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Why Carol Bartz failed as Yahoo CEO
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Features,
Yahoo's chairman of the board fired CEO Carol Bartz yesterday, to the shock of virtually no one, given both Yahoo's troubles and her notorious attitude. Bartz apparently got the news over the phone, and went right to her iPad to dash off a public message about the news. The company's CFO, Tim Morse, has taken over as interim CEO, stewarding a ship that has largely floundered under Bartz.
It's common for CEOs to make headlines, though Bartz often made them for the wrong reasons, to the point where if you saw a story about her, you could almost be sure it was some kind of gaffe. While Yahoo wasn't in the best shape when she took over, the company hasn't really "stabilized" like she wanted, and it doesn't appear much closer to achieving its apparent goal of re-inventing itself as a content provider and distributor, the search-engine wars largely ceded to Google. On top of that, her employees don't think much of her, giving Bartz a dismal 33 percent approval rate, according to Glassdoor.com. (Steve Jobs' rating, by comparison, was 97 percent when he resigned from Apple).
With the benefit of hindsight, the signs were there from the get-go. Bartz admitted that when she came on board she did so reluctantly, ultimately persuaded to take the job by Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang. Her lucrative compensation was the topic of much discussion, and her initial statements about her plans for the company were anything but composed.
As time went on, Bartz' failures became more apparent. Her problems as CEO of Yahoo come down to three basic issues:
Click to continue reading Why Carol Bartz failed as Yahoo CEO
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Carol Bartz fired from Yahoo CEO position
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, News,
Carol Bartz has been future endeavored from her post as Yahoo! CEO, with CFO Tim Morse moving up to take over. Bartz didn't seem to be a good fit for Yahoo! in my opinion, as she failed to really set the company on any certain course since being named CEO back in January 2009. She notified all company employees with the following email:
To all,
I'm very sad to tell you that I've just been fired over the phone by Yahoo's Chairman of the Board. It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only best going forward.
Carol
Sent from my iPad
Interesting that she uses an iPad after trashing the device last year, no?
Wanna win a 32 GB Apple iPad 2? We'll we've got a five to give away to our readers across our network of Gear Live sites, and today we're starting the contest here on Venturus. We've teamed up with Vonage to offer the giveaway of the iPad 2 (or a $700 Apple gift card, if you prefer) along with $15 in iTunes credit that can be used with the new Vonage Time to Call app (App Store link). We've got a few ways for you to enter, allowing up to four entries per person.
- Follow the Venturus Twitter account
- On Twitter, post this tweet about our contest: “Hey @venturusnews hook me up with that iPad 2! http://gear.lv/venturus-ipad2” (Click here to tweet this now)
Doing the above gets you in, and is the only mandatory step. However, you can earn additional entries by doing things like commenting on this post, and hitting the Facebook "Like" button as well. Use our entry widget to monitor and confirm your entries.
Timeframe: The contest ends on September 5th, 2011. A winner chosen using Rafflecopter.
Eligibility: The contest is open to residents of the US and Canada.
Prize: The one winner will receive a 32 GB Apple iPad 2 (or a $700 Apple Gift Card) and $15 iTunes credit.
Wanna win a 32 GB Apple iPad 2? We'll we've got a few to give away to our readers across the network of Gear Live sites, starting right here on the flagship. We've teamed up with Vonage to offer the giveaway of the iPad 2 (or a $700 Apple gift card, if you prefer) along with $15 in iTunes credit that can be used with the new Vonage Time to Call app. We've got a few ways for you to enter, allowing up to four entries per person.
Here are the ways to enter:
- Follow the Gear Live Twitter account and post this tweet: “Hey @gearlive hook me up with that iPad 2! http://gear.lv/e-ipad2contest” (Click here to tweet this now)
- Like Gear Live on Facebook and leave a comment on our wall
- Subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube Channel
- Leave a comment on this post
- Do all four, and your entries are doubled!
Timeframe: The contest ends on September 2nd, 2011. A winner chosen using Random.org.
Eligibility: The contest is open to residents of the US and Canada.
Prize: The one winner will receive a 32 GB Apple iPad 2 (or a $700 Apple Gift Card) and $15 iTunes credit.
Click to continue reading Giveaway: Apple iPad 2 32 GB!
GroupMe acquired by Skype
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Acquisitions, Corporate News, Funding, Mobile,
Skype might still be in a holding pattern from Microsoft's May announcement that it was acquiring the company for $8.5 billion, but that hasn't stopped Skype from picking up a brand-new purchase of its own. The company announced today that it is planning to acquire GroupMe, a group text messaging and conference calling service that's just a year and change into its existence.
The actual cost of the acquisition and other terms of the transaction won't be disclosed, according to Skype's announcement.
"The acquisition of GroupMe complements Skype's leadership in voice and video communications by providing best in class text-based communications and innovative features that enable users to connect, share locations and photos and make plans with their closest tie," reads Skype's statement.
Click to continue reading GroupMe acquired by Skype
Facebook launching video calling, group chat, and chat redesign today
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Social Networks, Video Services,
Facebook is right in the middle of announcing three new changes that are happening today. The first is multi-person group chat, which has been one of the most requested features. Second, a redesign of chat that makes it easier to get to the people you chat with most, better see the avatars of yours friends, etc. Lastly, and this is the big one, instant video chat through a partnership with Skype. Just choose a friend and initiate a video call, and if they don't have the plugin installed, it takes 10 seconds to download, and you are chatting. No need for a Skype username, or Skype software, it all happens through Facebook. Hit the link below now to see the announcement happening live, with demos.
Read More 
| Facebook Live
Google takes aim at Facebook with Google+
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: News, Social Networks,
Google on Tuesday took another leap into the social space with Google+, which aims to connect people via specific friendship circles, interests, location, and more.
Google+, which is currently operating via a "field trial," has four main components: Circles, Sparks, Hangouts, and Mobile.
"We'd like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. We want to make Google better by including you, your relationships, and your interests. And so begins the Google+ project," Google said in a blog post.
Google+ begins with Circles, which helps compartmentalize all the people in your life. Google took a swipe at Facebook, arguing that putting everyone under the "friends" label hurts the ability to share. It becomes sloppy, scary, and insensitive, the search giant said.
"From close family to foodies, we found that people already use real-life circles to express themselves, and to share with precisely the right folks. So we did the only thing that made sense: we brought Circles to software," Google said. "Just make a circle, add your people, and share what's new—just like any other day."
Click to continue reading Google takes aim at Facebook with Google+
We’re giving away 10 Slacker Premium Radio 1-year subscriptions!
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Announcements, Features, Internet, Music,
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Here at Gear Live, we love us some Slacker. If you don’t know, Slacker is a fantastic streaming music service. It has millions of songs in its catalogue, and real DJs actually control their channels, which means you get a great mix of songs that go well together, rather than something put together by an algorithm. While Slacker is free, they also have a couple of upgraded services - Slacker Radio Plus, and the newly released Slacker Premium Radio. This typically costs $10 a month:
- Play songs, artists, albums on-demand
- Custom playlists
- Unlimited Skips
- Unlimited Song Requests
- No Audio or Banner Ads
- Complete Lyrics
- Over 2 Million Songs
- Cache stations to smartphones for offline listening
- ABC News and headline news updates for any station
- "Peek Ahead" artist and album previews
We said this would be big, so here’s what we're gonna do - we are going to give away 10 one-year subscriptions to Slacker Premium Radio. How do you enter? Easy:
- Follow the Gear Live Twitter account
- On Twitter, post this tweet about our contest: “Hey @gearlive hook me up with @SlackerRadio Premium! http://gear.lv/slackerpremium” (Click here to tweet this now)
Want a bonus entry? Subscribe to Gear Live on YouTube! We will select ten random entrants on July 1 - good luck!
‘Groupon Now’ brings instant, spur-of-moment, location-based deals
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Location Services, Marketing, Startups,
Groupon has launched an instant, location-based mobile deal offering service called Groupon Now. The service offers various deals throughout the day via a mobile application or on the Web, rather than a single deal delivered to your inbox.
It's similar to the way services like Foursquare or Facebook Places offer discounts and deals, tapping into your device's GPS to peddle coupons in real-time. When you enter your location, Groupon Now lets you choose the type of deal you'd like, whether it's a half-price salsa lesson or a discount on a cheeseburger. Using your existing Groupon account, you can purchase the deal with one click, present a barcode for the vendor to scan, and claim your discount.
Click to continue reading ‘Groupon Now’ brings instant, spur-of-moment, location-based deals
Read More | Groupon
The dude that ‘livetweeted’ the bin Laden raid got hacked
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Social Media, Software,
Sohaib Athar, the man who accidentally livetweeted the raid on Osama bin Laden has been hacked, he confirmed via Twitter.
Athar, who goes by the Twitter handle @ReallyVirtual, said early this morning that his blog, which was linked via his Twitter page, had been infected with malware. Websense, for its part, said in a blog post that the poorly detected malware used a "blackhole exploit kit" to serve the malware. Not surprisingly, Websense said that its customers were protected.
"Anyone going to this page would also load content from the malicious URL above, and the Blackhole Exploit Kit would then try to use several exploits to automatically install malware on the PC," the firm wrote. "The malware that the drive-by-download attempts to install is a fake system tool named 'WindowsRecovery' that claims to have found problems on the victim's computer."
The malware then would have hidden all the files and folders in the user's hard drive and desktop - then offer to restore them for a price, which a Websense graphic indicated was $79.50.
It wasn't clear from Athar's account whether he had successfully removed the malware from his blog or taken it down.
Click to continue reading The dude that ‘livetweeted’ the bin Laden raid got hacked
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