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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang leaving company

FILE - In this Jan. 7, 2008 file photo of Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang gestures in the Yahoo booth after he gave his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Yang announced Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, that he is leaving Yahoo. The surprise departure comes just two weeks after Yahoo Inc. hired former PayPal executive Scott Thomson as its CEO. Yang expressed his support of Thompson in his resignation from Yahoo's board of directors. He had been on Yahoo's board since the company's 1995 inception. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

FILE- In this Nov. 5, 2008 file photo, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang ponders a question during a talk at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. Yang announced Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, that he is leaving Yahoo. The surprise departure comes just two weeks after Yahoo Inc. hired former PayPal executive Scott Thomson as its CEO. Yang expressed his support of Thompson in his resignation from Yahoo's board of directors. He had been on Yahoo's board since the company's 1995 inception. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

FILE - in this Nov. 26, 2011 file photo, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang takes pictures at an NCAA college football game in Stanford, Calif. Yang on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012 announced that he is leaving Yahoo. The surprise departure comes just two weeks after Yahoo Inc. hired former PayPal executive Scott Thomson as its CEO. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang is leaving the struggling Internet company, as it tries to revive its revenue growth and win over disgruntled shareholders under a new leader.

The departure, announced Tuesday, punctuates the end of an era at Yahoo, a tarnished Internet icon that has spent much of the last decade scrambling to catch up to Internet search leader Google Inc. ? a company that got early encouragement and advice from Yang. It comes just two weeks after Yahoo Inc. hired former PayPal executive Scott Thompson as its CEO.

Thompson is the fourth CEO in less than five years to try to turn around Yahoo. It's a daunting assignment that Yang was unable to pull off during his own tumultuous 18-month reign as the company's CEO in 2007 and 2008.

Yang, 43, endorsed Thompson in his resignation from Yahoo's board of directors. He had been on Yahoo's board since the company's 1995 inception.

"My time at Yahoo, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life," Yang wrote in a letter to Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock. "However, the time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo."

The letter didn't say what Yang plans to do next. He doesn't need to work, thanks to the fortune he has amassed since he began working on Yahoo in a trailer at Stanford University with fellow graduate student David Filo. Yang is worth about $1.1 billion, according to Forbes magazine's latest estimates.

Yang is also stepping down from the boards of China's Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan. Yahoo is negotiating to sell its stakes in both of the Asian companies as part of its efforts to placate investors. The deal could be worth as much as $17 billion, but still faces a series of potentially daunting obstacles before it gets done.

Besides surrendering the board seats, Yang is giving up his position as "Chief Yahoo," an honorary title he held as he mingled among workers, while keeping tabs on various company projects.

Thompson could have an easier time overhauling Yahoo without Yang looking over his shoulder and possibly second guessing his decisions, said BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis.

"This has the fingerprints of frustration on it," Gillis said. "It's one of those situations where it looks like (Yang) is losing the battle to control the company's direction and now he is saying, 'That's it, I'm out.'"

Although a popular figure among Yahoo employees, Yang had alienated the company's shareholders by turning down a chance to sell Yahoo in its entirety to Microsoft Corp. for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, in May 2008. Yahoo shares haven't topped $20 for more than three years. The stock gained 44 cents to $15.87 in extended trading after Yang's decision was announced.

The slump in Yahoo's stock has diminished Yang's wealth. He still owns a 3.6 percent stake in the company.

Yang conceivably could leverage those holdings to attempt to buy Yahoo's U.S. business after the Asian investments are sold. That is, if he can line up additional financing, Macquarie Securities analyst Ben Schachter wrote in a research note late Tuesday. Several buyout firms have already expressed a substantial stake in Yahoo, spurring speculation that Yang might work with them to buy a controlling interest in the company.

When he announced Thompson's hiring earlier this month, Bostock stressed that Yahoo intended to remain an independent, publicly traded company.

Investor anger over his handling of the Microsoft negotiations led to Yang's resignation as CEO in late 2008 and the hiring of Silicon Valley veteran Carol Bartz to replace him. Bartz and Yang had gotten to know each other as part of Cisco Systems Inc.'s board of directors.

After initially hailing Bartz as the solution to Yahoo's problems, Yang and the rest of Yahoo's board fired her as CEO in September.

Yahoo's revenue has been falling in recent years even as advertisers have poured more money into the Internet. Much of the money, though, has been going to Google and Facebook's online social network, as Yahoo has fallen further behind in the race to innovate and develop products that attract Web traffic.

Despite its struggles, Yahoo remains profitable and still boasts a worldwide audience of 700 million people.

But visitors aren't sticking around Yahoo's services as much as they once did, depriving the company of more opportunities to sell ads ? the main source of its revenue.

It has been a jarring comedown for Yahoo, which emerged as one of the Internet's first stars after Yang and Filo expanded the service beyond its roots as a hand-picked directory of websites.

Yahoo's early success turned it into a Wall Street darling and landed Yang on the covers of leading business magazines. At the height of the dot-com bubble 12 years ago, Yahoo's stock was trading above a split-adjusted $100 amid talk that the company might eventually try to buy a long-established media franchise such as the Walt Disney Co.

But now investors widely regard Yahoo as a misguided company that can't come up with a cohesive plan to define itself for Web surfers and advertisers.

Yang and Bostock have been the focal point for much of the criticism, partly because of their key roles in the Microsoft talks in 2008. After buying a 5.2 percent stake in Yahoo last autumn, hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb demanded that both Bostock and Yang step down from the company's board. If they refused, Loeb indicated he would finance a shareholder rebellion to oust both men from the board.

Loeb's fund, Third Point LLC, didn't immediately return phone calls seeking comment late Tuesday.

Bostock, Yahoo's chairman for the past four years, has given no indication that he plans to step down.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-17-Yahoo-Founder%20Resigns/id-a3250703deff412da2f501a63c14ccaa

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Benedict Cumberbatch Teases 'Star Trek 2' Role

Talk that Cumberbatch is playing the new 'Trek' villain is 'just supposition,' the actor said at the 2012 Golden Globes.
By Josh Wigler, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Benedict Cumberbatch
Photo: Frazer Harrison/ Getty Images

Ever since British actor Benedict Cumberbatch was announced as part of the cast of "Star Trek 2," fans have been arguing back and forth over who the "Sherlock" star might be playing in J.J. Abrams' upcoming sequel. Lots of speculation has centered on whether he'd be playing a familiar villain in "Trek" lore — like Khan Noonien Singh, the most popular theory to date — or an entirely new bad guy.

But perhaps we've all been barking up the wrong tree (or beaming aboard the wrong ship, as it were) as Cumberbatch teased to MTV News on the Golden Globes red carpet Sunday night (January 15) that he might not be playing an antagonist at all.

"I don't think we do know that, actually," Cumberbatch told MTV's Josh Horowitz when asked if his "Star Trek" role is a villainous one. "That's just supposition. And that's all I'm going to say about it."

Perhaps some clues can be found in the fact that Cumberbatch has been preparing for his role by consulting friends and family members better versed in the "Star Trek" universe than he is.

"I started [becoming a 'Star Trek' fan] slowly, but quite genuinely, when he rebooted it with this last film," the actor said of his own "Trek" familiarity. "I have lots of friends and family, all sorts of people who've loved all of the series and all of the films. I've been introduced to it through them and now I'm going back to them and asking them questions so I can get up to speed with true Trekkies."

Though the character's identity remains concealed, whomever Cumberbatch is playing requires no small amount of physical preparation. The actor said he's been "working out nonstop," indicating that his part in "Star Trek 2" is a very physical one. But even if preparation has been somewhat grueling, the actor insists that he's having a blast getting ready for the role.

"[Abrams has] great ideas. It's been great fun to prep," Cumberbatch said. "I start [shooting] next week, which is really exciting, and I can't say any more than that."

Stick with MTV News all night for the 2012 Golden Globes winners, and don't miss all the fashion from the Golden Globes red carpet!

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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

HBT: Wrapping up all the arbitration settlements

As expected, the Orioles hired former A?s, Mets, and Brewers pitching coach Rick Peterson, but he?ll fill the role of pitching development coordinator rather than pitching coach. Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com says that?s actually a new position created by the Orioles, who?ll keep Rick Adair as their pitching coach and have Peterson work primarily with?

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/

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Huntsman Makes It Official: He's Bailing (Little green footballs)

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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Spanish Town Cheers New Nuclear Waste Plant

You know Spain's unemployment rate is bad when villagers cheer the arrival of a nuclear waste facility in their backyard ? because of the jobs it will bring. That's the case in one tiny Spanish hamlet. The town has been chosen to host a nuclear waste plant that's expected to create much-needed jobs. The mayor calls it "magnificent news."

Source: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/16/145309330/spanish-town-cheers-new-nuclear-waste-plant?ft=1&f=1007

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Monday, January 16, 2012

China's number of Web users rises to 513 million

BEIJING (AP) ? The number of Internet users in China has surged past 500 million as millions of new Web surfers go online using mobile phones and tablet computers, an industry group reported Monday.

The popularity of the Internet in China has driven the explosive growth of profitable Web companies and made fortunes for some Chinese entrepreneurs despite government controls on what the public can see online.

The number of mainland Internet users rose to 513 million in December, up 12 percent from a year earlier, the government-sanctioned China Internet Network Information Center said.

Among them, the number who go online using handheld devices rose 17.5 percent over a year earlier to 356 million.

The popularity of wireless Internet was reflected Friday in a scramble by Chinese gadget fans and scalpers to buy Apple Inc.'s latest iPhone 4S, which sold out within hours of its China launch.

Angry customers shouted and threw eggs at Apple's flagship Beijing outlet after the company failed to open the store, citing the size of the crowd. Apple postponed further iPhone 4S sales at its mainland stores for safety reasons but said they will be sold online and through its local carrier, China Unicom Ltd.

The communist government encourages Internet use for business and education but tries to block access to material it deems pornographic or subversive.

The governnment is strengthening its control over popular microblogs after a bullet train crash last July that killed 40 people prompted an online outpouring of criticism of the official response.

Microblog services have been ordered to monitor postings content more closely and remove objectionable material, while news media were barred from reporting online material without firsthand verification.

Despite such controls, popular online services such as portals Sina.com and Sohu.com, video websites Youku.com and Tudou.com and search engine Baidu report growing traffic and revenues.

Outlets owned by the ruling Communist Party or by the government also have jumped into the market, launching their own search engines and other services.

On Friday, regulators approved an initial public stock offering by the online arm of the ruling party newspaper People's Daily, people.com, on the Shanghai Stock Exchange to raise 527 million yuan ($85 million).

___

China Internet Network Information Center: www.cnnic.net.cn

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-15-AS-China-Internet-Population/id-2d2573bf397f499795d2df4f71ad5104

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Vets hold 'eat-in' to back Uzbeks' vandalized restaurant

Lowell Sun / Julia Malakie

Babylon owner Leyla Al-Zubaydi takes an order from Lily Faulkner, 10, who was eating with her father Cliff Krieger, left, and Jack Mitchell, right, both veterans from Lowell.

By Miranda Leitsinger, msnbc.com

A group of veterans held an ?eat-in? at an immigrant-owned restaurant to show support for the eatery after a man threw a 20-pound building stone through the front window, frightening the family and raising fears that they were the target of a hate crime.

Some 40 to 50 vets ? from World War II, Vietnam, the Korean war and the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq -- turned up at the Babylon Restaurant in downtown Lowell, Mass., on Tuesday night.

The Al-Zubaydi family, who came to the U.S. in October 2010 from Uzbekistan, opened Babylon about seven months ago. Like other immigrants, they were simply trying to make their way in their new American home, said Patrick Scanlon, a Vietnam veteran and local coordinator of Veterans for Peace.

A few days after the incident, "I went over and met with them ... and they were scared," said Scanlon, 64, who has been working with Iraqi refugees for the last two years. "It had achieved it's goal of intimidation and fear."

"Something like that happens, it?s almost like a statement from the society, as far as they?re concerned," he added. "And, they don't know if there's other rock throwers out there ... that are looking to harm them."

Police said a New Hampshire man has confessed to the crime and will be charged with breaking glass in a building, a misdemeanor, the Lowell Sun reported. He will not be identified until he is arraigned, and police do not believe it was a hate-motivated crime.

"Unless this gentleman is lying to us -- and I don't believe that he is -- he didn't even know this restaurant was affiliated with people from Iraq," said Lowell police Superintendent Kenneth Lavallee.

The Al-Zubaydi family hails from Uzbekistan, but the father is Iraqi, said Bablyon owner Leyla Al-Zubaydi, 25.

About 50 Iraqi families live in Lowell, said Scanlon. He noted other attacks on Iraqis, including a man who had two rocks thrown through his windows and a woman wearing a head covering being called "terrorist" by a man as she walked home from a supermarket.

Scanlon said he believes the attack on the restaurant was a hate crime, asking why on a commercial street with dozens of shops the attacker chose Babylon.

"Now you're caught, are you going to admit that, 'yeah, it?s a hate crime'?" Scanlon said. "Why did he pick this one, that says 'Middle Eastern Iraqi food? on it ? It's hard to prove a hate crime, but regardless, it was a hate crime."

Leyla Al-Zubaydi said the family?also doesn't believe it was a random attack. She said the family was?trying to?recover after such a scary episode, but the outpouring of support from the veterans renewed their confidence in the local community.

"It was so awesome, you cannot even imagine," Leyla said of the veterans' actions. "It was an honor for us to have them here and to see that support that they gave us."

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/13/10149681-vets-hold-eat-in-to-help-immigrants-vandalized-restaurant

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