Going (Creatively) Digital
Diller’s IAC, Verizon Said To Be Circling Yahoo’s Internet Businesses
The drama never ends at Yahoo. Barely two months after Marissa Mayer pledged to “reset” the company’s focus, The Wall Street Journal this week cited various sources as saying that Yahoo’s board of directors are considering selling off its Internet businesses. There are many moving pieces in this long-running saga, most prominent of which are the fate of Yahoo’s most valuable possessions: a 15% stake in Alibaba and a 35% holding in Yahoo Japan. Among other things, Yahoo would like to spin off its Alibaba stake in a tax-free manner, but the Internal Revenue Service declined to sign off on that scenario, which complicates things for potential bidders. Following its initial scoop, the Journal reported that IAC/InterActive, the conglomerate run by Barry Diller, and Verizon might be interested in Yahoo’s Internet businesses.
IBM Says Smart Phones Topped Tablets For Post-Turkey Online Shopping
For the first time, Thanksgiving weekend online shoppers did more shopping on smart phones than on tablets—at 17.1% to 11.1%, according to data from International Business Machines published by Bloomberg. The reasons: bigger phone screens, easier payment options and enhanced web and app user experiences. Use of smart phones surged by 75% over 2014, when the figures for smart phones were 10.5% to 12.5% for tablets. Worldwide tablet sales are expected to drop 8.1 percent this year to 211 million devices, according to IDC. Smartphone sales, meanwhile, were up 6.8 percent to 355 million in the third quarter.
News Flash: It’s Really Going Away (Flash, That Is)
As anti-climaxes go, it was a long time coming, but Adobe is officially abandoning the platform known as Flash. Instead, it is renaming its animation tool from Flash Professional CC to Animate CC. Among other publications, Wired recounts the various problems Flash has had with companies like Mozilla, along with the fact that Flash isn’t supported on most smart phones. For its part, Adobe noted: “Today, open standards like HTML5 have matured and provide many of the capabilities that Flash ushered in. Our customers have clearly communicated that they would like our creative applications to evolve to support multiple standards and we are committed to doing that.”
Are Brand-Produced Podcasts The Next Bright Shiny Thing?
Not that long ago, it seemed that podcasts were mainly the mainstay of nerdy types who were curious about How Stuff Works or could never make it to a TED event. But as Digiday explains, big brands are getting into the act much in the same way that they have plunged into the world of branded videos. Prudential, Umpqua Bank, GE and Netflix are just a few of the big brands that have launched large-scale podcast productions in the last few months. And then there are outfits like Panoply, Slate’s podcast network, whose custom unit works with brands to help make podcasts a reality.
C-Suite Moves:
Julie Parrish to Check Point Software Technologies as Chief Marketing Officer, from NetApp, where she was Chief Marketing Officer.
Jeaneen Andrews-Feldman to the Society for Human Resource Management as Chief Marketing Officer, from Merkle Inc., where she was Senior Vice President.
Jason T.J. Schoepke to Market Realist as Chief Marketing Officer, from Invesco PowerShares where he was Global Brand Manager.
Ashish Gupta to Infoblox as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, from Actian, where he was Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer.
Loren Jarrett to Acquia as Chief Marketing Officer, from Kaseya, where she was Chief Marketing Officer.
Dave Ginsburg to Teridion as Chief Marketing Officer, from Pluribus Networks, where he was Chief Marketing Officer.
