One week ago I met Kara Swisher in Rome. She asked me about Twitter in Italy and I told her we were about Twitter in 2007 but now we’ve moved on (we had read about Twitter here and here). Mainstream Web users are all on Facebook (Facebook has been huge here since last summer) while Web-savvy people interested in microblogging now prefer FriendFeed with its richer features.

I thought it was the first time something Americans where going mad for was already out of fashion in Italy.

Maybe that is why Kara was not satisfied with my answer. She was attending an ad sellers meeting, and the people she had talked to were not exactly Web-addicted. I would say not one of them knew who Arianna Huffington was before reading her name on the speakers panel (Arianna! Don’t fire me! Italian bloggers love you!). She stayed at a wonderful hotel near Via Veneto where they know all the tricks to make you believe Dolce Vita still lives on.

Read the rest of this post

Yahoo (YHOO) shares are headed for their lowest closing price since Jan. 31, when the stock finished at $19.18 right before Microsoft (MSFT) went public with a $31-a-share stock-and-cash offer for the company. This would be the eighth down day for the stock out of the last 9. The stock is off about 26% since peaking in mid-February at $29.98.

Pressuring the shares today: more departures from the executive ranks, and reports that the company is planning an organizational overhaul. The WSJ reports that “Yahoo executives are discussing a plan to centralize numerous product groups, such as its mail, search and home-page divisions, into a global-product organization.” Kara Swisher has the lowdown, with all the details on the management shuffle.

Read the rest of this post

Can Yahoo win by building a coalition of losers?

BoomTown reports this morning that CNET is going to announce an expanded relationship with Yahoo this afternoon. In once sense that is a yawner. Those two have hooked up and broken up so many times over the last decade that they are some sort of dysfunctional couple who can neither commit nor leave each other.

But depending on the details, there may be a clue that Yahoo’s current strategy may be getting a tad bit of traction. As I wrote after Yahoo’s earnings call, the company seems to be trying to build its ad network among the mainstream publishers who feel most threatened by the rise of Google.

Read the rest of this post

War! What is it good for! Absolutely nothing! Say it again!

Are wars really good for business? Is tech entrepreneurship in recession heading toward depression? The battle between Microsoft and Yahoo is reaching its climax (if not already). However, there are some very interesting and unique perspectives from two blog posts that jumped out at me–Kara Swisher and Fred Wilson. Kara has the funniest headline saying “Jesus Is Coming” with the storyline about the inside scoop on the “dance” between the two. What strikes me with Kara’s post is that Yahoo might already be defeated in the “brain drain” that they have been experiencing. Even if Yahoo survives, is it already dead on the vine?

Read the rest of this post