Hasta La Gadget!

Yahoo‘s CEO Marissa Mayor is in talks with Jawbone in consideration of a place on the company’s board, reports AllThingsD. Jawbone is known for its high-end, classy Bluetooth gadgets, including the Jambox, which we reviewed back in 2010. It seems she’s looking at a director position, something sources say was happening before she joined Yahoo.

The talks are said to be late stage, but caution was given that the deal may not happen for numerous reasons, which were not specified. According to AllThingsD, Jawbone’s founder/CEO Hosain Rahman and Mayer both attended Standford at the same time, and are close friends. When requested, Jawbone declined commenting on the claim.

Jawbone’s products include the Bluetooth mobile speakers Jambox and the Up fitness wristband. The company specializes in “human-centered wearable technology and audio devices,” according to its website. It was winner of the 2010 IDSA Design of the Decade, and boasts its NoiseAssassin technology, which is the only military-grade noise-zapping technology in the world.

Before coming to Yahoo, Mayer was Vice President of Local, Maps, and Location Services at Google, and was recently ranked as the 14th most powerful businesswoman in America by Fortune magazine, as well as holding the title of youngest CEO of a Fortune 500. She currently sits on the board of directors of Walmart, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, the New York City Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, and the Sanfrancisco Museum of Modern Art.

[via AllThingsD]

Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer may join Jawbone board is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Back in August, we reported that Yahoo was on the hunt for a new chief operating officer, specifically for someone with a focus on finance and restructuring. Yahoo has confirmed that it named Henrique de Castro, a top Google executive, as its new COO. Until now, de Castro has been working as Google’s vice president of the Partner Business Solutions group.

For his new position, de Castro will receive a $600,000 annual salary and $36 million in stock grants, which includes $18 million in performance-based stock options and an $18 million one-time retention equity award. In addition, he’ll receive $1 million for forfeiting money from Google, which he’ll get within a week of joining the Yahoo ranks. He’ll have to pay the $1 million cash bonus back, however, if he resigns within the next six months without a good reason or is fired. Finally, he’s also to receive restricted stock units valued at $20 million.

Said Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer:

“Henrique is an incredibly accomplished and rigorous business leader, and I’m personally excited to have him join Yahoo!’s strong leadership team. His operational experience in Internet advertising and his proven success in structuring and scaling global organizations make him the perfect fit for Yahoo! as we propel the business to its next phase of growth.”

As you probably suspect, Yahoo shares are up, having gained 0.45% in after-hours trading. The stocks were priced at $15.68 at the close of the regular trading session, which was down $0.20 overall. De Castro will join Yahoo by January 22 of next year, dependent on when he finishes his current work at Google.

[via NASDAQ]

Yahoo hires Google executive de Castro as COO is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Looking at the business side of things for a moment, Ken Goldman has been named Yahoo‘s new Chief Financial Officer. He joins the Yahoo from threat management company Fortinet, where he held the same title. Goldman won’t start his new gig at Yahoo until October 22, but when he walks through Yahoo’s doors that day, he’ll be in charge of overseeing the company’s “financial planning and analysis, controllership, tax, treasury, and investor relations.”

In a statement today, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer had some kind words about Goldman and the experience he’ll be bringing to the table. “Ken is one of the most accomplished and respected financial executives in the technology industry having served as a CFO for more than 25 years, and we’re thrilled to have him join Yahoo!,” Mayer said. “His track record leading the financial strategy and stewardship of many successful public and private companies makes him an ideal choice for Yahoo! as we enter our next phase of growth.”

Indeed, Goldman has served as CFO for a number of other companies aside from Fortinet, including Excite@Home, Sybase, and Cypress Semiconductor. Goldman will obviously be reporting directly to Mayer, and he’ll be replacing current CFO Tim Morse. Morse joined Yahoo in 2009, and will be leaving later this fall, paving the way for Goldman to take over.

Mayer, as many of you will remember, is quite new herself, leaving Google last year to become the CEO of Yahoo. Yahoo has been struggling for a while now, but the hope is that with these fresh faces come new ideas for turning the company’s fortunes around. We’ll be seeing what a Mayer-Goldman team up is capable of soon, so stay tuned.

Ken Goldman becomes new Yahoo CFO is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Yahoo’s new CEO Marissa Mayer has been surprisingly open and upfront with Yahoo employees. That is a significant change from how things were run at Yahoo previously. According to a source cited by AllThingsD, Mayer will be unveiling a plan to help turn around Yahoo to workers this week in a surprising bit of transparency.

The internal memo pegs the meeting for Tuesday and turnaround efforts will initially focus on improving Yahoo’s search efforts and advertising platforms. Mayer will be performing two meetings with one in the morning and one later in the day to accommodate foreign staff. Mayer also tips in the memo another all-hands staff meeting for October 1.

The October meeting will cover the rollout of a new system and process for tracking goals within Yahoo. The system will be used to track annual goals and grade them on a company level and then the level of departments, teams, and individuals. That is certainly a good thing because tracking goals is important when you’re trying to turn around a company in as much trouble as Yahoo.

Yahoo is expected to begin to spend significantly on search and advertising platforms. AllThingsD, also reports that Yahoo is expected to revamp its search partnership with Microsoft. Other things at Yahoo expected to be addressed include a refreshed Yahoo homepage and refreshed e-mail offerings. Both of those aspects are expected to be redesigned to substantially focus on the consumer experience. Perhaps most interesting item in the story at AllThingsD is Kara Swishers note that she is no longer embedding the full text of internal memos. She hints that Yahoo may be monitoring the use of those free smartphones we mentioned before in an attempt to catch people leaking internal documents.

[via AllThingsD]

Mayer tipped to unveil turnaround strategy to Yahoo troops this week is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Earlier in February this year, there was talk about Alibaba picking up Yahoo, but that did not materialize. Well, we do know that Alibaba is one the larger companies in China that can be considered to be a market leader, and they have just purchased back half the stake that Yahoo Inc. owned in the company, forking out approximately $7.6 billion in the process, which would also be a strategic move in helping them edge closer towards the possibility of floating Alibaba on the stock market via an initial public offering.

According to Alibaba, they handed Yahoo around $6.3 billion in cash and $800 million in preferred shares in Alibaba Group, not to mention also going through a one-time cash payment of $550 million that has something to do with the amendment of both companies’ intellectual property license agreement.

Yahoo responded by returning shareholders $3 billion of the $4.3 billion of after-tax proceeds from the sale, which is separate from the $646 million downpayment that it has already returned to its shareholders via buybacks. After the dust had settled, Yahoo will still own around 23% of Alibaba’s common stock that remains valued at $8.1 billion thereabouts.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Yahoo-Alibaba talks breaking down , Alibaba casts an eye at Yahoo,