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Report: Weiner leaves Yahoo, accepts VC offer

Nicholas Carlson · 06/12/08 11:00AM

Scratch another name off ex-Yahoo Bradley Horowitz's list of Yahoo's doomed and departed. Yahoo exec Jeff Weiner, the man in charge of core products like Yahoo.com, Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger has resigned from the company, a person familiar with the situation told the LA Times. He's accepted a new role as an entrepreneur-in-residence shared between venture capital firms Accel Partners and Greylock Partners. That means he'll get an office (or two), a big paycheck (or two) and a charge to think up big ideas — a great gig for a new dad. It's an unusual arrangement, but both firms are stuffed full of ex-Yahoos who probably see an angle in helping Weiner out. The LA Times's source says Yahoo will not immediately replace Weiner, but instead delegate his responsibilites to group of execs. Kind of the way you spread peanut butter over toast, you know?

Hulu lands Viacom's Colbert and Stewart

Nicholas Carlson · 06/10/08 10:00AM

Now showing on NBC Universal and News Corp. Web video joint venture Hulu: the Daily Show's Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report's Stephen Colbert from Comedy Central. Viacom, which owns the Comedy Central network, has long hinted it might join Hulu — we heard rumors the deal was done in March — but until now had only announced agreements with Joost, the failing Internet video company founded by Skype founders Nikolas Zennstrom and Janus Friis.

Apple replaces .Mac with MobileMe

Owen Thomas · 06/09/08 02:20PM


At Steve Jobs's WWDC Keynote, Gizmodo is reporting that Apple has replaced .Mac, its computer-centric set of Web services, with MobileMe, an online suite of email, photos, and file storage. It's designed to keep iPhones, PCs, and Macs in sync — hence the need for a new name. Other than that, little has changed: The service still costs $99 a year — some rumors had it going free — and Apple is still designing the Web software itself, without help from a partner like Google. (Google Maps is now built into Apple's address book, however.) (Photo by Gizmodo)

Video confirms Mozilla's Toronto offices truly are the worst in tech

Nicholas Carlson · 06/09/08 10:00AM

I spent the better part of today at Mozilla's offices in Toronto - the workspace Vallewag labeled as 'the worst in tech'. Mozilla's Toronto office is far from the worst tech workspace I've ever seen - in fact I'd rank it among the best small office spaces in tech I've visited.

Twitter valued at just under $100 million

Nicholas Carlson · 05/30/08 02:40PM

A venture capitalist involved in the deal confirms the news that Twitter is closing a $15 million funding round led by Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures, setting the company's value at nearly $100 million — $80 million before the new investment, $95 million after. Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams can put some of that new cash toward keeping the site up longer. Perhaps by hiring back former Twitter chief architect (not CTO) Blaine Cook who yesterday wrote that "Twitter is dead to me (until IM comes back). Frustrated, because it's not a difficult service to restore."

On Earth Day, Yahoo dumps "Green Guzzler" shuttles

Owen Thomas · 04/22/08 06:20PM

Yahoo has indeed axed its San Francisco-to-Sunnyvale shuttles, a tipster tells us, confirming a longstanding rumor. Ah, but here's the twist: Yahoo has replaced earth-friendly biodiesel buses from Compass Transportation with vehicles from Bauer's Limo. No one told Yahoo's purchasing department that today is Earth day. Bauer's also supplies Google with shuttles, but according to our tipster, Yahoo is getting the dregs of its fleet:

DoubleClick severance: up to four months' pay, if you don't go work for Google's enemies

Nicholas Carlson · 04/02/08 01:20PM

Google layoffs at DoubleClick, the online-advertising tech company based in New York that it just acquired, began a day later than expected. Today, among others, the entire finance team was shown the door. It's a bright, sunny day in New York; a good start for ex-DoubleClickers' four-month vacation. Google's severance package: two months' pay plus another two if they sign a noncompete agreement, a Google source told Vanity Fair. No wonder Google wants them off the market: Yahoo and other online-advertising rivals are actively recruiting DoubleClick veterans. (Photo by stobor)

FCC schedules "do-over" Comcast hearing at Stanford

Jordan Golson · 03/19/08 12:20PM

The FCC has announced that it will hold a second hearing on "net neutrality" — the debate over whether broadband providers can favor some kinds of Internet traffic — at Stanford University on April 17 (PDF). We wrote back in February that FCC chairman Kevin Martin was considering a "do-over"; the FCC's first hearing at Harvard was deemed botched after Comcast was caught packing the room with seatwarmers hired off the street. Now, Comcast has to deal with a hostile crowd and Professor Lawrence Lessig, a strong proponent of net neutrality. Lessig v. Comcast at Stanford? Sign me up!

Nicholas Carlson · 03/12/08 10:40AM

YouTube will allow publishers to access its back technology to build what will look like a proprietary video sharing services. [The YouTube Blog]

Nicholas Carlson · 03/11/08 08:51AM

European regulators officially cleared Google's $3.1 billion DoubleClick acquisition. Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL will provide "credible" competition, the European Commission determined. When did "credible" become a synonym for "hypothetical." [WSJ]

Google News czar closes eyes, hopes we'll go away

Paul Boutin · 03/07/08 03:49AM

The human middle manager behind Google News, which happily crawls gossipmongers TMZ.com and Defamer Australia, still refuses to include Drudge Report, Boing Boing, or for that matter us in the index. (I'm pretty sure I have his name, but not sure enough to run it.) The issue isn't original content. "Definitely some of the blogs they include scrape our stuff, repost our stuff," Boing Boing editor Xeni Jardin emailed me. And Google News does include Slashdot, which is almost entirely reposts from other sites. To be clear: Leave us out. It's good for our brand. But for God's sake if you're going to shove WebProNews at everyone, make up for it with some Daring Fireball.

Yahoo's $160 million fails to produce another Mark Cuban

Nicholas Carlson · 02/12/08 01:00PM

Yahoo admitted it bought online-video distributor Maven Networks today. It turns out Maven founder and CEO Hilmi Ozguc made out better than we thought. Yahoo said it bought Ozguc's company for $160 million, not the $150 million originally reported. All that on just $30 million in funding. Which is good, Hilmi, but if you'd held out for just another $5.5 billion, maybe you could buy a basketball team, learn to dance and complain when reporters don't do what you tell them to do, too.

VentureBeat blogger making big-newspaper money

Paul Boutin · 02/11/08 08:22AM

VentureBeat owner Matt Marshall confirmed to me that he matched respected veteran Valley biz reporter Dean Takahashi's salary to lure Takahashi away from the San Jose Mercury News. How much is that? Unknown, Captain, but in the 1990s, Takahashi's rumored $125,000 annual pay at the original Red Herring had local journalists frothing over their beers. Wait'll they find out what the guys in IT make.

Apple lands all six major studios for movie rentals

Nicholas Carlson · 01/15/08 12:39PM

Just confirmed at Macworld: all six major studios are onboard for iTunes movie rentals. That's Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox and Universal.Variety thought Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. were unlikely to sign on for "various competitive reasons." Maybe there's hope for the flailing Apple TV yet. Why? It's all you need to access the films. No computer required. (Photo by Boereck)

Dickerson draws short straw, takes over for Gatz at Yahoo

Nicholas Carlson · 12/18/07 02:20PM

As we reported first, Yahoo's Scott Gatz confirms he's leaving. Chad Dickerson will move from the Yahoo Developer Network to take over running Advanced Products. This is hardly a promotion for Dickerson; we hear he had a falling out with his boss at the developer group, ex-Microsoftie David Sobeski. Dickerson is now in charge of someday making Fire Eagle a real product. He also gets to work oh so closely with professional conference attendee Salim Ismail. And that brings us to our career advice for Dickerson.

Pay By Touch "took out" 90 employees since Thanksgiving

Nicholas Carlson · 12/17/07 05:28PM

Failing biometrics company Pay By Touch has shed 250 employees in the last "couple months," COO Eula Adams said on a call for shareholders today. Of that 250, Adams said new management "took out" 90 employees in the last couple of weeks. The cuts came to "non-core" Pay By Touch initiatives in "healthcare, online, government," Adams said.

Ding, dong! The Facebook "is" is dead

Nicholas Carlson · 12/13/07 12:20PM

The promised day arrives! Facebook no longer requires an "is" in its status updates, finally ceasing its assault on the English language. When, years from now, historians wonder why no great works of literature came from those born in 1981 to 1986, we'll know who to blame. But at least the damage is stops here and now.