Internet major Yahoo! Inc. today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Maktoob.com, an online community in the Arab world, with more than 16.5 million users. Though the transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2009, the financial details of the deal is not yet known.
"This acquisition will accelerate Yahoo!'s strategy of expanding in high-growth in emerging markets where we believe Yahoo! has unparalleled opportunity to become the destination of choice for consumers," said Yahoo! chief executive officer Carol Bartz in a statement.
According to Yahoo!, this acquisition will extend its current offerings by adding capabilities to deliver relevant Arabic-language content and services, as well as Arabic versions of Yahoo!'s popular Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! Mail services.
"Yahoo! and Maktoob are natural partners and this combination should help energize the Internet market in the region as a whole. We are excited about Yahoo! building a stronger presence in the Middle East and bringing its compelling suite of services to Arab users in Arabic," said Samih Toukan, founder of Maktoob.
While Internet usage in the Middle East has grown more than tenfold since 2000, most markets are still in the early stages of adoption. According to the World Bank, there are more than 320 million Arabic speakers worldwide, while less than one per cent of all online content is in Arabic, said the Yahoo press release.
Maktoob.com was founded in 2000 by Samih Toukan and Hussam Khoury as the world's first free Arabic/English Web-based email service, and since then has grown to be the leading Arab online community in the region.
Keith Nilsson, senior vice president, Emerging Markets, Yahoo!, said, "We see great growth potential in both audience and advertising in the Arab world and combining with Maktoob.com will allow us to quickly build our presence there with high quality products. This is a big win for publishers, advertisers, and consumers in the region."
Yahoo said this acquisition is part of its larger strategy to grow its business throughout the world's emerging markets by connecting consumers with the content and services that matter most to them in their local language.
Following the acquisition, Maktoob.com will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yahoo!. Ahmed Nassef, the current general manager of Maktoob.com, will continue to lead the Maktoob.com teams and will report to Keith Nilsson, said the release.
Agencies
Showing posts with label Carol Bartz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carol Bartz. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Microsoft to hire Yahoo staff for the online search business
Microsoft Corp will hire at least 400 workers from Yahoo Inc if government regulators approve the companies' proposed Internet search partnership, and Yahoo will receive $150 million to cover any unexpected costs during the switch to new technology.
The details emerged in a regulatory filing that elaborated on an agreement announced last week. Sunnyvale-based Yahoo said then that an unspecified number of its 13,000 employees would be offered jobs at Microsoft after the Redmond, Washington-based software maker assumes control of the search results and search advertising on Yahoo's Web site.
The transition is supposed to begin early next year, assuming the alliance is approved by antitrust regulators in the United States and Europe.
Microsoft will pay $50 million annually during the first three years of the 10-year contract to supplement the revenue that Yahoo will receive from the ads appearing alongside its search results. The $150 million in guaranteed payments weren't mentioned last week.
The filing said Yahoo can use the $150 million to pay for unforeseen transition costs. Yahoo's stock has fallen by about 15 per cent since it unveiled the Microsoft deal, largely because announced terms didn't include a large upfront payment.
The disclosure probably won't ease the disappointment much, given analysts had anticipated Microsoft paying $1 billion to $2 billion for access to Yahoo's search engine.
Most of the revenue from the Microsoft deal will flow from ad commissions. Yahoo will receive 88 percent of the search ad revenue during the first five years of the contract. After that, Yahoo's commission will range from 83 percent to 93 percent, depending on whether it still handles some of the ad sales in the partnership.
The main reason Yahoo decided to turn over its search engine to Microsoft was to save money. If Yahoo wants to save even more on technology, it
has the option of adopting Microsoft's online mapping service replace of its own, according to the filing.
Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz has already made it known she isn't impressed with Yahoo's online maps. As it is, transferring 400 workers to Microsoft would prune Yahoo's current payroll by about 3 per cent.
Yahoo will lay off some workers if the Microsoft deal goes through, Bartz said last week. Tuesday's filing didn't provide any layoff projections. Although it also has been jettisoning workers because of the recession, Microsoft finished its latest fiscal year end in June with 93,000 employees -- an increase of about 2,000 people from the previous year.
Microsoft is counting on the Yahoo partnership to help it reverse years of losses in its online operations and siphon some traffic -- and ad sales -- from Internet search leader Google Inc.
Yahoo's search engine is the second largest, making it the quickest way for Microsoft to gain ground on Google. Even so, Microsoft and Yahoo combined have less than 30 percent of the US search market compared to 65 percent for Google, according to comScore Inc.
To keep Yahoo happy, Microsoft will have to produce ad revenue per search that is within a certain percentage of Google's industry-leading rate. If Microsoft doesn't hit the target, Yahoo can abandon the partnership before the contract expires.
The filing didn't specify how close Microsoft has to come to Google's revenue per search. Microsoft estimates that Google gets 7 cents in ad revenue for every search, while Yahoo gets 4.3 cents and Microsoft gets 3.9 cents, according to a PowerPoint slide Microsoft mistakenly posted online.
Agencies
The details emerged in a regulatory filing that elaborated on an agreement announced last week. Sunnyvale-based Yahoo said then that an unspecified number of its 13,000 employees would be offered jobs at Microsoft after the Redmond, Washington-based software maker assumes control of the search results and search advertising on Yahoo's Web site.
The transition is supposed to begin early next year, assuming the alliance is approved by antitrust regulators in the United States and Europe.
Microsoft will pay $50 million annually during the first three years of the 10-year contract to supplement the revenue that Yahoo will receive from the ads appearing alongside its search results. The $150 million in guaranteed payments weren't mentioned last week.
The filing said Yahoo can use the $150 million to pay for unforeseen transition costs. Yahoo's stock has fallen by about 15 per cent since it unveiled the Microsoft deal, largely because announced terms didn't include a large upfront payment.
The disclosure probably won't ease the disappointment much, given analysts had anticipated Microsoft paying $1 billion to $2 billion for access to Yahoo's search engine.
Most of the revenue from the Microsoft deal will flow from ad commissions. Yahoo will receive 88 percent of the search ad revenue during the first five years of the contract. After that, Yahoo's commission will range from 83 percent to 93 percent, depending on whether it still handles some of the ad sales in the partnership.
The main reason Yahoo decided to turn over its search engine to Microsoft was to save money. If Yahoo wants to save even more on technology, it
has the option of adopting Microsoft's online mapping service replace of its own, according to the filing.
Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz has already made it known she isn't impressed with Yahoo's online maps. As it is, transferring 400 workers to Microsoft would prune Yahoo's current payroll by about 3 per cent.
Yahoo will lay off some workers if the Microsoft deal goes through, Bartz said last week. Tuesday's filing didn't provide any layoff projections. Although it also has been jettisoning workers because of the recession, Microsoft finished its latest fiscal year end in June with 93,000 employees -- an increase of about 2,000 people from the previous year.
Microsoft is counting on the Yahoo partnership to help it reverse years of losses in its online operations and siphon some traffic -- and ad sales -- from Internet search leader Google Inc.
Yahoo's search engine is the second largest, making it the quickest way for Microsoft to gain ground on Google. Even so, Microsoft and Yahoo combined have less than 30 percent of the US search market compared to 65 percent for Google, according to comScore Inc.
To keep Yahoo happy, Microsoft will have to produce ad revenue per search that is within a certain percentage of Google's industry-leading rate. If Microsoft doesn't hit the target, Yahoo can abandon the partnership before the contract expires.
The filing didn't specify how close Microsoft has to come to Google's revenue per search. Microsoft estimates that Google gets 7 cents in ad revenue for every search, while Yahoo gets 4.3 cents and Microsoft gets 3.9 cents, according to a PowerPoint slide Microsoft mistakenly posted online.
Agencies
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Will Yahoo layoff 700 more jobs?
Yahoo Inc said it would cut 5 per cent of its global workforce (nearly 700 jobs) and reported quarterly results that showed progress towards controlling costs, sending shares higher in an after-hours relief rally.
The Internet company said economic conditions remained challenging, as revenue on Yahoo Websites from both display ads and search ads fell during the first quarter.
But the decline in revenue was offset by better cost controls, as new Chief Executive Carol Bartz seeks to revive Yahoo's fortunes. "People were really looking at the profit structure of the business and for things not to be falling apart," said Kaufman Brothers analyst Jason Avilio.
Yahoo said last October it would cut about one-tenth of its workforce, or about 1,600 jobs. The company finished 2008 with roughly 13,600 employees and said it would take severance charges from the new round of layoffs during the second quarter.
The company also announced in an internal memo to employees on Tuesday that it planned to implement a mandatory shutdown of operations during the holiday week of December 25, 2009 through January 1, 2010.
Yahoo said its operating cash flow, excluding certain items, was $409 million in the first quarter, at the high end of the $365 million to $415 million range it forecast in January.
Yahoo shares were up 54 cents at $14.92 in after-hours trading on Tuesday. The company's stock is up roughly 9 per cent from its Monday close of $13.66.
Yahoo's financial report comes as speculation has mounted that the firm has restarted discussions with software giant Microsoft Corp about an Internet search partnership, following last year's failed merger negotiations.
Bartz, who replaced Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang in the top job in January, declined to comment on anything related to Microsoft during the conference call on Tuesday.
But she reiterated her belief that search is a very valuable part of Yahoo's business.
"I'm well-versed enough in the search business at Yahoo to say it's absolutely critical to Yahoo," Bartz said in response to a question regarding whether she is now familiar enough with the business to respond to an offer for search.
In the first full quarter under Bartz's leadership, Yahoo generated revenue of $1.58 billion, down 13 per cent from the year-ago period. Exclud
ing traffic acquisition costs (TAC), Yahoo's revenue was $1.16 billion, compared with the average analyst expectation of $1.2 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
The Sunnyvale, California-based company reported a net profit in the first quarter of $118 million, or 8 cents a share -- down from $537 million, or 37 cents a share, a year earlier. Wall Street analysts, on average, had forecast earnings at 8 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.
While revenues were "a bit light," Jefferies & Co analyst Youssef Squali said in an email that Yahoo's overall results, particularly on the bottom line, were not bad given the environment.
Yahoo said that revenue from display ads on its owned and operated websites slid 13 per cent year-over-year in the first quarter, with revenue from automotive advertisers down "substantially" and spending by retail advertisers "softened" compared to the year ago period.
Revenue from search-based ads on Yahoo sites were down 3 per cent. And Yahoo said that advertisers were spending less money to bid for the individual keywords that their ads appear alongside, echoing a theme present in results last week from Google Inc, the No.1 US Internet search company.
Yahoo, like Google, stressed the importance of keeping costs in line amid the difficult economy. The new round of job cuts come about two months after Bartz announced a reorganization of Yahoo's internal management structure.
The layoffs, said Bartz, are a "natural outgrowth" of the reorganization, which will allow Yahoo to streamline its operations and eliminate duplication of efforts.
The Internet company said it would also continue to implement unspecified "non-headcount cost reductions," so it can increase its ability to make strategic investments and target hiring in its core operations
"It's crucial that management adjusts the cost structure to the new growth (or lack thereof) realities; so margin protection is paramount to Yahoo right now," said Jefferies analyst Squali. "We think there is potential outperformance on margins."
Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen told Reuters there were "still very dark clouds on the horizon" for the economy.
"I'll try to resist calling the bottom in any way," he said in a telephone interview.
Yahoo projected that sales in the current quarter would range between $1.425 billion and $1.625 billion.
Agencies
The Internet company said economic conditions remained challenging, as revenue on Yahoo Websites from both display ads and search ads fell during the first quarter.
But the decline in revenue was offset by better cost controls, as new Chief Executive Carol Bartz seeks to revive Yahoo's fortunes. "People were really looking at the profit structure of the business and for things not to be falling apart," said Kaufman Brothers analyst Jason Avilio.
Yahoo said last October it would cut about one-tenth of its workforce, or about 1,600 jobs. The company finished 2008 with roughly 13,600 employees and said it would take severance charges from the new round of layoffs during the second quarter.
The company also announced in an internal memo to employees on Tuesday that it planned to implement a mandatory shutdown of operations during the holiday week of December 25, 2009 through January 1, 2010.
Yahoo said its operating cash flow, excluding certain items, was $409 million in the first quarter, at the high end of the $365 million to $415 million range it forecast in January.
Yahoo shares were up 54 cents at $14.92 in after-hours trading on Tuesday. The company's stock is up roughly 9 per cent from its Monday close of $13.66.
Yahoo's financial report comes as speculation has mounted that the firm has restarted discussions with software giant Microsoft Corp about an Internet search partnership, following last year's failed merger negotiations.
Bartz, who replaced Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang in the top job in January, declined to comment on anything related to Microsoft during the conference call on Tuesday.
But she reiterated her belief that search is a very valuable part of Yahoo's business.
"I'm well-versed enough in the search business at Yahoo to say it's absolutely critical to Yahoo," Bartz said in response to a question regarding whether she is now familiar enough with the business to respond to an offer for search.
In the first full quarter under Bartz's leadership, Yahoo generated revenue of $1.58 billion, down 13 per cent from the year-ago period. Exclud
ing traffic acquisition costs (TAC), Yahoo's revenue was $1.16 billion, compared with the average analyst expectation of $1.2 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
The Sunnyvale, California-based company reported a net profit in the first quarter of $118 million, or 8 cents a share -- down from $537 million, or 37 cents a share, a year earlier. Wall Street analysts, on average, had forecast earnings at 8 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.
While revenues were "a bit light," Jefferies & Co analyst Youssef Squali said in an email that Yahoo's overall results, particularly on the bottom line, were not bad given the environment.
Yahoo said that revenue from display ads on its owned and operated websites slid 13 per cent year-over-year in the first quarter, with revenue from automotive advertisers down "substantially" and spending by retail advertisers "softened" compared to the year ago period.
Revenue from search-based ads on Yahoo sites were down 3 per cent. And Yahoo said that advertisers were spending less money to bid for the individual keywords that their ads appear alongside, echoing a theme present in results last week from Google Inc, the No.1 US Internet search company.
Yahoo, like Google, stressed the importance of keeping costs in line amid the difficult economy. The new round of job cuts come about two months after Bartz announced a reorganization of Yahoo's internal management structure.
The layoffs, said Bartz, are a "natural outgrowth" of the reorganization, which will allow Yahoo to streamline its operations and eliminate duplication of efforts.
The Internet company said it would also continue to implement unspecified "non-headcount cost reductions," so it can increase its ability to make strategic investments and target hiring in its core operations
"It's crucial that management adjusts the cost structure to the new growth (or lack thereof) realities; so margin protection is paramount to Yahoo right now," said Jefferies analyst Squali. "We think there is potential outperformance on margins."
Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen told Reuters there were "still very dark clouds on the horizon" for the economy.
"I'll try to resist calling the bottom in any way," he said in a telephone interview.
Yahoo projected that sales in the current quarter would range between $1.425 billion and $1.625 billion.
Agencies
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Yahoo CEO ushers out CFO in executive shake-up
After spending six weeks diagnosing Yahoo Inc.'s troubles, new Chief Executive Carol Bartz started to prescribe a cure on Thursday with a management shake-up that will usher out the Internet company's chief financial officer.
Besides pushing CFO Blake Jorgensen out the door, the overhaul will expand the responsibilities of Yahoo's chief technology officer, Ari Balogh, and the company's top advertising executive in the United States, Hilary Schneider.
Bartz also created two jobs: a chief marketing officer and her own chief of staff.
Elisa Steele, who has been working at NetApp Inc., will join Yahoo as chief marketing officer on March 23, while Joel Jones, a former McKinsey consultant who has been Yahoo's corporate strategist, becomes Bartz's chief of staff as of Thursday.
With the new pecking order, Bartz hopes to speed up Yahoo's decision-making and have a senior team that supports her strategy for turning around a company struggling with three years of declining profits _ a downturn that had battered its stock price well before the market's overall decline.
Although Bartz still hasn't specified how she intends to get Yahoo back on track, she has left no doubt about her resolve to recapture the Internet pioneer's glory days.
``I'm singularly focused on providing you with awesome products. Period,'' Bartz wrote in a blog posting Thursday addressed to Yahoo's 500 million worldwide users.
Yahoo's previous two CEOs, co-founder Jerry Yang and former movie studio mogul Terry Semel, also attempted to revive Yahoo in recent years by reshuffling executives, but those moves never paid off. Bartz's reorganization is meant to last two to four years.
Investors appear to be betting that Bartz will deliver on her promises. Yahoo shares gained 50 cents, or 4 percent, to close Thursday at $12.98.
Yahoo hired Bartz, 60, last month to replace Yang, who exasperated many investors and employees with his wishy-washy management style. Yang also infuriated stockholders last year by turning down an opportunity to sell Yahoo to rival Microsoft Corp. for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, well above the price of $19.18 just before the software maker announced its initial bid.
Although Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has repeatedly said he no longer wants to buy Yahoo in its entirety, he has indicated he still wants to explore a possible partnership that would involve Yahoo's online search engine, the second most popular behind that of Google Inc.
Bartz so far has been lukewarm to the idea in her public remarks, but Jorgensen expressed an interest in working with Microsoft in a Wednesday presentation at an investor conference.
In a Thursday research note, Barclays Capital analyst Douglas Anmuth said he didn't consider Jorgensen's departure a sign Yahoo is any less interested in working with Microsoft.
But Anmuth wondered about the wisdom of letting Jorgensen go, given that Bartz came to Yahoo without any previous Internet experience. Jorgensen also was somewhat of a novice, having joined Yahoo in June 2007, but Anmuth thought he would at least provide Yahoo some stability.
Jorgensen will remain CFO until Bartz can find replacement. His departure isn't a total shock because he was an ally of former Yahoo President Susan Decker, who resigned last month after Bartz beat her out for the CEO job.
But Jorgensen provided no inkling he might be headed out the door when he met with USB analyst Benjamin Schachter earlier this week, Schachter wrote in a Thursday note.
``While we were fans of Blake, Bartz is clearly going to be leading the charge here,'' Schachter wrote.
Jorgensen is paid a salary of $500,000, according to Yahoo's most recent disclosures about executive compensation. The terms of his severance package weren't disclosed Thursday.
Besides changing CFOs, Yahoo also appointed a new leader to expand its service on to mobile devices. David Ko, already part of the mobile team, was promoted to the top job in the division to replace Marco Boerries, who is leaving the company after a four-year stint.
Bartz mainly wants to root out bureaucracy with her new chain of command.
``People here have impressed the hell out of me,'' Bartz wrote Thursday. ``They're smart, dedicated, passionate, driven, and really nice. There's so much great energy and frankly lots of optimism. But there's also plenty that has bogged this company down. For starters, you'd be amazed at how complicated some things are here.''
In hopes of simplifying things, Bartz is placing all of Yahoo's products under Balogh, who joined the company a year ago. The shift appears to lessen the authority of Ash Patel, who had been overseeing most of Yahoo's products.
Schneider's job is being expanded to include oversight of advertisers and partners in Canada, not just the United States. Bartz intends to hire another executive to steer Yahoo's advertising relationships in Mexico and overseas.
Finally, Yahoo is creating a new division to handle complaints from frustrated users and advertising customers.
Agencies
Besides pushing CFO Blake Jorgensen out the door, the overhaul will expand the responsibilities of Yahoo's chief technology officer, Ari Balogh, and the company's top advertising executive in the United States, Hilary Schneider.
Bartz also created two jobs: a chief marketing officer and her own chief of staff.
Elisa Steele, who has been working at NetApp Inc., will join Yahoo as chief marketing officer on March 23, while Joel Jones, a former McKinsey consultant who has been Yahoo's corporate strategist, becomes Bartz's chief of staff as of Thursday.
With the new pecking order, Bartz hopes to speed up Yahoo's decision-making and have a senior team that supports her strategy for turning around a company struggling with three years of declining profits _ a downturn that had battered its stock price well before the market's overall decline.
Although Bartz still hasn't specified how she intends to get Yahoo back on track, she has left no doubt about her resolve to recapture the Internet pioneer's glory days.
``I'm singularly focused on providing you with awesome products. Period,'' Bartz wrote in a blog posting Thursday addressed to Yahoo's 500 million worldwide users.
Yahoo's previous two CEOs, co-founder Jerry Yang and former movie studio mogul Terry Semel, also attempted to revive Yahoo in recent years by reshuffling executives, but those moves never paid off. Bartz's reorganization is meant to last two to four years.
Investors appear to be betting that Bartz will deliver on her promises. Yahoo shares gained 50 cents, or 4 percent, to close Thursday at $12.98.
Yahoo hired Bartz, 60, last month to replace Yang, who exasperated many investors and employees with his wishy-washy management style. Yang also infuriated stockholders last year by turning down an opportunity to sell Yahoo to rival Microsoft Corp. for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, well above the price of $19.18 just before the software maker announced its initial bid.
Although Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has repeatedly said he no longer wants to buy Yahoo in its entirety, he has indicated he still wants to explore a possible partnership that would involve Yahoo's online search engine, the second most popular behind that of Google Inc.
Bartz so far has been lukewarm to the idea in her public remarks, but Jorgensen expressed an interest in working with Microsoft in a Wednesday presentation at an investor conference.
In a Thursday research note, Barclays Capital analyst Douglas Anmuth said he didn't consider Jorgensen's departure a sign Yahoo is any less interested in working with Microsoft.
But Anmuth wondered about the wisdom of letting Jorgensen go, given that Bartz came to Yahoo without any previous Internet experience. Jorgensen also was somewhat of a novice, having joined Yahoo in June 2007, but Anmuth thought he would at least provide Yahoo some stability.
Jorgensen will remain CFO until Bartz can find replacement. His departure isn't a total shock because he was an ally of former Yahoo President Susan Decker, who resigned last month after Bartz beat her out for the CEO job.
But Jorgensen provided no inkling he might be headed out the door when he met with USB analyst Benjamin Schachter earlier this week, Schachter wrote in a Thursday note.
``While we were fans of Blake, Bartz is clearly going to be leading the charge here,'' Schachter wrote.
Jorgensen is paid a salary of $500,000, according to Yahoo's most recent disclosures about executive compensation. The terms of his severance package weren't disclosed Thursday.
Besides changing CFOs, Yahoo also appointed a new leader to expand its service on to mobile devices. David Ko, already part of the mobile team, was promoted to the top job in the division to replace Marco Boerries, who is leaving the company after a four-year stint.
Bartz mainly wants to root out bureaucracy with her new chain of command.
``People here have impressed the hell out of me,'' Bartz wrote Thursday. ``They're smart, dedicated, passionate, driven, and really nice. There's so much great energy and frankly lots of optimism. But there's also plenty that has bogged this company down. For starters, you'd be amazed at how complicated some things are here.''
In hopes of simplifying things, Bartz is placing all of Yahoo's products under Balogh, who joined the company a year ago. The shift appears to lessen the authority of Ash Patel, who had been overseeing most of Yahoo's products.
Schneider's job is being expanded to include oversight of advertisers and partners in Canada, not just the United States. Bartz intends to hire another executive to steer Yahoo's advertising relationships in Mexico and overseas.
Finally, Yahoo is creating a new division to handle complaints from frustrated users and advertising customers.
Agencies
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