaders snubbed Microsoft's generous buyout bid.

Since Carol Bartz stepped down as chief executive in September, Yahoo!'s board has reportedly been looking at selling all or part of the company and Yang was seen as a fierce opponent of a breakup by some shareholders.

Microsoft has reportedly been collaborating with private investors to assemble another multi-billion-dollar offer for Yahoo!.

At least nine private equity firms are also reported to be eyeing Yahoo! and its global audience of 700 million monthly visitors to the company's various websites, including Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! Sports.

Chinese online commerce titan Alibaba is 43 percent owned by Yahoo! and Alibaba Group chairman Jack Ma has a long-standing offer to buy all or part of the company.

Once seen as the Internet's leading light, Yahoo! has struggled to build a strongly profitable, growing business out of its huge Web presence and global audience.

Yahoo! has popular websites but has been losing advertising business to search giant Google, social networking king Facebook and specialized websites.

Yahoo!'s revenue and net profit dropped in the fourth quarter of 2011, capping off its third straight year of declining results.

Related Links
Satellite-based Internet technologies




.
.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries




'App Economy' is huge US job creator: study
Washington (AFP) Feb 7, 2012 - The explosion of software applications for smartphones, tablet computers and Facebook has created nearly 500,000 jobs in the United States since 2007, according to a study published on Tuesday.

The study, sponsored by TechNet, a bipartisan organization of top technology executives, found that the "App Economy" employs 466,000 people in the United States.

"The incredibly rapid rise of smartphones, tablets, and social media, and the applications -- apps -- that run on them, is perhaps the biggest economic and technological phenomenon today," the study said. "Almost a million apps have been created for the iPhone, iPad and Android alone.

"On an economic level, each app represents jobs -- for programmers, for user interface designers, for marketers, for managers, for support staff," it said.

California tops the list of US states with app-related jobs, according to the study performed by Michael Mandel, a Harvard-educated economist with the consulting firm South Mountain Economics.

One in every four "App Economy" jobs is located in California. New York is the top metropolitan area for app-related jobs although the number of jobs in San Francisco and San Jose, California, combined exceeds those in New York.

Rey Ramsey, president and chief executive of TechNet, said the rise of the App Economy, "demonstrates that we can quickly create economic value and jobs through cutting-edge innovation.

"Today, the App Economy is creating jobs in every part of America, employing hundreds of thousands of US workers today and even more in the years to come," Ramsey said.

The study dates the rise of the App Economy to Apple's 2007 introduction of the iPhone and noted that the California gadget-maker's App Store now offers more than 500,000 applications.

According to a study published in September, the ecosystem of applications built for Facebook alone has created at least 182,000 jobs.

The study by the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business said using "more aggressive estimates" the Facebook "App Economy" has created a total of 235,644 jobs.

The Palo Alto, California-based Facebook has 850 million members and tens of thousands of applications have been developed by third parties to run on top of the social network.



.

. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



INTERNET SPACE
'App Economy' is huge US job creator: study
Washington (AFP) Feb 7, 2012
The explosion of software applications for smartphones, tablet computers and Facebook has created nearly 500,000 jobs in the United States since 2007, according to a study published on Tuesday. The study, sponsored by TechNet, a bipartisan organization of top technology executives, found that the "App Economy" employs 466,000 people in the United States. "The incredibly rapid rise of sma ... read more


INTERNET SPACE
China to face electricity shortages?

INTERNET SPACE
Israel seeks Cyprus base to guard gas zone

Rebels free 29 Chinese in Sudan

Commerce returns to Iran-Iraq border river

BP swings into huge profit before US criminal trial

INTERNET SPACE
INTERNET SPACE
Chadbourne Closes More Than 20 Billion in Project Finance Deals

Alta Devices Discloses Record Solar Module Efficiency

Mid-Atlantic SEIA and National SEIA Formalize Partnership to Grow Region's Solar Market

Lawsuit Filed To Halt Riverside County Sun Tax

INTERNET SPACE
EU funding shortfall for ex-Soviet nuclear plants clean-up

Prague to scale back nuclear ambition: minister

French nuclear body approves Atmea reactor safety options

INTERNET SPACE
Enerkem and GreenField Ethanol Announce Quebec's First Waste-to-Biofuels Production Facility

Pennsylvania State Fire Academy Offers Course in Ethanol Response

Plant power: The ultimate way to 'go green'?

America's Economic Future and Clean Energy Potential

INTERNET SPACE
China announces new launch rockets

INTERNET SPACE
Political Leaders Play Key Role In How Worried Americans Are By Climate Change


Memory Foam Mattress Review

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2012 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement