Dear Ross,
We heard the news. You're leaving Yahoo after being passed over twice for the chief executive job. You've been negotiating your exit package with your soon-to-be former boss Marissa Mayer and you've been rewarded handsomely with about $5 million in stock options, Reuters reports.
We know the money is probably a cold comfort. You've dreamed of running a digital media empire ever since you were at News Corp. and helping Rupert Murdoch build his own with the acquisition of MySpace. That investment didn't work out, but your instincts were right. After Scott Thompson was fired, you got the top job on an interim basis and wasted no time putting your stamp on the company. You hired executives, made deals, and settled a contentious patent lawsuit with Facebook.
Now you've got to start over. While that has to be tough, this could be the best thing to happen to your career. Yahoo is a mess. Mayer is the company's fifth chief executive since Carol Bartz, who hired you in 2010. The company has never been able to decide whether it's a digital media company -- as you believe -- or a technology company. Mayer may end up being successful, but the odds are stacked against her. Turning around Yahoo is a Sisyphean burden, and it's no longer your boulder to roll up the hill.
You earned some big Silicon Valley cred in your short stint by settling the Facebook spat and inking a partnership with the company. When the Mayer shocker was announced, many suggested that the company made a mistake in passing you over, while others suggested Mayer would be wise to do everything possible to retain you.
In other words, Ross, you leave Yahoo looking very attractive to other digital media companies and with a higher profile than you've ever had before. Kara Swisher says you are "likely to have many options." We think at least a few of those options will have the title "chief executive" attached to them, and this time it will be permanent.
Windy City (Chicago Tribune)
Online payments processor Braintree will hire 150 new employees for its Chicago headquarters and its Menlo Park, Calif. satellite office over the next several years. The company processed $4 billion in credit card payments last year.
Banned (GigaOm)
Twitter, which has championed itself as a defender of free speech, has suspended a journalist for posting the email address of an NBC executive whom he blamed in part for shoddy Olympics coverage.
Retention (WSJ)
Nokia, the embattled cellphone maker, has decided to increase the number of stock options available to its employees by 35%. The move is intended to keep key executives and managers at the company at a time of cost cutting and layoffs.
Fakes (Bits)
A start-up called Limited Run says 80% of clicks on its Facebook ads were coming from automated bots. The allegation injects more fear, uncertainty and doubt into the Facebook advertising equation.
Wish List (DealBook)
Apple has $117 billion in cash to spend on whatever it likes. Some acquisition ideas include Research In Motion, which could help Apple break deeper into the enterprise market. Also on the table is Sprint, the wireless and landline company worth $13.5 billion, which will bring Apple products and content directly to consumers.
Tit for Tat (DealBook)
Oracle has purchased network virtualization company Xsigo for an undisclosed sum. The move comes a week after rival VMware bought Nicira, a company with similar technology, for $1.26 billion.
Openings (KTHV)
PrivacyStar, the smartphone privacy company, plans to add 121 jobs to its Conway, Ark. headquarters. Many positions will be technical, the company says, with average salaries of $38 an hour.
Gone Daddy Gone (WSJ)
Go Daddy Chief Executive Warren Adelman has left the company and is being replaced by Scott Wagner, an executive at KKR & Co., one of three private equity firms that bought the Internet domain registry last year.
Buzz Around the Office
All Cracked Up (Yahoo)
Brazil's Felipe Kitadai, the bronze medalist in the 60-kilogram judo competition, has asked the International Olympic Committee for some new hardware after dropping and denting his medal while wearing it in the shower.
List of the Day: Reasons Not to Telecommute
It sounds like a dream, but if any of the below applies to you, you'll want to say no thanks.
1. You're a social person and do best when interacting with others.
2. You make your best impressions in person.
3. You're not self-motivated enough to work alone.
(Source: MoneyWatch)
