Tag: Yahoo

Yahoo’s Q4 Financial Results Draw Smiles

Yahoo’s fourth quarter earnings report has been released, and it seems that people who were preparing for some sort of drastic response – whether it would’ve involved either pitchforks or confetti – will have to wait for another day. Although the confetti folks might win out, as Yahoo did all right, more or less in line with estimates.

Yahoo reported $1.26 billion in net revenue and earnings of 11 cents per share, versus predictions of $1.23 billion and 11 cents per share. That’s a pretty solid performance, all in all.

What’s more, the outlook for the next quarter is bright, too, with Carol Bartz stating, "Our business has positive momentum and we feel good as we head into 2010. We’re pleased that the midpoint of our Q1 revenue outlook marks the first quarter of year-over-year growth in six quarters."

And in case you were wondering, Yahoo still plans on sealing its deal with Microsoft sometime early this year.

Then here’s one final sign that Yahoo satisfied everyone on the financial front today: its stock is up. Yahoo shares have risen 1.88 percent so far in after-hours trading.

Related Articles:

> Microsoft-Yahoo Deal Approval Gets Deadline In Europe

> Yahoo Upgrades Yahoo Finance Search

> Yahoo Adds Ernst & Young Veteran To Board

January 26, 2010
Canada Gets its New Yahoo Home Page

Yahoo has announced the launch of a new homepage for its Canadian users (an effort the company says will bring together the "best of the web with the best of Yahoo”). The home page lets users add apps, much like the current US version.

"The Web is an indispensable part of Canadians’ lives, it’s where they socialize, stay in touch with family and friends, buy products and services and share their photos and memories," says Matt Idema, Yahoo! vice president and country manager, Canada. "Whether for their PC or mobile device, Yahoo! Canada is bringing greater simplicity and relevance to the way Canadians experience the Web. Our new homepage is designed to help Canadians stay on top of what is going on in their world, and around the world no matter where they are."

Features of the new page include:

– My Favourites
– App Maker
– Social Updates
– News, For you
– PC to Mobile Sync

Of course the Olympic Games are coming up in Canada, and Yahoo is getting this page launched just in time for that. The company says it will offer coverage in the following capacities:

    *   Yahoo.ca will feature expert commentary from well-known Canadian athletes including Elvis Stojko (figure skating), Ken Daneyko (hockey), and Jennifer Jones (curling), who will bring a uniquely Canadian perspective to their coverage.

    * Yahoo! Canada has expanded its sports editorial team at home to include former Globe and Mail staffers Steve McAllister and Ian Denomme.

    * Yahoo!’s coverage of the Games via its mobile site, scheduled to launch on February 9, will enable fans on the go to keep up with the latest happenings, including medal counts, news and expert coverage, live results, athlete profiles and more.

    * You’ll also be able to follow Yahoo! Canada’s Games coverage on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/YahooSportsCA/

The new Yahoo home page in Canada becomes available tomorrow. A preview is available here.

Related Articles:

> Yahoo Upgrades Yahoo Finance Search

> Yahoo Adds Ernst & Young Veteran To Board

> Yahoo Sponsored Search Getting New Features

January 25, 2010
Google Still Rules The Global Search Market

The U.S. remains the largest search market worldwide, while Google holds on to a commanding position in the global search market, according to a new study from comScore.

"The global search market continues to grow at an extraordinary rate, with both highly developed and emerging markets contributing to the strong growth worldwide," said Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president.

"Search is clearly becoming a more ubiquitous behavior among Internet users that drives navigation not only directly from search engines but also within sites and across networks. If you equate the advancement of search with the ability of humans to cultivate information, then the world is rapidly becoming a more knowledgeable ecosystem."

The total global search market had more than 131 billion searches conducted by people 15 or older from home and work locations in December 2009, representing a 46 percent increase in the past year.

Broken down, it represents more than 4 billion searches per day, 175 million per hour, and 29 million per minute. The U.S. is the largest individual search market in the world with 22.7 billion searches, or about 17 percent of searches conducted globally. China landed in the second spot with 13.3 billion searches, followed by Japan with 9.2 billion and the U.K. with 6.2 billion. Among the top ten global search markets, Russia had the biggest gains in 2009, growing 92 percent to 3.3 billion, followed by France (up61% to 5.4 billion) and Brazil (up 53% to 3.8 billion).

Google sites were the top search property worldwide with 87.8 billion searches in December, or 66.8 percent of the global search market. Google sites saw a 58 percent increase in search query volume over the past year. Yahoo sites ranked second globally with 9.4 billion searches (up 13%), followed by Chinese search engine Baidu with 8.5 billion searches (up 7%).

Microsoft sites saw the largest gains among the top five properties, growing 70 percent to 4.1 billion searches, on the strength of its new search engine Bing. Russian search engine Yandex also saw solid gains, growing 91 percent to 1.9 billion searches.

Related Articles:

> Google Rolls Out Breadcrumb Display in SERPs

> Google Makes it Easier to Tell Where Results Originate From

> Get More Links in Your Actual Google Results

January 22, 2010
Internet Users Favor Google Over Newspaper websites
Declines in U.S. newspapers’ print circulation will continue as consumers increasingly gravitate toward the Internet for news, according to new research from Outsell.

The firm predicts a 3.5 percent annual drop in both daily and Sunday circulation, leading to a low of 43 million Sunday newspaper readers by 2012, compared to more than 62 million in the early 1990s.

The research highlighted the dramatic effect that aggregators such as Google and Yahoo have had on both print and online readership. For “news right now,” 57 percent of news users now got digital sources, up from 33 percent a few years ago. They are also likelier to turn to an aggregator (31%) than a newspaper site (8%) or other site (18%).

“Among the aggregators, Google’s effect on the newspaper industry is particularly striking,” said Outsell analyst Ken Doctor.

“Though Google is driving some traffic to newspapers, it’s also taking a significant share away. A full 44 percent of visitors to Google News scan headlines without accessing newspapers’ individual sites.”

Other research highlights include:
- Newspapers that see paid online content as a panacea are in for a rude awakening. Only 10 percent of news users are willing to pay for a print newspaper subscription to gain online access. Seventy-five percent say they’d turn to a different source for local online news if their newspapers required a paid subscription.
- Local newspapers retain strength with local topics, such as family events and entertainment, but there are “cracks in the house.”
Related Articles:

>Newspapers Not Effectively Using Social Media

>Google News SEO Tips-Ranking In News Search

>Newsday To Charge For Online Access
January 19, 2010
Microsoft Yahoo Deal Approval Gets Deadline in Europe

Remember that proposed Microsoft Yahoo search and advertising deal? It’s still awaiting regulatory approval, but it might be a step closer to its destiny soon, no matter which way it goes.

The European Commission has set a deadline for a decision on approval of Microsoft’s bid (via Reuters). The date is February 19, or exactly a month from today. The deadline was published yesterday within a list of other deadlines for other deals.

Also published was the "description of the concentration" (pdf), which states:

The notification concerns the acquisition of control by Microsoft Corporation (U.S.A.) of Yahoo! Inc.’s (U.S.A.) online web-wide algorithmic search and paid search advertising business under the terms described in the Letter Agreement of 29 July 2009, the Search and Advertising Services and Sales Agreement and the License Agreement agreed between the parties on 4 December 2009 by way of transfer of certain assets and employees. Yahoo! will continue to innovate by delivering its own user search experience that incorporates the search results provided by Microsoft’s search platform.

The deal was first announced back in the summer, though it wasn’t finalized until December, when the two companies announced that it was pending regulatory approval. Yahoo has said (as the above description appears to confirm) that it will continue to do its own thing on the front end user interface while Microsoft’s Bing will power the behind the scenes functionality of the search engine.

Related Articles:

> Bartz and Ballmer Talk Yahoo Microsoft Deal

> Microsoft, Yahoo May Extend Partnership Outside The U.S.

> Is Google Really Threatened By This Yahoo Microsoft Deal?

January 19, 2010
Yahoo Possibly Interested In Yelp

Fair warning: this is not a report upon which you should rearrange your stock portfolio. Please don’t even bet anyone a significant amount of money. Just the same, Carol Bartz appears to have given a hint that she’s interested in acquiring Yelp.

Brian Womack recently interviewed Bartz, and at one point, asked her about buying the site known for its fast-growing collection of local reviews. Bartz, who is in turn known for speaking plainly, didn’t give a "yes" or "no" (or "heck yes" or "heck no") answer.

Instead, Yahoo’s CEO said, "Local is extremely important. People do some outrageous percentage of their commercial spending five miles from their home." Which kind of sounds like "that’s a good idea."

Of course, even if Bartz had answered in the affirmative, the odds don’t favor anything happening. Late last year, the rumor mill indicated that Google trying to acquire Yelp, and if Google’s popularity and deeper pockets couldn’t secure a deal, it’s hard to imagine Yahoo succeeding.

So again, this isn’t a concrete, "Yahoo will acquire Yelp" announcement so much as an exercise in parsing CEO’s sentences. Hat tip goes to Jay Yarow.

Related Articles:

> Yahoo Upgrades Yahoo Finance Search

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> Yahoo Sponsored Search Getting New Features

January 15, 2010
Yahoo Upgrades Yahoo Finance Search

Yahoo has made some improvements to its Finance Search interface. Yahoo Finance Search is now including results from the web, and can uncover details on companies and executives, find info on private companies, and help determine what companies are associated with topics, Yahoo says.

Every page of Yahoo Finance has a link that says "Finance Search". Users can simply click this to search or browse a list of the day’s popular finance searches.

When a user’s search exactly matches a ticker or quote name, the user will see pricing information and a chart. They will also get news stories from Yahoo and the web. Another section provides a list of companies (pubic and private), ETFs, Mutual Funds, and Indices (from US and worldwide exchanges) generated from matches between the user’s search and content on Yahoo Finance, including company/quote name, ticker, business summary, key execs, analysts, and insiders.

"As an example, you can enter the name of a person (‘Carol Bartz‘) or a topic (‘biodynamic farm‘) to find related companies," explains Yahoo. "In the example of Carol Bartz, she is a key exec and insider at the companies listed. In the example of ‘biodynamic farm,’ biodynamic farm is mentioned in the business summary on the company profile pages."

When a user uses web search results, they will find content from Yahoo Finance and the web. In the default "all results" view, the top three results come from Yahoo Finance and the ones after that are from the web. However, users can choose the option to view only results from Yahoo Finance or only the web.

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> Yahoo Sponsored Search Getting New Features

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January 15, 2010
Yahoo Adds Ernst & Young Veteran To Board

Yahoo’s board of directors has gained another member. Sue James, who’s spent most of the past 35 years working for and with Ernst & Young, joined it earlier this week, and became Chair of the Board’s Audit Committee at the same time.

James’s resume is rather impressive, indicating a deep understanding of tech organizations’ finances. Yahoo announced in a statement, "During her tenure with E&Y, Sue was the lead partner or partner-in-charge for the audit work for a number of significant technology companies including Intel Corporation, Sun Microsystems, Amazon.com, Autodesk and HP."

James has the fiscal bases covered by being a certified public accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, too. And all professional stuff aside, James even gets major points for being a good person, since she’s on Tri-Valley Animal Rescue’s board of directors.

Anyway, the election of James to Yahoo’s board of directors still leaves one seat open, since both Maggie Wilderotter and Carl Icahn vacated the group not too long ago.

There’s been no indication of when Yahoo might finally fill that seat, or of whom Carol Bartz and the other members are considering for the position.

Related Articles:

> Yahoo Sponsored Search Getting New Features

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January 15, 2010
AOL Top Ad Network In December

comScore has released the top 15 ad networks based on their reach among U.S. Internet users in December 2009.

The ranking found AOL Advertising remains the top ad network, reaching 187 million U.S. Internet users, or 91 percent of the total audience, followed by the Yahoo Network (180.9 million) and the Google Ad Network (178.1 million).

The fastest growing ad network by audience reach among the top 15 was Microsoft Media Network, which grew 31 percent compared to a year ago, followed by Collective Network (up 22%) and Audience Science (up 16%).

"Ad networks continue to be a powerful mechanism for delivering a large audience online, with eight different networks reaching at least 75 percent of the entire U.S. online population," said comScore senior vice president Jeff Hackett.

"Increasingly, however, ad networks are improving their capability for reaching more targeted audiences as well, which delivers enhanced value to advertisers and helps sustain higher CPMs for the channel. 2010 should bring us continued innovation and performance from this growing online sector."

Related Articles:

> Nielsen Shares Predictions for Advertising Trends in 2010

> Email Marketing Budgets Set For Increase In 2010

> Online Video Viewing Continues To Boom

January 14, 2010
Yahoo Sponsored Search Getting New Features

Next week Yahoo will update its Sponsored Search product with two new features, which the company says will provide advertisers with more transparency into and control over their accounts. Yahoo’s Network Distribution feature will let advertisers run ads on Yahoo search pages, partners’ sites, or both. Those who run ads on Yahoo’s entire network, can also set different bids for Yahoo or its partners.

Yahoo is also launching a new tool, which it says makes i easier to get started with Yahoo Search Marketing. "We know there are many advertisers who use other search marketing providers such as Google Adwords, so we’ve built a feature allowing easy and efficient conversion of your AdWords campaign data into Yahoo! Search Marketing campaigns," says Yahoo VP and general manager of search marketing David Pann.

Users can import files by clicking the "Import Campaigns" button. Yahoo believes this will encourage more advertisers to use Yahoo Search.

New Year, New Search Enhancements @ Yahoo! Video

"Our sales team has some new tools to help advertisers who work with a Yahoo! account representative, including a web-to-mobile migration tool that makes it easy to move a traditional paid search campaign to our mobile paid search platform," says Pann. "Another tool automatically adds relevant new long-tail keywords to a campaign as our systems show that users are now searching for them. Additionally, we know that advertisers can add thousands of keywords/terms into their account at any given time, so we built a tool that can group them into ad groups by relevance automatically."

Yahoo is also reminding people of recent updates to its search results, which the company says are more relevant. These include shortcuts for tweets and news links, and Yahoo’s video search refiner.

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> Yahoo (Somewhat) Addresses Future of BOSS

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January 14, 2010
Yahoo, Adobe Identified As Victims Of China Hack

When Google made its big announcement about an attack originating from China, the company also mentioned that "at least twenty other large companies" had been affected. Now, it’s become almost certain that one of them was Adobe, and there are signs that Yahoo was another target.

Adobe’s status as a victim became more or less official when a post appeared on a corporate blog. The post stated, "Adobe became aware on January 2, 2010 of a computer security incident involving a sophisticated, coordinated attack against corporate network systems managed by Adobe and other companies."

There was no mention of Google or China, but it’s not hard to connect the dots.

As for Yahoo’s involvement, an anonymous source told Brian Womack and Ari Levy that it had been hit. Or in so many words: "Yahoo! Inc., owner of the No. 2 search engine in the U.S., was targeted by a Chinese attack similar to the one that affected Google Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter."

There were reports that Facebook, Google, and Twitter teamed up to hunt some hackers following a series of attacks in August of last year. Perhaps, as different companies are connected to the more recent strikes, we’ll see another coalition form.

Related Articles:

> China Responds To Google Situation

> Baidu’s Stock Soars Following China News

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January 14, 2010
VMware’s Acquisition Of Zimbra Made Official

The rumors about Yahoo selling Zimbra have finally become fact. Today, VMware announced that it’s acquired the open source email and collaboration specialist, and although the financial details weren’t disclosed, corporate representatives on all sides of the transaction seem pleased.

Let’s start with someone who works for the buyer. Brian Byun, VMware’s Vice President and General Manager of Cloud Services, said in a statement, "[W]e expect more organizations, especially small and medium size businesses, to increasingly buy core IT solutions that deliver cloud-like simplicity in end-user and operational experience. Zimbra is a great example of the type of scalable ‘cloud era’ solutions that can span smaller, on-premise implementations to the cloud."

That might not mean Yahoo’s missing out on a lot of fantastic opportunities, however. It’s important to keep in mind that the sale was voluntary, and not some kind of takeover, of course.

Also, Jim Morrisroe, Vice President of Sales at Zimbra, wrote on its corporate blog, "Zimbra’s technologies have and will continue to play a role in Yahoo!’s communications services, including Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Calendar. The Yahoo! team is very happy for us, our customers and our community as we prepare to enter this new era. We owe Yahoo! a great deal of appreciation for their support."

So until the companies reveal a purchase price through an SEC filing – or it leaks some other way – it looks like the matter’s about wrapped up. The deal is supposed to close this quarter.

Related Articles:

> Yahoo Sale Of Zimbra To VMware Rumored

> Yahoo Zimbra Desktop Now Synching

> Yahoo May Dispose Of Zimbra

January 12, 2010
Yahoo Southeast Asia Seals Deal With Friendster

Late yesterday, Yahoo Southeast Asia got what may be a big leg up in the social networking arena. Yahoo Southeast Asia established a partnership with Friendster that will see the two entities doing a great deal of cross-promotion in the near future.

Friendster has over 90 million registered users, and about 90 percent of its daily traffic comes from Southeast Asia, so the arrangement is a rather significant deal. Yahoo stands to benefit as Friendster is putting ads for Yahoo services all over users’ homepages and profile pages. Then Yahoo will receive some additional exposure when Friendster incorporates its search results.

As for what Friendster gets out of the equation, a Friendster application has already been granted a spot on the Yahoo homepages in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. Plus, Friendster users are supposed to obtain the option to link a Friendster account to a Yahoo account.

Both sides seem more than pleased about the arrangement. Ken Mandel, the vice president and managing director of Yahoo Southeast Asia, said in a statement, "Working together with Friendster ensures Yahoo! remains relevant to people by offering the best online content and experiences."

He then added, "This is a major milestone in the Yahoo! Open Strategy, our combined services will enrich the online environment allowing people to get more done faster and in a single place."

Related Articles:

> Yahoo Shopping Partnership With PriceGrabber Arranged

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> Yahoo Makes Multiple Strides On Connected TV Front

January 12, 2010
Yahoo Shopping Partnership With PriceGrabber Arranged

Starting in mid-March, Yahoo Shopping will no longer be a solo act. Yahoo announced today that it’s arranged to have PriceGrabber take care of some of the technical details, and it’ll be able to make one more cutback thanks to the adjustment.

A post on the Yahoo Developer Blog explained, "[W]e have decided to enter into a strategic partnership with PriceGrabber to power the Product Submit functionality of Yahoo! Shopping as of March 11, 2010. As a result of these changes, Yahoo! will no longer provide the Shopping Web Services API, including Shopping Results (the ‘Yahoo! Shopping Syndication Services’) to you . . ."

Not all developers are taking the news well, and considering that Yahoo and PriceGrabber haven’t offered anything in the way of free alternatives, it’s a little hard to blame them. Yahoo might hurt itself with this move, too, since less interest from developers could equate to less attention for Yahoo Shopping.

Still, Yahoo’s accounting department surely had a say in this decision, and it’s hard to imagine that traffic statistics weren’t taken into account. So this may help Yahoo save a significant amount of money while also allowing it to make a new corporate friend.

For what it’s worth, Yahoo also told developers, "It has been our privilege to provide you with Yahoo!’s shopping syndication product, and we hope to continue our relationship with you in other areas long into the future."

Related Articles:

> Yahoo Partners With Electus On Original Content

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January 11, 2010
Yahoo Partners With Electus On Original Content

Yahoo has partnered with Ben Silverman’s production company Electus, in which Electus will develop and produce premium content for Yahoo and its advertisers.

The partnership is aimed at driving creativity in online programming. Electus will develop a number of original video concepts for Yahoo in partnership with advertisers. The specific types of projects were not announced.

"Content creators and producers are looking for more direct relationships with their audiences and advertising partners, and this partnership will allow advertisers to have fresh ideas matched with premium experiences that enable their messages to be delivered directly to their consumers," said Ben Silverman, CEO of Electus.

"Yahoo! is the ideal partner for this initiative; not only do they have the audience reach and a deep understanding of what consumers want, but they have a long history of successful custom campaigns that deliver for all partners involved. And this deal moves them even further along that path."

Electus said the partnership with Yahoo is the first of a number it plans on announcing in the coming months.

"Yahoo! is bringing together the worlds of entertainment and advertising to build differentiated experiences that help redefine branded entertainment," said Joanne Bradford, senior vice president of North America revenue and market development at Yahoo!

Related Articles:

> Kaufman Bros. Analyst Upgrades Yahoo

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January 8, 2010
Yahoo (Somewhat) Addresses Future of BOSS

Back when the Microsoft and Yahoo search and advertising deal was announced, people (particularly developers) were left wondering what would become of such Yahoo projects as Searchmonkey and BOSS. These things let developers build upon Yahoo’s search technology.

Microsoft did imply it would be open to keeping them around, but not much has been revealed about the plans. While this isn’t exactly clarity, Yahoo has addressed the future of BOSS to a mild extent. In a post on Yahoo Groups, Ashim Chhabra of the Yahoo Search BOSS Team writes:

Under this agreement, Yahoo! is permitted to continue offering the BOSS web service, with search results that would integrate Yahoo! services and content with algorithmic results provided by Microsoft. As always, our intention is to provide a BOSS offering as long as it makes business and economic sense to do so. We are still examining what the BOSS offering will consist of, with some services powered by Microsoft, unique content that Yahoo! currently provides, and the potential for additional Yahoo! content in the future.

Prior to the announcement of the Yahoo!-Microsoft search agreement, we’d already shared our intention to explore a fee-based structure for BOSS. We continue to explore an appropriate fee structure or other revenue model as we work through the future of BOSS.

Yahoo has said that it will uphold the front-end part of its search engine, but the back-end would generally be handled by Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Last year, Microsoft acknowledged that it liked what Yahoo was doing with Searchmonkey and BOSS, so it is quite possible these things will remain.

The Microsoft Yahoo deal is not necessarily going to be a permanent relationship anyway. That is if it even gets approved. The deal still faces regulatory approval.

Related Articles:

> What Happens to Yahoo’s Search-Related Developer Projects?

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January 8, 2010
Carol Bartz Gives Self A B-

Carol Bartz is five days away from her one-year anniversary as Yahoo’s CEO, and in that time, she feels she’s done a fairly decent job of leading the company. In a recent interview, Bartz graded her performance as B- material.

Bartz indicated to Brian Womack that speed (or actually, a lack thereof) might have been her biggest problem. She said "she could have moved faster to reorganize the company and strike a Web-search agreement with Microsoft," Womack reported.

Bartz also stated, "It was a little tougher internally than I think I had anticipated. I did move fast, but this is a big job."

Feel free to use the comments section to say what grade you think Bartz deserves. A point in her favor: during the past year, the value of Yahoo’s stock has risen by 36.66 percent.

A couple of points against: in the same stretch, the Nasdaq’s gone up 49.46 percent, and Microsoft’s proposed acquisition would have been significantly more profitable for shareholders.

Anyway, with regards to the future, Womack wrote, "Bartz said she plans to do more acquisitions this year, probably of less than $1 billion apiece. Potential targets include overseas companies and data-analytics businesses that help advertisers assess their results."

Related Articles:

> Kaufman Bros. Analyst Upgrades Yahoo

> Carol Bartz Delivers Pep Talk

> Yahoo Time Spent Stats Up After Ad Campaign

January 8, 2010
Yahoo Makes Multiple Strides On Connected TV Front

Today, Yahoo proved that it’s all about bringing together TVs and the Internet, and also that it has plenty of allies in that mission. The company announced new partnerships, a wide release of the Widget Developer Kit, and a significant range of new TV widget providers and content.

Press releases are often just four or five short paragraphs. There’s an introduction, a brief description of whatever’s happening, an exec’s glowing take on it, and then something about the company’s guaranteed success. Yahoo’s release about bringing the Internet to more living rooms was a whopping (and largely fluff-less) 1,230 words.

Let’s talk first about the partnerships. Yahoo expanded an existing arrangement with Vizio, and reached new deals with Hisense (a TV provider), MIPS Technologies (which deals in processor architectures and cores), Sigma Designs (a media processors specialist), and Viewsonic (which’ll package the Yahoo Widget Engine together with a media player).

Next there’s the matter of the Widget Developer Kit. Quite simply, as Yahoo explained in its release, "Yahoo is making its Widget Developer Kit (WDK) broadly available for developers and publishers who want to extend their brand, services, and content to a mass market."

Finally, new widgets from nine entities (including CNBC, Dailymotion, and The Weather Channel) have arrived, and Brightcove, FrameChannel, 1Cast, and Zinc have cracked open their content libraries.

Assuming Internet-connected TV catches on – which isn’t a sure thing in the near future – Yahoo will be very well-positioned in this market.

Related Articles:

> Yahoo Hires New SVP Of Partnerships

> Kaufman Bros. Analyst Upgrades Yahoo

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January 7, 2010
Yahoo Sale Of Zimbra To VMware Rumored

At the moment, the Zimbra homepage bears a "BUY ZIMBRA" button and a stamp reading "a Yahoo division." But according to a new report, a sale of Zimbra (and not just a Zimbra product) may soon take place, making "a VMware division" a more accurate statement.

Kara Swisher wrote earlier today, "Yahoo is close to selling its Zimbra unit to VMware, according to several sources close to the situation. . . . Sources said the deal will be announced soon, but the price for the open-source email unit was still unclear."

Yahoo bought Zimbra for $350 million towards the end of 2007, so it’ll be interesting to see whether the price has gone up or down since then. No overly nasty rumors appear to be in circulation now, at least, considering that Yahoo’s stock rose by 1.91 percent today. (For reference: the Dow and Nasdaq went up 1.50 percent and 1.73 percent, respectively, so this isn’t amazing.)

Anyway, a development along these lines wasn’t unexpected. Yahoo’s been unloading properties for a while thanks to Carol Bartz’s get-back-to-basics directive, and in October, Zimbra’s former president and CTO also left the company.

Related Articles:

> Yahoo Zimbra Desktop Now Synching

> Yahoo May Dispose Of Zimbra

> Yahoo Undergoes Another Exec Shuffle

January 4, 2010