by Jason Wilk on December 8, 2008
- Yahoo is to begin their long awaited layoffs this Wednesday. The number is expected to be at least 1,500 people, however some analysts are projecting as many as 2,000.
- Areas expected to get the boot: General, human resources, finance and advertising will take the biggest hit. Sales, programming and business development staff are all expected to stick around.
- Sources inside Yahoo say that they will exercise the Calacanis strategy of ‘fire them quick, don’t let the fear linger around the office’. Once the first person is laid off, the rest are expected to come within a few hours of eachother. To assist with the big layoffs, security will be present to help escort any upset staff. Mind you, in this bad economy, many will not want to go easy considering the struggling job market.
- Many will look to Yang as the one to blame for the layoffs. He is the one who originally initiated the layoffs and is still holding the head seat on the day of the firings. He say’s to CNET “I look at these cuts as both a short-term and long-term effort. In the short term, we have consolidation and organizational corrections to make. In the long term, we will look at our whole portfolio and are now asking ourselves in each case if we need to be in this business. We’re asking ourselves–should we sell it or should we shut it down? That is the kind of comprehensive look we are doing across the company.”
- Speculation is that this will be the week that a successor to Yang will take over as CEO. It would have been bad practice to name the new director to do the firings. One of the current executives John Chapple, Maggie Wilderotter or Frank Biondi Jr. are expected to take over temporarily within days after the firings to represent a feeling of ‘change’ around the office and inspire new hope for the future while they continue to search for a good fit.
- Although this will initially look bad for Yahoo on the day of the firings, it represents a new day for Yahoo. The stock will remain stable through the firings and will continue to look for a big day as they near making the final decision on a new CEO. The day Yang is succeeded will be a big day for shareholders. There is still rumors that ex-AOL CEO Jonathan Miller is planning something with Yahoo.
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by Jason Wilk on November 30, 2008
- As Mark Cuban pointed out this morning, (an appropriate post considering he is in trouble with them), the SEC system has some broken pieces inside of it and the legendary finger pointer is finally turning its finger back at itself.
- As most would not think, employees and executives of the SEC are actually able to play the stock market. Not that they shouldn’t have a fair chance to invest their money, but doesn’t allowing them to invest in individual bonds or stocks seem just a little bit ‘insider to you?’
- What policy currently governs this? Well, there is a SEC policy in place that outlines do’s ad don’t of trading stock, most of which emphasizes employees not investing in a company they are inpecting. But as Cuban points out, “if you know about actions of one company, even if you don’t trade that company, doesn’t that provide you insight into an entire industry ?” Sounds very unfair.
- It gets worse. In a recent Inspector General’s Report to Congress regarding the SEC, they had determined the current system in place governing the SEC is “insufficient to prevent and detect insider trading on the part of
Commission employees or violations of the Commission’s rules”
- The recent investigation found that the reports employees are required to file when they buy, sell or own securities are not meaningfully reviewed or sufficiently checked for conflicts of interest. So in a nutshell, for the last decade or longer, SEC employees have been bringing down insider traders, while they have been operating under their own non-regulated umbrella for personal investments. Serious joke.
by Jason Wilk on November 26, 2008
- Lenovo’s new security features on Q1/2009 Thinkpads will allow notebook owners to disable a notebook with a text message (SMS) that is sent to a 3G-enabled system.
- The computer can be disabled whether it is turned on or off and can be reactivated by a pre-set password.
- Lenovo is saying it doesn’t lock up the hard drive, it just won’t allow the computer to turn on. So, if you really want to be James Bond, your enemies better not be too smart or they’ll crack this feature. Cool concept though.
Related: TG Daily
by glu on October 13, 2008
- Google’s always gotta be different and this time’s no different.
- Android forgoes the traditional numerical pin for unlocking in place of shapes drawn across a series of dots.
- According to reports and this video, at least four dots must be used in the shape making process.
But wait, it looks like there’s a jelly smear on the screen. Oh that’s right, guessing unlock shapes is like stealing passwords from a baby.
TC
by Jason Wilk on October 7, 2008
- Kampyle, an Israeli startup that launched 5 months ago, has furthered their website feeback analytics service to include software.
- As with their feeback questions for website owners to provide to its users, the same will be true for software developers now. Users rate aspects of the programs like: Slow/heavy downloads, too many steps, security concerns, lack of information, and too many ads.
- The service has been useful for website owners, they have had 3000 customers so far.
- The new service will be free for open-source software and $99/mo for commercial use.
TC
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