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Posts Tagged “

Kevin Johnson

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jerry yang

Cowed Yahoo board members' wishlist of Yang and Decker replacements

Yahoo shares are almost below $20 in morning trading and as the company approaches its August 1 annual meeting, Yahoo's directors have finally begun to fear for their jobs and their reputations. They're negotiating with Yahoo's major shareholders and, along with agreeing to renew talks with Microsoft and approach AOL for acquisition, some on the board are offering to promote CEO Jerry Yang into a non-executive chairmanship and fire Yahoo president Sue Decker. Reporter's reporter Kara Swisher reports that shareholders and some board members have already come up with a wish list of names for the top jobs. More »

Feature

7:02 AM on Tue Jul 1 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
2,782 views, 13 comments

Latest by hookedonredbull: It was Jon who took the engineers away from him - same difference, and a good call. more »

leaks

Microsoft's Kevin Johnson explains the failed Yahoo merger to troops

Despite all the reports to the contrary, Microsoft actually ended its bid to acquire Yahoo way back in April. At least, that's what Microsoft topper Kevin Johnson would have his underlings believe. "In a March 10th meeting in Palo Alto, we explained to Yahoo management the importance of reaching an agreement by the end of April," Johnson wrote in a memo. More »

10:00 AM on Mon Jun 16 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
1,436 views, 3 comments

online advertising

Microsoft's online chief: "Paid search is getting more credit than it deserves"

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer believes the online advertising market will reach $40 billion this year and grow to $80 billion by 2010. Last year, Microsoft earned only $2 billion from it. Google claimed $8 billion. This disparity upsets Ballmer and so he's put his man Kevin Johnson to the task of remedying the situation. Since most of Google's revenues come from search marketing, Johnson's first plan is to acquire more search queries for Microsoft. Hence the bid to acquire Yahoo, or at least its search business. But Johnson knows more search queries for Microsoft won't unseat Google alone, and so his second step is convince advertisers that Google's search advertising isn't worth all the money they spend on it. To make that argument, Johnson will rely on a tool Microsoft acquired when it purchased aQuantive last year: engagement mapping, a system that will tell vendors which ads consumers saw on the Web before they purchased a product. More »

7:00 AM on Wed May 28 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
643 views, 4 comments

Latest by BobDope: Razorfish? (spits drink all over the place) more »

kevin johnson

Microsoft's internal memo on Yahoo

Microsoft platforms and services president Kevin Johnson addressed employees in an internal memo over the weekend to discuss Yahoo and Microsoft's online strategy. The 11-word version : "We are not where we want to be. Hear more Wednesday." For the superfluous details, see our 100-word version, or, for the gluttons for repetition and passive voice among you, Johnson's entire email, both below: More »

9:20 AM on Mon May 19 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
3,088 views, 2 comments

Ballmer, sighted in Palo Alto, was there for Yahoo meeting A Valleywag tipster spotted Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and fellow executive Kevin Johnson in Palo Alto on Wednesday. Kara Swisher now confirms they were in California for a meeting with Yahoo. [BoomTown]

1 comment

exits

Is Ballmer on his way out -- and if so, who's the next CEO?

Emails are flying out of Redmond with this speculation: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's botched $50 billion bid for Yahoo could mean the end of his career. While Microsoft's board reportedly gave the CEO considerable leeway in handling the deal, his dithering approach and his failure to sell the deal both to Yahoo's board and Microsoft's own executives don't reflect well on the sweaty screamer. The only problem: Microsoft has no obvious successor for Ballmer. More »

6:00 PM on Sat May 3 2008
By Owen Thomas
5,021 views, 20 comments

Yahoo's $37 demand talks, Microsoft's $33 offer walks Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer heeded our advice and walked away from a bid for Yahoo. Did he dodge a potentially career-ending bullet? "The talks broke down this afternoon after a face to face meeting in the Seattle area that included Microsoft CEO Steve ballmer, Microsoft exec. kevin johnson, and Yahoo co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo." [All Things Digital] (Photo by Yodel Anecdotal)

12 comments

nerdspotting

Steve Ballmer seen in Palo Alto today, near Facebook's offices

A tipster writes:
Was parked on University Ave right east of University Cafe near Waverly, on a conference call dealing with business for my own startup company. And lo and behold, Steve Ballmer, Kevin Johnson and some other woman walked out of the building on the corner (right @ 3pm). They walked along University Ave toward El Camino Real. I worked at MSFT for 3 years before leaving to do my start up so I know it was certainly then. Lots of silence on the Yahoo deal, and perhaps they were on Facebook business unrelated... but who knows.
Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, was rumored to be meeting with Yahoo executives in Oregon. No need to go so far! He was just a few stops down 101 from Yahoo's Sunnyvale headquarters. But our tipster may be right about Ballmer being here on Facebook business. Kevin Johnson, one of Ballmer's companions, was president of Microsoft's Windows division and an architect of its Facebook investment. Facebook investor Accel Partners is located on University near Waverly; from there, the Microsoft team walked in the direction of Facebook's offices. Anyone know what they were up to? Drop us a line.

11:28 PM on Wed Apr 30 2008
By Owen Thomas
2,035 views, 6 comments

Latest by n/a: @BartKela: Ah ok... just as long as they weren't all walking out of Chico's we're cool. more »

100-word version

Kevin Johnson's "leaked" Microsoft memo, made Friday-friendly

Microsoft exec Kevin Johnson wrote an email to his team today and later put a copy online. At 1,800 words, you'll never get through it in what's left of Friday. Here's the 100-word version: More »

3:10 PM on Fri Feb 22 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
4,473 views, 5 comments

live coverage

Microsoft's conference call on $44.6 billion Yahoo offer

Microsoft has offered $44.6 billion to buy Yahoo in a cash-and-stock deal. Here are highlights from the conference call Microsoft is holding to discuss it.
5:35 a.m. Pacific: Steve Ballmer calls offer "significant." He called Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang last night to discuss it. A year ago, Yahoo management it "wasn't the right time" to discuss an acquisition.
5:37 a.m.: Kevin Johnson, who heads up Microsoft's Windows business and led its acquisition of aQuantive and the investment in Facebook, is talking about online-advertising industry economics. He describes it as a "scale" business in the areas of search advertising and ad serving. "Requires significant investments" in technology and infrastructure" leading to "a period of consolidation." The market is "dominated by one player" — he's obviously talking about Google. In other words, the antitrust argument has already begun. More »

5:40 AM on Fri Feb 1 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,331 views, Comment

kevin johnson

Microsoft internal Facebook email a self-congratulatory high-five

Internal memos offer, if not juicy gossip, telling insight into the character of an organization. Not so with the missive Microsoft lead negotiator Kevin Johnson sent around to explain his Facebook triumph. It's just more "win-win-win" blather that you'd expect from a salesman. Johnson tells coworkers the deal will demonstrate to advertisers that Microsoft is a winner and that for publishers "it is further evidence of Microsoft's commitment to long-term innovation." I'm sure the thousands of geeks in Microsoft's R&D labs are stewing over that line — not that they've come up with anything even vaguely as cool as Facebook. But whatever. We know the real reason Johnson sent the memo. To get this reply from Ballmer — the CEO's actual words: "Great job you really pulled this together unbelievably." Cha-ching!

9:05 AM on Thu Oct 25 2007
By Nicholas Carlson
478 views, Comment

online advertising

Microsoft's master salesman feigns neutrality

Kevin Johnson, who runs Microsoft's Windows and Web businesses, is a master salesman. And making a sale, of course, requires a fine-tuned ability to bullshit on demand. Nowhere is that ability more on display than in Microsoft's announcement of a deal to buy AdECN, a supposedly neutral marketplace where advertisers and publishers can buy and sell online ads. AdECN is also a competitor to recent Yahoo acquisition Right Media and DoubleClick, which Google is trying to buy. Johnson claims Microsoft won't favor its own websites, or partners like Facebook or Digg. Of course, that's nonsense. How do I know that? AdECN told me so. More »

12:06 PM on Fri Jul 27 2007
By Owen Thomas
681 views, 1 comment

Latest by siliconvalet: Whenever an ad-related business starts talking about 'neutrality' or 'transparency' or 'openness' it's a sure sign that they're just not monetizing for their partners as well as their competitors. Otherwise they'd just say 'more money.' No exception here. more »

microsoft

The new Microsoft hegemony: Kevin Johnson's reorg rundown

Meet the new Products and Services Division team at Microsoft. In the second part of Kevin Johnson's leaked internal memo, the MS co-president outlines who's coming and who's staying in Windows Live, the Core Operating System Division, the Online Business Group, and several other PSD departments. More »

2:16 PM on Thu Mar 23 2006
By ndouglas
2,460 views, Comment

kevin johnson

MSN Meltdown: Kevin Johnson shuffles PSD, round one

Executives have been dropping like flies (flies that are only taking a break! Honest!) at MSN. The Microsoft division is sinking as Microsoft's Live project takes over. More »

12:34 PM on Thu Mar 23 2006
By ndouglas
401 views, 1 comment

msn

MSN Meltdown: Senior VP David Cole forced out, Yusuf Mehdi is next

MSN is a swamp, and Microsoft is flushing it out. MSN director David Cole sent a company memo announcing his retirement this morning. The senior VP ran the network since 2001; since then, its search market share has slowly drifted to the bottom. More »

2:03 PM on Fri Feb 17 2006
By ndouglas
633 views, 4 comments