Yahoo fires CEO, puts company up for sale

Following recent rumblings surrounding discontent atop Yahoo’s executive chain, the struggling Internet company fired its CEO Carol Bartz. In the same stroke, Yahoo! also revealed that it is for sale. News broke Tuesday night that former chief executive Carol Bartz sent an email to the entire Yahoo organization. In her brief note, she stated that Yahoo’s chairman of the board had fired her — over the phone, no less. Yahoo confirmed the news, stating that Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse would step in as interim CEO while the company searches for a new chief. Following the news, a Yahoo employee speaking with The Wall Street Journal also confirmed that the company would be open to selling itself. “Yahoo is open to selling itself to the right bidder,” the Journal wrote. No additional details were provided. Carol Bartz’s full email to Yahoo staff follows below.

From: “Carol Bartz”
To: “all-worldwide@yahoo-inc.com”

Subject: Goodbye

To all,

I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board. It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward.

Carol

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BGR

 

Exclusive Interview with Mike Kirkup, Sr. Director of Developer Relations, on why he is leaving Research In Motion

It’s a sad day for NHC Blackberry Alliance. To say I was shocked when I saw word that one of our absolute all-time favorite Research In Motion employees, Mike Kirkup, tendered his resignation today would be an understatement.

iPhone and iPad competitors could benefit from Jobs’s resignation

Apple’s iPhone and iPad competitors could benefit with Steve Jobs out as CEO of Apple. “It’s going to give competitors a bit more of a lease of life to go out and compete harder,” Nomura International Plc. technology analyst Richard Windsor told Bloomberg, which noted that Sony and Nokia’s stock prices jumped after Jobs’ announcement. “It’s been thought about, talked about endlessly for the past several years that Tim Cook would probably take over so while you get an initial knee-jerk reaction on the downside, we would probably expect that not to last very long.” Apple will also need to maintain the momentum and market lead that Steve Jobs created as CEO. “If the new management team doesn’t sustain the level of innovation that Steve Jobs spearheaded, it’s going to be an opportunity for the competition in the long term,” Korea Investment Management Co. fund manager Lee Young Seog said. “Still, because of Tim Cook’s competence and the system at Apple, the competitive landscape isn’t likely to change anytime soon.” Steve Jobs announced his resignation from his CEO post on Wednesday and he will be replaced by Tim Cook, who has effectively been running the company while Jobs has been on leave. “Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it,” Jobs said in his resignation letter on Wednesday.

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via:BGR

DailyFinance names RIM Co-CEO's on Top 9 CEO's who need to be fired list, do you agree?

 

[poll id=”6″]

An interesting piece was published this week by the folks at DailyFinance and it got us here at CrackBerry talking quite a bit about it, tossing around some ideas and thoughts, and we wanted to get your input as well. The article dives into 9 CEO’s that they believe should be fired, and some of the business results behind why they say that.So it got us wondering, would it be a good idea to start fresh with some new CEO’s at the top? We certaintly don’t think so, but unfortunately some of you do agree.

We know RIM has been coming out with some new great stuff, look at the BlackBerry PlayBook, and the BlackBerry Bold 9900, but could the envelope be pushed even further with some fresh blood at the top of the food chain? Or should the folks who founded the company and have seen it through all the changes continue to reign at the top? We know change is usually good, but is this the change that RIM needs? Let us know what you think!

Source: DailyFinance

MetroPCS will begin transition to VoLTE early next year

US carriers were quick to acknowledge their allegiance to Voice over LTE (VoLTE), a 4G VoIP-related technology first demonstrated in February. Ever since that time, however, talk of deployment plans have been replaced by crickets. MetroPCS was the first to break the silence, as CEO Roger Linquist announced at this morning’s quarterly earnings call that his company’s “planning to begin introducing VoLTE-capable handsets early next year to move voice as well as data traffic to [its] LTE network.” The outfit’s wasting no time making the full transition to 4G, as it’s already begun migrating its SMS and MMS services to this service. An increasing sense of urgency is likely hitting the company hard, as implementing VoLTE will ease some of the burden of its limited spectrum by devoting more bandwidth to 4G. What’s better, the anticipated timeframe may even allow MetroPCS to beat Verizon to market — which has also targeted 2012 as a launch date for its equivalent service — as well as AT&T, currently aiming for a 2013 takeoff. No matter what, we’re ecstatic to soon be flooded with more HD-clarity calls than we care to take.

PhoneScoop

Connected Planet
Engadget

Yoritex has produced Medical Network HUB for BlackBerry smartphones

 

Given the current parade of bad predictions for the BlackBerry from the inside baseball crowd, it’s exciting and refreshing to see that out in the real world many still see BlackBerry surviving beyond next Thursday.  Yoritex has announced that they have produced a Medical Network HUB.  This is the first USB-connected hardware accessory for BlackBerry smartphones, which allows making over 50 different medial and non-medical measurements via plug-in accessories which Yoritex makes.  It provides full mHealth service on real-time transmit data basis.

Keep reading for the full press release.

Sprint and LightSquared confirm agreement, 15 years worth of LTE network sharing and more

The rumors were true, but given the long, torrid affair between these two it shouldn’t be a surprise. Sprint and LightSquared have confirmed their intentions to the world, stepping into a whopping 15 year agreement that will be worth $9 billion in cash for Sprint and will save LightSquared an estimated $13 billion. LightSquared will have the right to sell access to Sprint’s burgeoning LTE network, while Sprint can also piggy-back on the other’s existing capacity where needed. Additionally, LightSquared will be able to roam on Sprint’s current 3G network, opening new doors for one while helping the other accelerate its apparent transition to LTE. This is of course good news for Sprint and naturally for LightSquared, which is trying desperately to put the whole GPS fiasco behind it. The loser? Clearwire, we’d say — and WiMAX in general.

BlackBerry Pushcast Has More Value in Consumer Than Enterprise

 

As RIM considers the Consumer side, is there a “Killer App” waiting in the wings?In its continuing campaign to adjust to the new market reality, RIM is considering the consumer side while learning how to balance that with its continuing success in enterprise markets. RIM now understand that although enterprise isn’t dead, the consumer market has already surpassed it in volume and revenue opportunities. Ignoring this fact is a recipe for disaster and RIM isn’t about to make that mistake during its time of transition.

Vonage Extensions makes mobile international calling a free-of-charge affair

Hey Vonage customers, your VoIP service of choice is about to get a bit of a mobile value-add. Announced today, the company’s new Extensions service links your existing home internet calling plan to extra phone numbers — like a cellphone– for free, so you can make that long-distance call to Tante Lulu in Gstaad on-the-go. Okay, so the feature isn’t exactly gratis — you’re still required to sign up for an unlimited international calling plan, but the bucks literally stop there. All it takes to get started with this “virtual calling card” is an access number and some foreign digits. Sound too complicated for you? Don’t fret, official iPhone and Android-compatible appsare scheduled to hit their respective markets in the coming weeks. So, go ahead and ring ol’ Lu for her 89th birthday. She’ll be glad you called.

Vonage Adds Free Mobile Extensions

Now Anyone With Vonage World Gets Unlimited Calling To More Than 60 Countries From Their Mobile At No Extra Charge

HOLMDEL, N.J., July 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG) is breaking beyond the four walls of the home by allowing customers to extend their Vonage home calling plans to any phone, including mobiles. The move allows customers to use Vonage’s signature unlimited(1) international calling plans from their mobile phones to call friends and family abroad. The new service offering — Extensions™ — is free to all Vonage customers and builds upon Vonage’s history of providing unsurpassed value to customers for both domestic and international calling.

“Vonage World set the benchmark for unlimited international calling. Now new and existing customers can call these unlimited countries on their mobile phones for no additional cost,” said Marc Lefar, CEO of Vonage. “This new service dramatically increases the value of Vonage’s core offering, providing customers with more flexibility and savings when making international calls.”

Existing customers can add any U.S. phone number as an extension by logging into their online account at http://www.vonage.com. The extension phone number can be a cell phone, a home phone or even an office number. Once registered, the service works like a virtual calling card. Simply dial the access number and international destination number and the call is connected over the Vonage network.

Extensions works with any mobile phone, and in the next several weeks Vonage plans to offer downloadable apps for iPhone® and Android™ devices, enabling one-touch dialing directly from the customer’s contact list.

Customers with the Vonage World plan will now have the additional flexibility of unlimited calling to more than 60 countries from their cell phones in addition to from their home phone. Those who call internationally for as little as an hour a week will save an average of $250 a year versus the best international rates from major wireless carriers.*

For more information visit http://www.vonage.com.

All Things D Engadget

Guardly Personal Safety App Coming to BlackBerry Next Week

Guardly CEO Josh Sookman demos the app for iPhone.Guardly will be launching its mobile personal safety app for BlackBerry next week. The app turns a BlackBerry into a next-generation mobile personal safety service and has been available for iPhone since April. The app is geared towards students, young professionals, travelers, seniors living alone, or anyone who frequently walks alone at night, and people who may find themselves in abusive relationships or faced with medical conditions. Friends and family can also use Guardly to watch over each other during natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, floods and tornadoes.

The app provides 1-tap connection to a trusted safety network via conference call, email, text message, the web and real-time location tracking. Guardly can even auto-dial 911, campus security or other first responders as part of the alert. The app includes a free basic alerting service and a premium version that includes powerful collaboration features.

Interestingly, the founder and CEO, Josh Sookman, is ex-BlackBerry Partners Fund so he clearly knows how to raise money for the startup.

Stay tuned to guardly.com for the app announcement.

via: bbcool