Tag: Yahoo

Yahoo acquires Instagram co-founders’ AI news platform Artifact

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Yahoo said on Tuesday it had acquired Instagram co-founders’ AI-driven news platform, Artifact, and will incorporate its technology across the U.S. web services provider’s news and other sites.

The deal signals continued pain for media start-ups struggling to grow revenue at a time when Big Tech giants Alphabet and Meta Platforms attract the bulk of advertising sales.

In January, Artifact said in a blogpost it would wind down operations of its app as “the market opportunity isn’t big enough to warrant continued investment in this way.”

Yahoo, which also owns news brands TechCrunch, Engadget and Yahoo Finance, said Artifact’s AI-powered recommendation engine and other features will help scale its news operations and deliver personalized content to audience.

The online publisher also owns a minority stake in content recommendation platform Taboola.

Yahoo, which declined to share financial details, was bought out by private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $5 billion in 2021.

Artifact was launched in early 2023 by Systrom and Mike Krieger. They were earlier at Meta, then known as Facebook, after the company’s acquisition of Instagram in 2012.

The duo had left the Facebook owner in late 2018, which some media reports later described as due to their strained relationship with Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and differences in their visions for Instagram.

Systrom and Krieger will work with Yahoo in an advisory capacity during this transition, Yahoo said in a statement.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Yahoo to layoff 20% of its workforce 1,000 employees to lose job within this week

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Yahoo layoffs are the newest addition to the global layoffs list. Yahoo has announced to lay off 20 percent of its staff, impacting 1,600 employees in its ad tech business.

On Thursday, employees were notified that 12 percent of the company (1,000 employees) would be laid off before the end of the day. Within the next six months, another 8 percent — or 600 — will lose their jobs. Around half of Yahoo’s ad tech business will be affected by these cuts, according to a report by Reuters.

During an interview with Axios, Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone said that the layoffs are not the result of economic factors, but rather an intentional decision to improve Yahoo’s unprofitable business unit. Yahoo generates around $8 billion in revenue yearly, making the company profitable.

Also read: Dell layoffs to affect over 6,600 jobs as company faces decline in PC sales

In a 30-year commercial agreement, Yahoo acquired a nearly 25 percent ownership in the ad network Taboola in November. Taboola is now the company’s native advertising partner. According to Lanzone, these adjustments will enable Yahoo to enhance competition for ad spots by eight times.

However, as a result of the shift, Yahoo will discontinue supply-side platforms for native advertising, such as Gemini (SSP). Yahoo’s demand-side platform (DSP), which will now be called Yahoo Advertising, will also receive attention. Deals with Fortune 500 firms will be the main focus of this branch.

Also read: ‘It doesn’t make sense’ : Zoom employees feel betrayed as layoff comes despite revenue growth

“Over several years, the strategy of our ads business was to compete in the ad tech industry by offering a ‘unified stack’ consisting of our Demand Side Platform (DSP), Supply Side Platform (SSP) and Native platforms. Despite many years of effort and investment, this strategy was not profitable and struggled to live up to our high standards across the entire stack.” a Yahoo spokesperson said in a statement to TechCrunch.

Also read: Mass layoffs sweep big corporations – Google, Amazon among top companies cutting jobs in 2023

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Yahoo leaves China for good, cites ‘challenging’ environment

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Yahoo said it had stopped allowing its services to be accessible from mainland China “in recognition of the increasingly challenging business and legal environment”, the second Western tech brand to quit the country in recent weeks.

The company stopped providing content for users in mainland China as of Nov. 1, according to a statement published on its website, which directed users of Yahoo and AOL mail to other links. Local Chinese media reported Yahoo’s move on Tuesday.

“In recognition of the increasingly challenging business and legal environment in China, Yahoo’s suite of services will no longer be accessible from mainland China as of November 1,” a Yahoo spokesperson told Reuters in an email on Tuesday.

“Yahoo remains committed to the rights of our users and a free and open internet. We thank our users for their support.”

Yahoo’s move follows that of Microsoft Corp, which pulled the plug on Linkedin in China last month, marking the retreat of the last major U.S.-owned social network in China. Linkedin cited a “more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China”.

Yahoo had already greatly scaled back its presence in China over the past few years. Prior to Monday, it had still operated a weather app and some pages that showed news articles in foreign languages.

Yahoo entered China in 1998 and in 2012 struck a deal with Alibaba Group to sell its stake in the e-commerce giant. The deal also saw Alibaba obtain the right to operate Yahoo China under the Yahoo brand for up to four years.

Yahoo China later shut its email service and web portal but the brand retained a global research and development center in Beijing until 2015, when it was shut down.

Its departure comes as Beijing has imposed fresh curbs on its internet companies on areas from content to customer privacy as well as new laws. On Monday, its new Personal Information Protection law designed to protect online user data privacy came into effect.

In May, Verizon Communications sold Yahoo and its other media businesses to private equity firm Apollo Global for $5 billion.

The Chinese website of tech blog Engadget, which was also sold in the deal, was also unavailable on Tuesday and only displayed Yahoo’s announcement on no longer providing content for mainland China users.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Yahoo shuts down news operations in India; here’s why

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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American telecom giant Verizon has shut down its Yahoo India digital news operations in India from Thursday. Yahoo Mail will not be impacted by this shutdown. The sites that have been affected by this decision include Yahoo News, Yahoo Cricket, Yahoo Finance, and Entertainment.

The decision comes on the heels of the new Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) regulations which prohibits foreign funding of more than 26 percent in digital news media outlets. The home page of Yahoo News said, “As of August 26, 2021, Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account, Mail, and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership.”

Yahoo News has had a long association with India over the last 20 years providing news content in the digital media space, and many users expressed disappointment at its closure. Yahoo added that it did not take the decision lightly and was impacted by the new FDI regulations.

“There have been changes in the rules limiting foreign ownership of media companies that operate in the news and current affairs space, including a digital media entity that streams, uploads digital news and current affairs content in India and news aggregators,” said April Boyd, head of Global Public Policy, Verizon Media, as quoted by Economic Times.

The company has reiterated that this move will not affect users of Yahoo Mail in any way and Indian Yahoo Mail users can continue using their services without any disruption.

Indian users can still access the international Yahoo News website and also US Yahoo News.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon to buy MGM: Here are some M&As in global media and entertainment industry

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The recent news of Jeff Bezos-owned Amazon buying MGM for a jaw dropping $8.45 billion caught the attention of everyone. Another major merger and acquisition (M&A) likely to happen this year is that of Verizon selling its media group to PE firm Apollo Global Management for $5 billion, CNBC reported.

With streaming of digital content the way forward, it seems like large M&A deals in the space will keep the industry abuzz for some time.

Verizon – Apollo Global

• Verizon is one of the largest communication technology companies in the world. In 2015, the company bought AOL for $4.4 billion and in 2017, acquired Yahoo for $4.5 billion. Now, Verizon is selling everything pertaining to media for $5 billion to Apollo. Verizon will get $4.5 billion in cash and retain 10 percent stake in the soon to be rebranded company named Yahoo.
• Power brands such as TechCrunch, Yahoo Finance and Engadget will also be a part of the deal with Apollo getting them for a low valuation. The deal is expected to be complete by the second half of this year.
• Verizon also sold HuffPost to Buzzfeed, had shut down or sold off properties such as Tumblr and Yahoo Answers. In 2013, Yahoo bought Tumblr for 1.1 billion.

Embracer Group buys Gearbox Entertainment Co

• Sweden based video gaming company Embracer Group has acquired video game developer Gearbox Entertainment for $1.3 billion early this year.
• Post-acquisition, properties such as Borderlands and Brothers in Arms franchises, Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, 007 James Bond and Halo franchises will be a part of Embracer.

Other mergers on the anvil

• AT&T plans to merge WarnerMedia with Discovery as it is trying to grow their media house to compete with Netflix and Disney despite the debts they are in from their media acquisitions.
• In 2018 Discovery took over Scripps and Comcast fought hard with Fox Networks to acquire Sky.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

STARTUP DIGEST: Top startup stories of the day

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

From three startups receiving funding to Paytm making new developments to bidding farewell to Yahoo, the startup industry had a pretty industry day today.

Here are the top startup stories of the day:

• Funding of the Day

Wow! Momo raises Rs 45 Cr debt funding from Anicut Capital

Wow! Momo Foods which owns and operates two quick-service restaurant brands Wow! Momo and Wow! China has raised Rs 45 crores in debt funding from Anicut capital with an option to raise another Rs 15 crores by April 2021. The debt goes towards old loan repayment of Rs 35 crores to Avendus Finance raised in 2018 and fresh influx of growth capital.

Pepper Content raises $4.2 M led by Lightspeed India

Content marketplace platform, Pepper Content has raised $4.2 million in Series A funding, led by Lightspeed India and leading angels across India and Silicon Valley. Pepper aims to leverage this funding to enter into newer content categories such as video and audio, expand into new geographies like Southeast Asia while continuing to scale up its current product for customers and creators alike.

TeaMonk raises Rs 6.5 Cr from Inflection Point Ventures & other investors

Premium tea brand, TeaMonk has raised Rs 6.5 crore in Pre-Series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures, one of India’s largest angel investment platforms in India. It plans to use the current funding for further market expansion in global markets like the US, UK and Canada. Will also launch a subscription-based platform in India to further strengthen their presence in the home market.

• IIFL Wealth Hurun India 40 & under self-made rich list 2020

With a combined wealth of Rs 24,000 crore, Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath tops IIFL Wealth and Hurun India’s ’40 and under self-made rich list 2020′. The Kamath brothers are followed by Divyank Turakhia with a net worth of Rs 14,000 crore.

Udaan’s founding team of  Amod Malviya ,Sujeet Kumar and Vaibhav Gupta are at number three. While, Devita Saraf (39), founder of Vu Technologies is the only woman in the list.

With a wealth of Rs 7,800 Cr, Riju Ravindran, 39, of online education platform, Byju’s secured the 6^th spot in the list. With a wealth of Rs 7,500 Cr each, co-founders of Flipkart, Binny Bansal, 37, and Sachin Bansal, 39, shares seventh position in the list. Bhavish Aggarwal, 35, and Ankit Bhati, 34, co-founders of ride-hailing company Ola Cabs ranks 10^th and 14^th in the 40 and under list with a wealth of Rs 3,500 Cr and Rs 1,600 Cr respectively,

As per the list, the entrepreneurs cumulatively added a wealth of Rs 44,900 crore, registering an increase of 59 percent compared to last year. Bengaluru is the city that houses the business headquarters the most individuals on the list – nine, followed by two each in Delhi and Gurugram.

Average age on the list is 37 and the youngest entrepreneur is Oyo Rooms’ Ritesh Agarwal (26). Logistics and Retail are the major contributors of wealth for entrepreneurs.

• Ather Energy to set up public charging infrastructure with Ather Grid across India

Ather Energy has begun setting up public charging infrastructure with Ather Grid across India. Phase one of installation of Ather Grid to be live across 135 + locations by December 2020.

Ather Grid fast charging network can be used by all electric two-wheelers and electric four-wheelers and can charge the Ather 450X at 15 km in 10 minutes. The company has signed MOUs with partners like VR Mall, PPZ mall management, restaurant and cafe chains like Little Italy, Blue Tokai, Chai Kings, retail outlets like Sangeetha mobiles, and now has access to more than 250 locations across the country.

The installations of the Ather Grid Points will begin before deliveries of the Ather 450X in November 2020.

Ather Energy has 37 fast charging stations in Bengaluru and 13 in Chennai, taking the total count to 150 fast charging stations across India.

• Paytm starts same-day settlement on its payment gateway

Digital payments major Paytm has started same-day settlement facility for all kinds of fund transfers on its payment gateway. The same-day settlement feature will help businesses that depend upon immediate availability of funds for their business. This includes e-commerce companies, government institutions, and all businesses involving inventories.

As a norm digital payments made to a merchant is usually not settled on the same day. Industry standard is that settlement happens after one day or two days, depending on the specific day of the week. However, payment startups have been innovating on same day settlements to encourage small merchants who need cash in their bank account daily to start accepting digital payments.

From Rs 50 up to Rs 2 lakh, everything can be settled daily to even three times every day depending on the requirement of the merchant.

• SoftBank Vision Fund seeking cash for blank-cheque firm: Report

SoftBank Group Vision Fund is targeting external funding for a blank-cheque acquisition company it plans to launch, according to a report by Reuters. SoftBank is likely to put also its own capital into the company, whose size is undetermined as per the report. Details of the vehicle will be revealed in the next two weeks.

• Yahoo to bid goodbye on December 15, 2020

Yahoo to shut down Yahoo Groups on December 15 as the platform usage declined over the last several years. According to a statement, creation of new groups will be disabled on October 12 and on December 15 people will no longer be able to send and receive emails from Yahoo Groups & the website will no longer be accessible.

• Amazon workers in Germany strike on ‘Prime Day’: Reuters

As per Reuters report, a German trade union called on workers at seven Amazon warehouses to go on strike on Tuesday to coincide with the global “Prime Day” promotion event that was postponed due to operational challenges from the coronavirus pandemic.

Verdi said it was organising the two-day strike as part of a long-running battle with Amazon in Germany over better pay and conditions, noting that a coronavirus bonus introduced for workers in Germany in March had been scrapped again in May.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Lok Sabha Polls 2019: Narendra Modi, Priyanka Gandhi Yahoo’s most-searched politicians

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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In this election season, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the most-searched politician in India, followed by Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, according to the poll search trends on Yahoo India.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi comes fourth, as per Yahoo, which released the data on Monday for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, reflecting what the users are looking for on Yahoo India in terms of the elections and the political figures they want to know more about.

A Yahoo statement said after Modi, Priyanka Gandhi, Banerjee and Rahul Gandhi are stealing the top most-searched spots, in that order, cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu also makes the cut.

The most-searched politicians’ list also includes Manohar Parrikar, late Chief Minister of Goa, Priyanka Chaturvedi, former Congress spokesperson who recently shifted to the Shiv Sena, Communist Party of India candidate Kanhaiya Kumar and Congress’ Hardik Patel, the Yahoo statement said.

New entrants into the Indian polity, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Gautam Gambhir, a former cricketer, and Congress’ Urmila Matondkar, an actress, are also among the most-searched politicians.

The online search engine also released the “most-searched Indian general election 2019 terms’, based on Yahoo India proprietary search data.

‘Lok Sabha elections 2019′ topped the list, with ‘Voter ID’ landing at number two.

The Election Commission came in at the third place, followed by the National Voter Service Portal, and the ‘BJP Candidate List’ rounding off the few at the top of the most-searched election terms.

“Other top searches in this category include information Indian users have sought, including ‘Lok Sabha Election Schedule’, ‘Voter list’ (how to check name in voter list, voter list online) and ‘Voter ID application status’, among others,” Yahoo said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Yahoo to pay $117.5 million in latest settlement of massive breach

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Nearly 200 million people who had sensitive information snatched from their Yahoo accounts will receive two years of free credit-monitoring services and other potential restitution in a legal settlement valued at $117.5 million.

The deal revises an earlier agreement struck last October, only to be rejected by US District Court Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California. The value of that settlement had been pegged at $50 million, but Koh questioned the calculations.

A more detailed breakdown used in the revised settlement drove up the estimated cost. The money will be paid by Yahoo’s current owner, Verizon, and Altaba, a holdover from Yahoo’s past that still owns a stake in Chinese internet company Alibaba Group worth billions of dollars.

If approved, the settlement will become part of the financial fallout from digital burglaries that stole personal information from about 3 billion Yahoo accounts in 2013 and 2014 believed to be the biggest data breach ever.

And now the $117.5 million settlement could become largest amount ever doled out for a data breach, a recurring problem in an increasingly digitally driven world. It eclipses a $115 million settlement that Koh approved last year to cover 79 million people who had personal information stolen in a 2015 breach at health insurer Anthem Inc.

Yahoo didn’t begin to disclose the extent of its security breakdown until 2016 amid an FBI investigation that eventually linked some of the hacking to Russia.

The revelations brought a mortifying end to the reign of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, eventually prompting the company to reduce its selling price to Verizon by $350 million.

Verizon has since written off much of the nearly $4.5 billion price for the Yahoo acquisition in a sign of the eroding value of that business.

Lawyers representing the Yahoo accountholders estimate about 194 million people in the US and Israel will be eligible to make claims, according to court documents. Those people collectively may have had about 896 million of the Yahoo accounts hit in the break-ins.

The biggest piece of the revised Yahoo settlement disclosed in documents filed Tuesday consists of the free credit-monitoring services that will be offered to everyone covered by the deal to protect them from identity theft and other potential problems. The service from AllClear usually costs $14.95 per month, or $359 for two years. People who already have a credit-monitoring service will be eligible for cash payments instead.

Yahoo accountholders who paid anywhere for $20 to $50 annually for premium email accounts will be eligible for refunds of up to 25 percent. People who had to spend time protecting their identities or dealing with other issues caused by the breach can seek to be paid at a rate of $25 per hour for up to 15 hours.

The settlement will also pay up to $32.5 million in fees and other expenses to the lawyers representing Yahoo accountholders, down from the $37.5 million sought in the earlier agreement another sticking point for Koh. A hearing on the revised settlement is scheduled for June 27.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow