Advertising and marketing

Glass Lewis advises against re-electing 3 Yahoo directors

An advisory service to institutional investors issued a recommendation Wednesday that its clients vote against the re-election of three Yahoo directors.

Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and directors Ron Burkle and Arthur Kern, all of whom sit on the compensation committee, received a thumbs down from influential institutional investor Glass Lewis & Co.

Glass Lewis, as well as RiskMetrics and Proxy Governance, issue recommendations to their clients on how to vote on proxy matters. These clients include mutual funds, pension funds, and asset management companies, which often hold large blocks of stock in various companies.

Glass Lewis is advising its clients … Read more

Could peace be near for YouTube and Hollywood?

Google's YouTube is quickly shedding its reputation in Hollywood as a clearinghouse for pirated content and could soon be home to clips from popular movies and TV shows--all legally obtained.

Insiders say the search company has adopted a more accommodating approach toward Hollywood, and that it's finally starting to pay off. Last week, Lionsgate struck a content agreement with YouTube in a deal that calls for unprecedented cooperation between a major film studio and the Web's largest video-sharing site.

That agreement is likely only the beginning. Other big media companies are in talks with Google about similar … Read more

News Corp. COO: 'Scarcity' key to online advertising

HALF MOON BAY, Calif.--For Internet publishers to make the big money from online advertising, they need to manufacture a little scarcity, much like the television business.

That's the current thinking of News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin, who said at a conference that there's just too much inventory on the Internet for advertising to sell for high rates.

"We have to create category scarcity. That category these days is video," Chernin said here at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, a three-day gathering of tech and media executives. More specifically, he said, premium online video … Read more

Yahoo declares the glass to be half full

Yahoo may have had some bumps in its second quarter, but it's not backing down from forecast for the rest of the year.

The Internet pioneer edged below analyst expectations for its second quarter for both revenue and earnings per share. Specifically, revenue excluding commissions increased 8 percent to $1.346 billion, shy of the $1.37 billion analysts had expected, and net income was 10 cents per share excluding various items, compared with 11 cents expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Nothing major went wrong, but the company's performance ended up on the low end of … Read more

Icahn recounts thought process behind settlement

While some folks were enjoying the summer sun and taking a vacation, investor activist Carl Icahn showed that the life of a shareholder activist can be 24-7.

In his blog post Tuesday, Icahn recounts how he spent last weekend hammering out a settlement agreement with Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and CEO Jerry Yang, ending a contentious proxy battle between the parties.

Here's what Icahn had to say:

Proxy fights are very expensive and time-consuming. Unlike political elections, where change is often seen, it is unfortunately extremely difficult to take control of a company. By the end of last week, … Read more

Yahoo to tap Jonathan Miller for board seat and more?

With its bruising proxy battle over, Yahoo stands poised to add a few more deck chairs among its board of directors.

But will Yahoo founder and CEO Jerry Yang get cast overboard in the process in favor of former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller?

Yahoo's board, as part of its settlement agreement with investor activist Carl Icahn, will appoint Icahn to its board after its August 1 shareholders meeting and then will add two more directors to its 11-member board from a pool of candidates that Icahn has recommended. That pool includes Icahn's former slate of dissident directors and … Read more

Live blog: Yahoo discusses second quarter

Yahoo's financial results came in lower than analyst expectations for revenue and net income, but the stock is trading higher after hours. Here are highlights from what Chief Executive Jerry Yang, President Sue Decker, and Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen have to say about the second quarter during the company's conference call.

To recap, here are Yahoo's numbers: Revenue excluding commissions increased 8 percent to $1.346 billion, shy of the $1.37 billion analysts had expected. Net income was 10 cents per share, excluding items, compared to 11 cents expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson … Read more

Yahoo earnings decline, miss estimates

Yahoo's earnings for its second quarter came in 1 cent lower than expectations, with net income declining 19 percent and revenue a bit light as well, but the company called the quarter "strong."

Using generally accepted accounting principles, the company's net income decreased 19 percent from $161 million in the year-earlier quarter to $131 million. But excluding various charges, the Internet pioneer reported earnings of 10 cents per share, less than the 11 cents per share that analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected.

Revenue increased 8 percent to $1.346 billion, excluding commissions called traffic acquisition … Read more

Facebook's Sandberg: Growth before monetization

HALF MOON BAY, Calif.--Facebook's business playbook takes a page from those of the early dot-coms: build it and then figure out how to make money.

Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, said here in a panel interview Tuesday that Facebook's primary goal is to grow its social network. Second is monetization.

"Our focus is on growth--we believe this is the moment people are joining social networks," Sandberg said here at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, a three-day gathering on technology and media. "Then it's monetization to support that growth."

Her … Read more

Digital media investment firm hires AOL exec

Velocity Interactive Group, an investment firm that concentrates on the digital media sector, has hired Jorge Espinel as an investment partner for activities in digital publishing, digital video, social media, games, and online advertising.

Espinel most recently led AOL's corporate strategy, mergers, and acquisitions work, where he oversaw acquisition of companies including Tacoda, Third Screen Media, AdTech, Truveo, Userplane, and Advertising.com, Velocity said.