Yahoo

Yahoo Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., was once a high-flying Internet company. But now it's struggling to stay relevant. The company today announced it was laying off 2,000 people, or about 14 percent of its workforce. It was the biggest layoff in the company's history. It's also one of the first major moves by the company's new CEO, Scott Thompson, who took over in January. The L.A. Times notes that Thompson has to start engineering a plan to grow revenues, as its watched its share of online ad revenues dip in recent years.

Let's say the CEO of your company is retiring, but he's going to keep an office at headquarters and the services of the same secretary as the new guy. Awkward! Or how about working at a company where the boss just decided you can no longer work from home, a godsend once you had kids, even as she brings her baby to the nursery she built for him next to her office. Meow! This past week was a veritable schadenfreude-fest for those of us who love nothing more than complaining about our work — unless it's discovering how delightfully awful someone else's office must be. So, the Vatican: On top of the usual workplace issues that must plague the Roman Catholic Church's corporate offices — there's that impenetrable glass ceiling for any women employees, for one thing — this past week brought word of a leadership transition from, um, hell.

As it scrambles to avoid defeat in its battle with Microsoft, Yahoo is trying to put a little more time on the clock. Microsoft Corp., whose offer for Yahoo Inc. is now worth $41.2 billion, was preparing to escalate its takeover fight by starting a proxy contest next week. But in an effort to delay that move, Yahoo said yesterday that it was extending the deadline for nominating directors until 10 days after the announcement of a date for its annual meeting. The maneuver comes as Yahoo has stepped up merger and joint venture talks with AOL LLC, a unit of Time Warner Inc., people involved in the talks said.

It didn't take long for the talk at this week's national work-life conference in Baltimore to turn to Yahoo Inc. The Internet company's new ban on employees working from home has proved wildly unpopular with working mothers who had expected more support from CEO Marissa Mayer, a new mother herself. And during this week's conference, some professionals who help companies achieve workplace flexibility called the decision a misguided solution to a struggling company's woes. Experts wondered whether progress in the workplace is being eroded, not just for working parents, but for all workers trying to cross the increasingly blurred lines between work and home life.

It didn't take long for the talk at this week's national work-life conference in Baltimore to turn to Yahoo Inc. The Internet company's new ban on employees working from home has proved wildly unpopular with working mothers who had expected more support from CEO Marissa Mayer, a new mother herself. And during this week's conference, some professionals who help companies achieve workplace flexibility called the decision a misguided solution to a struggling company's woes. Experts wondered whether progress in the workplace is being eroded, not just for working parents, but for all workers trying to cross the increasingly blurred lines between work and home life.

NEW YORK -- Yahoo Inc. announced a far-reaching partnership yesterday with 176 newspapers to sell ads, share content and deliver Internet search, graphical and classified advertising to consumers. The multiyear, revenue-sharing deal is shaping up as a blow to Google Inc., which had been in the running for the partnership but eventually lost to Yahoo's broader reach, according to executives involved in the deal. The arrangement between Yahoo and the consortium of seven U.S. newspaper chains is to start with Yahoo's creation of a jobs board, consisting of its HotJobs listings, that will appear on the newspapers' Web sites.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Internet giant Yahoo Inc. and its chief executive, Jerry Yang, were pilloried yesterday by a congressional committee for the company's role in the jailing of a Chinese journalist and for misleading lawmakers last year about what it knew about the case. At a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Yang, who emigrated from Taiwan as a child, bowed in apology to the weeping mother of the imprisoned Chinese journalist, Shi Tao. The controversy over Yahoo's role in Chinese police investigations could lead to restrictions on the information U.S. companies are allowed to provide to totalitarian governments.

As a shareholder in Yahoo Inc., can I realistically expect things to get any better? -- C.G., via the Internet Time might not be on Chief executive Jerry Yang's side. The Yahoo founder who took the top position in June when Terry Semel stepped down must quickly enact an effective strategy to revive advertising growth. Otherwise, the company could wind up a buyout candidate. Shares of Yahoo (YHOO) are down 11 percent this year after a decline of 35 percent last year; shares are barely above their level at the end of 2003.

Which company has committed the greater evil? Yahoo Inc. helped send a reporter to prison by revealing his identity to the Chinese government. Cisco Systems Inc. helps send thousands of Chinese dissidents to prison by selling sophisticated Internet surveillance technology to China. If bad press is to be the judge, the "stool pigeon" Yahoo is clearly the bigger villain. In 2004, after the Chinese government ordered the country's media not to report on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, journalist Shi Tao used his Yahoo e-mail account to forward a government memo to a pro-democracy group.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A week after saying he wouldn't get into a bidding war for Yahoo Inc., Rupert Murdoch is emerging as a potential white knight for the Internet company as it tries to fend off Microsoft Corp.'s unsolicited takeover bid, according to people familiar with the talks. Murdoch's News Corp. is working on an offer to merge its Internet business, which includes social-networking site MySpace, with Yahoo in exchange for a major stake in the company, according to people who have been briefed on the discussions.

Yahoo Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., was once a high-flying Internet company. But now it's struggling to stay relevant. The company today announced it was laying off 2,000 people, or about 14 percent of its workforce. It was the biggest layoff in the company's history. It's also one of the first major moves by the company's new CEO, Scott Thompson, who took over in January. The L.A. Times notes that Thompson has to start engineering a plan to grow revenues, as its watched its share of online ad revenues dip in recent years.

Former Dunbar star Tavon Austin is being recognized as an All-American by two major websites. CBSsports.com has Austin as a first-team "all purpose" player on special teams. Yahoo! has the West Virginia junior on its second team as a punt returner. Austin has returned 19 punts for 268 yards (14.1 per return) this season. He also also handled kick returns, averaging 26 yards per return and taking two back for touchdowns. Austin also has 89 catches for 1,063 receiving yards and 4 TDs, and he ranks second in the country in all-purpose yards.

After a month of meaningless exhibitions, the 2011 Major League Baseball season begins this afternoon as a dozen teams take the field. The Orioles will be watching on TV today, presumably in a hotel or a sports bar down in Florida as they await their season opener against the Rays tomorrow night. Now that the season is finally here, it's prediction time. About 100 people from ESPN made their predictions , and there was a lot of love for the Red Sox and Phillies. Fanhouse foresees a Boston-Philadelphia World Series , too. A couple of guys from Sports Illustrated think the Reds are going to win it all . And all three of Yahoo's predictors have AL East teams winning the World Series , though none of those teams are from Baltimore.

Government to announce new FHA loan assistance WASHINGTON - Loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration will be eligible for payment reductions similar to the Obama administration's loan modification program, the government will announce today. Effective Aug. 15, financially troubled homeowners who have an FHA-insured loan can apply for a modification under a program parallel to "Making Home Affordable" to help lower their payments and avoid foreclosure. The program is designed to lower monthly payments for 3 million to 4 million borrower.

On the Web: * Nominees for the 13th annual Webby awards will be online at 9 a.m. Tuesday at webbyawards.com. The ceremony, to be held June 8 in New York, may be best known for the five-word acceptance speech limit. Speeches by past winners include Al Gore's ("Please don't recount this vote"), the Beastie Boys' ("Can anyone fix my computer?") and Arianna Huffington's ("President Obama. Sounds good, right?"). * In time for Earth Day on April 22, Yahoo Green recently launched green.yahoo.

It used to be that if you needed extra cash you could work overtime or find a part-time job. But these days, when companies are cutting back on workers' hours - and even Starbucks is laying off baristas - you might have to resort to nontraditional ways to raise money. Search engine Yahoo says many people are doing just that by going online. In the past month, searches for "make money online" have risen 1,725 percent, Yahoo says. "People are looking to do whatever they have to do to make ends meet," says Heather Cabot, Yahoo Web life editor.

BEIJING -- In a development expected to put more pressure on foreign high-tech companies operating in China, a free-speech group yesterday accused Yahoo of providing information to the Chinese government that helped it arrest and imprison a cyber-dissident in 2003. The report by Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said Chinese court documents show that Yahoo helped authorities identify Li Zhi through his e-mail address and user name. The former civil servant from Dazhou in southwestern China was sentenced in December 2003 for "inciting subversion" after posting essays detailing local corruption.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Susan Decker knows how to make a statement. A few years ago, she rode into a Yahoo company meeting on a motorcycle. Her message: I'm not your typical chief financial officer. Decker will need more than stunts in her new role as president of the Internet search company. The one-time stock analyst, an expert at scrutinizing firms from the outside, will now have to evaluate her employer of seven years from the inside and provide the leadership to reinvigorate a famous but troubled brand.

Yahoo Inc. and Carl C. Icahn announced yesterday that they had settled their dispute over the makeup of the company's board, striking a compromise that will give the dissident investor and his allies three of the board's 11 seats. The move ends a showdown that had been set for Yahoo's annual meeting Aug. 1, when shareholders would have voted on a rival slate of board members proposed by Icahn. He had vowed to pursue a sale of Yahoo to Microsoft Corp. Under the agreement, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang will remain chief executive and Roy Bostock will remain board chairman.