TechCrunch: Yahoo Mail introduces new AI-powered capabilities, including a ‘Shopping Saver’ tool. “Yahoo is introducing new AI tools for Yahoo Mail that are aimed at helping users save time and money, the company announced on Monday. The rollout includes upgrades to several of Yahoo Mail’s existing AI features, and introduces a new Shopping Saver tool. Yahoo is TechCrunch’s parent company.”
MarketWatch: Yahoo CEO says company will seek a public listing again: report. “Yahoo, an early trailblazer of the Internet boom, is ‘very profitable,’ and ready to return to public markets via an initial public offering. That’s according to Chief Executive Jim Lanzone, who made the comments in an interview with the Financial Times that published Tuesday. Yahoo soared to prominence in the 1990s, along with its share price during the dot-com boom.”
CNBC: Yahoo to lay off 20% of staff by year-end, beginning this week. “Yahoo will lay off more than 20% of its workforce by the end of 2023, eliminating 1,000 positions this week alone, the company said in a statement Thursday.”
Search Engine Roundtable: Yahoo To Make Search Cool Again. “Yahoo posted on Twitter under its Yahoo Search account, ‘Just popping in to remind everyone that we did search before it was cool. BRB making it cool again.’ Is that some sort of tease that Yahoo is about to announce something big with web search?” I’m worried this is going to be some half-baked AI thing. I hope I’m wrong.
Axios: Exclusive: Yahoo buys The Factual to add news credibility ratings. “Yahoo has acquired The Factual, a company that uses algorithms to rate the credibility of news sources, Yahoo president and general manager Matt Sanchez told Axios.”
Engadget: Indonesia restores access to PayPal, Yahoo and Valve services. “Indonesia has unblocked PayPal, Steam owner Valve and Yahoo (Engadget’s parent company), allowing them to resume operations. The country prevented residents from accessing services of several companies that missed a July 29th deadline to register with a government database.”
Reuters: Indonesia Blocks Yahoo, Paypal, Gaming Websites Over Licence Breaches. “Indonesia has blocked search engine website Yahoo, payments firm PayPal and several gaming websites due to failure to comply with licensing rules, an official said on Saturday, sparking a backlash on social media.”
Bloomberg: It’s Warren Buffett Versus Google, Facebook in Latest Wind-Farm Debate. “Google, Facebook and Microsoft Corp. — three of the world’s biggest corporate buyers of clean power — are sounding the alarm that a nearly $4 billion, Warren Buffett-backed renewable-energy project proposed in Iowa isn’t necessarily in the best interest of customers, including them.”
BBC: Yahoo pulls out of China over ‘challenging’ business conditions. “Yahoo has become the latest US tech company to end its presence in mainland China as tougher regulations are imposed there.The firm said its decision was due to an ‘increasingly challenging business and legal environment’ in the country.”
CNBC: Tinder CEO Jim Lanzone will be next CEO of Yahoo following Apollo acquisition. “Tinder CEO Jim Lanzone will be the new chief of Yahoo, according to a company memo obtained by CNBC Friday. You can read the full memo from former Yahoo boss Guru Gowrappan announcing the change below. Gowrappan said he will now serve as an advisor to Yahoo.” Old-timers may recognize the name Jim Lazone as the former CEO of Ask Jeeves. He stuck to search and didn’t get distracted by portals and suchlike. Hope he’s still got that laser focus.
CNET: Yahoo has a new owner, again. “Apollo Global Management on Wednesday said it had completed its acquisition of Yahoo, formerly part of Verizon Media. The private equity firm in May agreed to acquire Verizon’s media group — which included brands such as Yahoo and AOL, as well as ad tech and media platform businesses — for $5 billion.”
The Register: Yahoo! India! shuts! down! news! operation!. “Yahoo!’s Indian outpost has stopped publishing news – even news about cricket. ‘We did not come to this decision lightly,’ states an FAQ about the shut-down, adding ‘However, Yahoo! India has been impacted by changes to regulatory laws in India that now limit the foreign ownership of media companies that operate and publish digital content in India.’” Not surprising considering the regulatory situation in India, but also not great.
SEO Roundtable: Yahoo Sign Taken Down At Sunnyvale Headquarters. “This is sad, here is a photo from Twitter of the Yahoo sign in front of the Yahoo Sunnyvale, California headquarters, being taken down. You can see tons of legacy photos of this iconic sign on Shutterfly or on Google.”
TechCrunch: SoftBank buys perpetual Yahoo trademark license for $1.6 billion. “The extremely descriptive Z Holdings owns SoftBank’s internet businesses in Japan, most notably Yahoo Japan, whose web portal remains the country’s most trafficked news website. Under its most current agreement with Verizon Media (formerly Oath, formerly AOL + Yahoo), Yahoo Japan paid a regular royalty for the rights to use the Yahoo brand name in Japan and associated technologies. Those royalties will now stop in lieu of a one-time upfront payment.”
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The Mainichi: Yahoo Japan to require users’ cell phone numbers to post comments on news stories
The Mainichi: Yahoo Japan to require users’ cell phone numbers to post comments on news stories . “Yahoo Japan Corp. will make it mandatory for users to provide their cell phone numbers when posting in the comments section of its news distribution service in order to deter inappropriate postings, the IT firm has announced.”