Former Genentech chairman and CEO Art Levinson has resigned from Google’s board, where he has been a director since April 2004. No reason was given for his departure, though his membership on both the Google and Apple boards, and the Federal Trade Commission inquiry into into possible implications of such dual memberships, surely played a role.
Silicon Valley luminary and Golden Geek cover model Marc Andreessen is adding another gig to his CV: Hewlett-Packard director. Andreessen, who sold his software company, Opsware, to HP two years ago for $1.6 billion, will begin serving on the board immediately, bringing its total number of directors to 11.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s resignation from Apple’s board this morning was a nice gesture, but it’s not going to end the Federal Trade Commission’s investigation of the ties between the Google and Apple boards. In a statement issued this afternoon, the FTC applauded the move, but said the two companies are foolish if they think it will simply abandon its inquiry as a result.
What happened between Apple’s January 5 disclosure of Steve Jobs’s “hormonal imbalance” and the company’s January 14 announcement that the CEO would be taking a six-month leave of absence? That’s the focus of an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission probe into Steve Jobs’s health, an investigation that seems to, well, be going nowhere.
If I go down, you all go down. That’s the personal philosophy former CA CEO Sanjay Kumar appears to have embraced after serving a few years in prison for conspiracy, securities fraud and obstruction of justice. In a 27-page affidavit filed in court Tuesday, the disgraced Kumar claims that several current and former directors were aware of the company’s … generally unaccepted accounting practices and concealed them from government investigators.
Carl Icahn has finally broken his silence. The outspoken billionaire investor who’s been oddly quiet since Yahoo announced its advertising partnership with Google, finally commented on the deal this morning saying it “might have some merit.”
Carl Icahn’s a little quieter than usual today, isn’t he? After publicly cataloguing Yahoo’s failures of leadership for the better part of the week, he seems to have fallen silent after what may well be the company’s greatest failure of all.
Our long national nightmare of unceasing Yahoo-Microsoft headlines is finally over. Shares of Yahoo slipped into the mud this afternoon amid reports it has concluded whatever tortured discussions it’s been having with Microsoft without reaching any sort of merger agreement. Redmond, it seems, is no longer willing to pay $33 per share to acquire Yahoo. It is, however, open to discussing an “alternative transaction.” Meanwhile, Yahoo and Google are moving closer to a deal.
Have you heard? Carl Icahn is unhappy with Yahoo’s current leadership and the manner in which it handled Microsoft’s unsolicited acquisition offer. In a stink-bomb of a letter to Roy Bostock, the chairman of Yahoo’s board of directors, Icahn accused Yahoo of acting against its shareholders’ best interests by making it practically impossible for Microsoft to stay at the bargaining table.
Turns out Jerry Yang isn’t the only Yahoo CEO to reject a buyout offer from Microsoft. His predecessor Terry Semel did as well. According to a complaint unsealed as part of a proposed class-action suit against Yahoo’s directors today, Microsoft offered $40 a share for Yahoo in January 2007.
Yahoo’s board has–surprise!–advised shareholders to reject the slate of dissident directors put forward by billionaire investor-agitator Carl Icahn.
The only difference between Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang’s latest all-hands memo and the last one he broadcast is that “Carl Icahn” has been substituted for “Microsoft.” Other than that, it’s another tired restatement of the capitalization-free “try not to get too preoccupied with the ongoing assault on our company” missives that Yang has issued at least twice before.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
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