Hasta La Gadget!

It seems that both Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger services experienced an outage of sorts earlier this morning, although no particular reason was given for this downtime that certainly affected a fair number of people on this fair planet. Apparently, those who were affected by the outage were originally sent to a page that had the Terms & Conditions up for you to read, before you clicked on accepting them – only to find out that Yahoo! Mail no longer worked. No idea on whether Yahoo was busy fixing things behind the scenes for Yahoo! Mail and Messenger to have both services work better than ever before, or was it just some wayward bug somewhere that caused the momentary blip? Hard to tell, considering how Yahoo has yet to release an official statement on what happened. The good news is this, Yahoo’s web services are up and running, so you can continue messaging your friend or finish writing that email which had been bugging you all this while. Were you one of those who was affected by Yahoo! Mail’s outage, and what went through your mind throughout the duration?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Interim CEO Ross Levinsohn steps down from Yahoo, Google’s Marissa Mayer to be the next CEO of Yahoo!,

Ross Levinsohn, the interim CEO of Yahoo, has reportedly left the Internet giant after losing to former Google executive and now newly appointed CEO Marissa Mayer. Levinsohn, who joined Yahoo in 2010 serving as Executive Vice President of Americas, was named interim CEO this year after Scott Thompson was fired for allegedly forging his resume. According to AllThingsD, Levinsohn and Mayer may have been negotiating his departure for several days now. Marissa Mayer reportedly sent an email statement confirming Levinsohn’s departure. Mayer said that Levinsohn has been an important and powerful contributor at Yahoo since he joined in 2010.

“During May and June, Ross stepped into an incredibly tough role as interim CEO and did a terrific job – he really helped keep the company moving, closed important deals, and assembled a very talented team. I am very grateful to Ross for his leadership and work throughout his tenure at Yahoo. His contributions will be missed,” Mayer added. “Yahoo is an amazing brand and company, and I leave knowing we did all we could to help inform and entertain more than 700 million users each month. Leading this company has been one of the best experiences of my career, but it is time for me to look for the next challenge,” Levinsohn said.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google’s Marissa Mayer to be the next CEO of Yahoo!, Yahoo now deploying additional security measures following data breach,

One of the original “non-manufacturing IP firms,” NTP, has just signed an agreement with 13 of the companies it sued for infringing its email patents. The tech industry whales paying for licenses include Google, Microsoft and Yahoo on the software side; wireless operators Verizon, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile; and handset companies Apple, HTC, Motorola, Palm, LG and Samsung. If all the litigation is blurring together in your head, we remind you that NTP is one of the founding patent under-bridge dwellers who made lawyers’ eyes everywhere light up with a $612 million payout from RIM back in 2006. That seemingly gave them the courage — and bankroll, presumably — to attack the above companies in 2010 for infringement of its eight wireless email patents, including push technology. The terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed, but considering the dollars paid out by RIM, “we can imagine quite a bit,” to quote Han Solo.

[Image credit: Shutterstock]

Filed under: Wireless, Software

NTP reaches agreement with 13 patent defendants including Apple, Microsoft and Google originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 02:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  CNET  | Email this | Comments

Freshly installed Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has urged staff to “keep moving” as the company attempts to find its footing, with a leaked internal memo pleading with employees “please don’t stop.” In the memo, illicitly acquired by AllThingsD, the ex-Google exec says she is “sensitive” to the amount of strategy changes Yahoo employees have had to cope with over the past few months, but insists the firm is “an internet icon” which she has been a fan of since since she was a Stanford student back in 1994.

“Yahoo! is an Internet icon – in terms of brand, reach, user following, in its products and service. There is an enormous amount of opportunity in front of us … The company has been through a lot of change in the past few months, leaving many open questions around strategy and how to move forward. I am sensitive to this. While I have some ideas, I need to develop a more informed perspective before making strategy or direction changes. In the meantime, please do not stop. You are doing important work. Please don’t stop. If you have questions or concerns about whether to continue or not, please ask. However, with the exception of a few things that might heavily constrain us in the future, the answer is most likely: “Yes, keep moving.”” Marissa Mayer, CEO, Yahoo

Countering employee apathy is likely to be a significant challenge for Mayer in the months to come. The company has struggled to find its place in the online ecosystem, having made little use of expensive acquisitions such as Flickr, and axing products like the Livestand digital newsstand which had seen high-profile launches only a matter of months before.

Meanwhile, embarrassing hacks which saw hundreds of thousands of user accounts compromised only served to remind many of those registered with Yahoo that they might want to delete their little-used logins. Mayer’s goal, she says, is to find products and services that “inspire and delight” both the users of Yahoo and potential advertisers.

“Joining was an easy decision, because of the strength of Yahoo!’s talent and the whole team here is apparent” Mayer writes. “We will continue to invest in talent, so we can produce the most compelling and exciting use experiences anywhere.”

“Please don’t stop” Yahoo CEO pleads with staff is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Yahoo’s entire salary and compensation offer to newly minted CEO Marissa Mayer (former 20th in line at Google) has been released to the public today via the US Securities and Exchange Commission. This document outlines not only what Mayer will be expected to do, but what she’ll be making as one of the most powerful people in web-based business. The first and perhaps most important element here is Mayer’s base salary which equals out to be exactly $1 million USD a year.

Of course that $1 million a year is not without bonuses which have been outline as between $2 million and $4 million a year for the new head of Yahoo. Mayer has been given $14 million in equity for the business, and she’s received several one-time payments for joining Yahoo as well. For compensation on the stock options Mayer left behind at Google, Yahoo is paying $14 million, while Mayer’s retention cost is noted at $30 million.

The stock Mayer will be receiving will be made up of 50% of their Restricted Stock Units and 50% Common Stock, and all incentive bonuses payed to Mayer will be made according to Yahoo’s financial performance. In addition, Yahoo’s Compensation Committee will be reviewing Mayer’s performance each period to decide on her EIP payout.

EIP stands for Executive Incentive Plan and works as follows, per Yahoo:

“Incentive Compensation. You also will be eligible to participate in the annual Executive Incentive Plan (“EIP”), with a target incentive of 200% of your annual base salary (the “Target Award”), and a 2012 maximum of 400% of your annual base salary if you exceed your targets, pro-rated based on the period of time you are employed at Yahoo! in an EIP eligible position during the relevant Company fiscal year, less applicable taxes, deductions, and withholdings. Target incentives do not constitute a promise of payment. To qualify for the EIP” – Yahoo Employment Offer to Marissa Mayer

According to the math of the Wall Street Journal, Mayer will likely be making around $5.4 million USD from Yahoo for the remainder of this year. She’ll also likely make approximately $20 million per year after that, depending of course on performance targets and bonuses.

Marissa Mayer’s Yahoo employment offer revealed with massive salary is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.