Technology
Yahoo Announces Scott Thompson As Its New CEO
Yahoo! have just named their new CEO nearly four months after firing former CEO Carol Bartz. Scott Thompson will take the reigns from 9 January and his appointment has been met with quite a bit of hesitation due to him being a largely unknown until his appointment today.
Thompson was previously president of PayPal and therefore does have a proven track record in guiding companies through transitional growth into success. Who knows, after Yahoo sold their Asian assets, this could be the final step in the process to start to get the company back on track.
Yahoo! has moved up from $13 since they fired former CEO Carol Bartz to $16 this morning after announcing the appointment of Scott Thompson as Yahoo CEO.
- Captain AwesomeSteve Jobs: The Billionaire Hippy Documentary
This is an hour long BBC documentary that was recently aired in the UK. I had a watch of this and it is a nice insight into the mans life. You clearly need far more than an hour to cover his extraordinary life.
What do you guys think?
- Captain AwesomeThe Nest Learning Thermostat
The guy that was behind the iPod has decided to make a home appliance sexy for the consumer. What home appliance do you think that is? The thermostat. Yes you read that correctly, the thermostat. Holy cow how he has managed to turn such a siff object that clutters walls in your home to something that is sleek, elegant and downright SEXY.
I want one!
Did I mention that it learns from your behaviour constantly and adjusts the temp based on your previous habits. Yea how awesome is that?
- Captain AwesomeWhat Microsoft Gets Out of the Skype Purchase
Microsoft just threw an enormous amount of money at the Skype messaging service. More than $8 billion dollars.
To put that figure in context, Senator Kerry has recently proposed an infrastructure bank designed to offer loans to get infrastructure construction projects funded and off the ground. An entire bank designed to jumpstart the national economy…and the Senator is asking for a seed fund of about the size of the Skype purchase.
Skype retailed for $3 million in 2005, and less than $2 million in 2009. Microsoft’s purchase quadruples the price of the service less than 2 years later. (Kudos to the investment group that made the investment in 2009). Microsoft is smart, right? The brainchild of Bill Gates would not throw money around heedlessly. So what are they doing buying Skype? It is not the current base of customers. Some customers pay to use Skype for phone services. Microsoft paid about 33 times more for these customers than what they are worth. It is not the current business model. Skype has never made decent profit, although last year they posted a decent operating profit of $284 million, a figure that slipped to a $7 million loss once all the numbers were counted.
It is not the underlying design of the product. I am no software engineer but my experience with the product is often frustrating. From what is readily available online, others who know more are also concerned about the design of the service, citing difficult architecture and incomprehensible coding.
What justifies the big purchase? A number of theories have been floated, including those offered by Microsoft. These justifications include:
- A chance to integrate Microsoft’s base of Windows Live Messenger customers, all 300 million plus of them, into the Skype paying service.
Video Tour of the New Google Analytics Real-Time
Video Tour of the New Google Analytics Real-Time
- Captain Awesome
