12.11.2015
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THE SKINNY
Let’s Go Halfsies?
After its board meeting last week, Yahoo has decided to keep its stake in Chinese Internet company Alibaba. There’s also a chance it’ll put a “for sale” sign on its main Internet business (things like Yahoo Mail and its other websites).
But, Why?
Well, Yahoo initially wanted to keep its core Internet business and sell of its Alibaba stake. But, turns out that idea comes with some major U.S. tax headaches. So, the company is switching things up. It has two options: (1) Make the sale or (2) Split off its Internet biz into a separate publicly traded company aka a “reverse spinoff.” CEO Marissa Mayer and Chairman of her board Maynard Webb choose #2. They say making a sale on something of low-value is generally not a good move. But, they’re still not completely ruling out that option.
Moving Forward …
It’s business as usual for Yahoo. It just released an app to help you sift through online streaming content called the Yahoo Video Guide. And in the midst of all her company drams, Mayer welcomed twin daughters just yesterday. Congrats!
WHAT ELSE HAPPENED?
We’re Here For You …
That’s what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is telling the Muslim community. Zuckerberg is committed to protecting their rights. In the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, CA, things got downright nasty. Earlier this week, U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump thought it’d be a great idea to suggest banning Muslims from entering the U.S. Pretty much everyone disagreed. Zuckerberg says even though people are turning against them, Muslims are always welcome on his social platform.
Will The Real Slim Shady Please stand up?
We all want to know who is responsible for bringing us the virtual currency bitcoin. To date, people credit Satoshi Nakamoto, but no one really knows whether Nakamoto is a person or a group of people hiding behind the name. Recently, publications Wired and Gizmodo think they’ve figured it all out. Based on a ton of evidence, these publications are pretty convinced that Craig Steven Wright either invented bitcoin or we’ve all been royally punked. Coincidentally, Australian federal police officers busted into Wright’s home and office. Authorities say reasons for the raid are tax-related and have nothing to do with bitcoin. Now, people are wondering if id-ing bitcoin’s creator even matters. Some say “who gives” because no single person owns the bitcoin network. But, others disagree. They want someone to step up and help sort out some of the network’s bugs.
It’s All About the Benjamins, Baby…
Twitter needs to make more money. It’s targeting people who read tweets without actually logging onto its platform. Coming to a desktop near you, Twitter will be playing around with a feature that shows ads to these non-active users. This means about a half a billion more people each month. Since we’re talking numbers, that averages out to an additional US $2.50/user. With Jack Dorsey leading the company, lots of changes are underway. Add changing up the timeline to show tweets based on relevance rather than timestamps to the list. Twitter’s just trying to make sure you get the content you want to see.
Is The Glass Half Empty or Half Full?
The Chinese government says “half full” when talking about it web censorship. China’s government says bringing more “order” leads to increased online freedom. And, by order, it means doing things like shutting out Western Internet platforms like Facebook and Gmail. Oh, did we mention detaining bloggers for “spreading rumors online” and “picking quarrels?” China wants people to back off. It says if things were so bad, then its online economy wouldn’t be growing so quickly. Also, it doesn’t appreciate people bashing its ways then trying to make money off of its people.
When Things Aren’t Looking Good …
In the U.S., drivers for ride-hailing app Uber want employee benefits and are fighting to upgrade from just contractors for the company to legit company employees. Ohio and Florida state legislators have denied their wishes. Both states just passed laws classifying Uber drivers as contractors. It’s unclear what these laws say exactly, but these moves could potentially ease Uber’s pain if it loses a class action lawsuit drivers brought against it in California.
THE STREETS ARE TALKIN’
Walmart wants in on the mobile payment game along side Apple and Google. The mega-retailer introduced Walmart Pay, its new mobile payment system. The word is Walmart still plans to work with other retailers like Target and BestBuy on CurrentC, the collective’s answer to Apple Pay.
Speaking of Apple, all you iPhone 6 and 6s users will love this … The smartphone manufacturer’s developed a battery case called the Smart Battery Case. It’ll let you run your mouth for 25 hours.
Streaming service Netflix raked in more Golden Globe nominations than old-school TV broadcasters (8 nominations to be exact).
Turkey’s government is telling Twitter to pay up TL 50,000 (US $51,000) for not taking down alleged “terrorist propaganda.” At least it’s a fine this time, Turkey’s been known to shut down Twitter within its borders all together.
When you think you’re doing a good thing but not really… Tech company IBM quickly ended its #HackAHairDryer campaign initially intended to encourage female coders and engineers. The “hair dryer” angle didn’t go well … Women engineers fired off tweets letting IBM know that they are capable of much more.
Crowdfunding site GoFundMe just landed its new Vice President of Policy & Communications, Dan Pfeiffer. He was formerly the White House’s Communications Director.
Who hasn’t this guy gone after? U.S. Presidential hopeful Donald Trump piped up about e-commerce company Amazon’s alleged “tax shelter.” Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos now wants to #sendDonaldtospace.
Yahoo can’t keep its people. It wasn’t so hard for Ad Product Chief Prashant Fuloria to say goodbye to the com-pah-nee. He’s getting back into startups.