Carol Bartz interview
Arrington interviews Yahoo CEO Bartz at Disrupt. Bartz:
Listen, Yahoo’s a great company that is very, very strong in content for its users, uses amazing technology to serve up what, increasingly, we think is going to be the web of one…It’s a place where you can just get it together.
She says it has ‘32,000 different variations of the front page module every five minutes’ through content optimization based on what users click on, and people can check their email, social needs, and sports team all on the same page.
Fullscreen bid
Yahoo makes a bid of $250 million for Fullscreen, the content provider for Youtube. The company creates content for thousands of Youtube channels, generating 3 billion monthly views.
Executive sexual harassment case
0 CommentsYahoo engineer Nan Shi files a lawsuit against Yahoo for allegedly firing her for reporting sexual harassment. She accuses Maria Zhang, senior director of engineering at Yahoo Mobile, of forcing her to engage in sex acts and giving her negative performance reviews for refusing. A Yahoo spokesperson denies the allegations:
There is absolutely no basis or truth to the allegations against Maria Zhang. Maria is an exemplary Yahoo executive and we intend to fight vigorously to clear her name.
Acquires RayV
Yahoo buys the video streaming platform RayV for an undisclosed amount. The company focuses on developing technology for delivering high quality broadcasts to a large number of people at once. An announcement is posted on the RayV website:
Our RayV adventure now comes to a pivot, and we couldn’t be more excited. We believe Yahoo will be a perfect fit for our people and capabilities, as Video and Mobile offerings are a central part of Yahoo’s vision.
Acquires Zofari
Yahoo acquires Zofari, an application that recommends places users might enjoy based on places they have already been. Yahoo:
Zofari and Yahoo share a common goal to make the world an easier place to explore for as many people as possible. We’re thrilled to welcome the team to Yahoo, where they will join our growing Search organization and continue to build amazing discovery experiences.
Aviate gets seven more languages
Yahoo announces that Aviate has gained seven languages. The homescreen app now supports French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Bahasa and Russian. Aviate’s number of daily active users has “more than doubled” since launch, but the Company dopes not give specifics
Yahoo stock crashes
Yahoo shares fall sharply in the hours after Alibaba’s debut. At one point during the day the stock price of the U.S. internet company, which has a stake in Alibaba worth around $38 billion, indicates that its core business is worth less than zero – at around minus $0.50 a share.
$YHOO down 2.4% while $BABA is stabilizing near opening price. Buy the rumor, sell the news? http://t.co/YR42KCdDQh pic.twitter.com/JXKhQ5xYSr
— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) September 19, 2014
Yahoo gains $5.1 billion
Yahoo gains $5.1 billion by selling 121.7 million of its Alibaba shares into the IPO and keeps 401.8 million additional shares that are valued around $37 billion based on Alibaba’s $92.70 opening price. This fails to impress investors, and its stock is down by 3.8% around midday.
Share volume spikes
Yahoo’s trading volume spikes to more than 218 million shares by midway through the afternoon session as investors offload the Alibaba part-owner after a 15% run-up since the start of August. FactSet data show the volume is about eight times its average daily total. The shares are down 2.3% at $41.12.
Tech stocks mixed
Shares in five companies related to Alibaba end mixed on its debut trading day. Alibaba part-owner Yahoo closes down 3% after gaining 20% over the previous few months while SoftBank Corp., another major Alibaba shareholder, loses 1%. U.S. e-commerce rival Amazon ends 2% higher after an analyst raises his price target on the stock, EBay falls 0.5% and JD.com closes down 4%.