Yahoo CEO is fired amid 'dull' growth

“I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board”. These were the last words from Carol Bartz, the 62-year-old former CEO of Yahoo. The email, sent on Tuesday, saw her sacked after a “lack of a turnaround for the business”.

1 Billion US dollars. Enough to buy infinite Yahoo memberships, as free as they are. It seems that is all Yahoo is renowned for now; many email accounts and abnormal bulletins on the homepage. Yahoo had a revenue of $1 Billion last year, and was still described as being “largely flat in recent years” by The Wall Street Journal. Carol Bartz was therefore sacked on Tuesday (6/09/11) after two and a half years as CEO of the once market-leading company of the dot-com generation. So, why?

Stock increase

Bartz had one year left on her contract so the decision to dismiss her now seems to suggest change was needed immediately. In fact, the day after her departure saw Yahoo’s stock close with an increase of 5.4% the next day. Optimism is on the rise again it seems, almost rather embarrassingly, as soon as Bartz was deemed unfit for her duties. Does it come has a surprise? If you look on Yahoo, or have followed its existence, you’d know that it hasn’t changed too much. From being the no.1 search engine at the beginning of the last decade it has, in recent years, lost ground to Google and been slightly damaged by the surge of Facebook. In fact, the number of visits onto the site from U.S viewers has dropped by 33% since Carol Bartz arrived.

However, Ms. Bartz must have some credit. She overhauled the organisational structure to make it more decentralised and challenged the efficiency of the business. Unfortunately, her response to a reporter back in 2010 seems rather ironic nowadays.

Reporter: Why isn’t Yahoo as hot as Facebook?

Bartz: Remind me, what’s their revenue?

Where now?

Yahoo is to now focus on organic growth. Organic growth is growth which is achieved ‘naturally’, usually from sales, and not from external sources such as mergers or acquisitions. It needs to think of innovative ways to regain its market position, with the stand-in interim CEO Tim Morse given the go-ahead to steer the turn-around. Expect in the very near future features from Yahoo to engage the late teens/young adult demographic which Facebook has done so well to draw in. Hotmail might be an example of such developments with its unlimited storage capacity and connections with MSN messenger. Or maybe this really is the beginning of the end of Yahoo, with competition becoming increasingly competitive. It’s safe to say, Yahoo’s dominance is now over and the expulsion of their CEO seems to indicate they feel the same way. This is a new beginning for Yahoo and new possibilities for the market. Watch this space.

Glen Gostlow

Contributor

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New Facebook Layout Causes Uproar Among Users

This morning I woke up and did what I do every morning, I checked Facebook but this morning was different, Facebook have changed the layout of the site. This has caused quite uproar among users of the site, my news feed was filled with status’s about how people didn’t like the new layout.  

Instead of Facebook having the recent posts and the top posts on separate pages they are now all on one page, the home page is a mess of posts from earlier today and recent posts making it impossible to see anyone’s new posts. Facebook also added a new ticker feature which is very annoying and distracting but if you’re on Google chrome there are various web add-on’s that remove the ticker and they actually work to.  Many Facebook users are now turning to Google + which was made available to the public today. I am not going to delete my Facebook account but I will be using it a lot less and favouring Google +. What do you think about the new Facebook layout? Leave a comment be low.

By Robert Leat
Editor in Chief
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Facebook to pay Users for Finding loopholes

Facebook spent $40,000 (£25,000) in the first few days of a program that rewards users who discover security bugs. The Program aims to help harden facebook against attacks. One person made $7,000 through this program.

By Robert Leat
Editor and site founder
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MySpace Sold for £22million

The social networking website myspace was bought for £21million by Specific Media; this price is £41million less than its original price.  Justin Timberlake also bought a stake in the company, who recently starred in the movie The Social Network. A film about facebook.  The site was originally being sold for £61million but was only sold by News corp. for £22million, who were relieved to sell the site.  The site has been declining in popularity since 2008 due to competition from facebook and twitter. The site still remains popular with musicians and bands.

By Robert Leat

Site Founder 

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Google + vs Facebook

Google has unveiled a new project called Google + which they hope will compete with facebook.  Google + allows users to share Photos, messages and comments; maps and are also integrated into the service. Google claim it will allow users to organise their contacts more easily. Some people have said Google have just copied features from facebook c hat feature. Currently the feature has only been made available to a small number of users but will soon be available to everyone else.

 

Facebook Targets Google with Smear Campaign

(C) google rankings service

Evidence has come to light that reveals that Facebook Hired a PR firm to plant negative stories about Google in the media.  This was revealed by a blogger who was approached by the PR company and refused to take part in the scheme and instead revealed the operation to the public. Facebook hired top PR firm Burston- Marsteller   to target Google with negative stories about ant-privacy.  They accused Google of violating federal fair trade laws and the privacy rights of millions of people with their Gmail feature social circle. 

weekly Tech news roundup 1

This is a roundup of some of the notable events that have happened in the world of Technology and gaming this week.

Apple Macbook’s Updated

copyright apple 2011.

Apple has updated its macbook pro range of laptops, they have a big power boost and will include the all new thunderbolt connection standard.

They are available in 13, 15 and 17 inch screen sizes; they will come with a dedicated face time feature as well as faster, better processors.

The 13 inch model comes with either an intel core I5 or an I7. However for the larger screens apple will be using AMD Radeon HD graphic cards which have 1Gb  of video memory.

iPad 2 Launch on march 2^nd

copyright apple 2011

 The iPad 2 will launch on Wednesday. Apple sent out invites in the shape of an ios calendar icon peeling away to reveal what looks like an iPad . The main event will take place in San Francisco

Nintendo 3DS Launches in Japan

Copyright nintendo 2011

The 3DS went on sale in Japan and sold out very quickly. Reports suggest Japan liquidated the 400,000 unit shipment of 3DS consoles. Some lines had up to 2,000 people waiting to get their hands on the 3DS.

Cha Cha Sue HTC for Facebook phone trademark infringement

copyright HTC and ChaCha

Facebook phone rumours have been circulating for a while. HTC revealed the Cha Cha, a phone with a dedicated Facebook button. Cha Cha is a registered trademark, since 2007 and as you can imagine they were not very happy with HTC name for the new phone because they don’t want users thinking  they have endorsed the phone. Cha Cha is asking for money for damages and an injuction to prevent the phone going to market with their name.