Yahoo's Microsoft tab totaled $79 million

Yahoo's tab in its efforts to fight off Microsoft last year ran $79 million, according to the company's filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Yahoo spent much of that bill on outside advisers who helped it weigh Microsoft's proposals, which ranged from a total buyout bid for $33 a share to an eventual offer to acquire only Yahoo's search business. Yahoo rejected all of Microsoft's proposals.

Part of the $79 million bill was also attributed to hiring outside advisers for fighting off a proxy contest by activist shareholder Carl Icahn, who eventually settled with the company and received three seats on Yahoo's board.

A portion of the bill also went to Yahoo's outside advisers considering its controversial search agreement with Google, which ultimately ended with the companies walking away from the deal when federal antitrust regulators said it would challenge the deal.

For Yahoo, however, the true cost was much greater than just $79 million.

In the process, Yahoo founder and CEO Jerry Yang stepped down after enduring the brunt of shareholder anger and has since resumed his role as chief Yahoo. Sue Decker, who was Yahoo's president during the tumultuous year, lost out her bid to become the next CEO when Yahoo's board named former Autodesk chief Carol Bartz to oversee the troubled Internet company. And Yahoo saw an exodus of executives in June 2008.

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Online layoff tracker captures economy's carnage

SAN FRANCISCO - In a sour economy like this, entrepreneurs inevitably dream up new ways to turn lemons into lemonade.

At least that's the motive behind a free software program called Layoff Tracker.

Layoff Tracker can be planted on a Web site or a computer desktop to provide a running tally of the pink slips being handed out by major employers around the country. The tracker complies the numbers from news reports and company announcements.

After two weeks of testing, the application — packaged in a capsule format known as a "widget" — was being formally released Monday.

The program is designed to make it easier to monitor the massive payroll purge that has been worsening the 14-month-old recession. And it should trigger more online conversations that help the unemployed get back on their feet, said Bari Abdul, the Layoff Tracker's mastermind.

In the process, Abdul also hopes to generate more traffic and commentary on Telonu.com, a Web site that he launched two months ago to "rave, rant and rate" about employers.

"We live in a world where you can read 15 reviews before you go spend $50 in a restaurant, so it seems like you should also be able to read about places where you might go to work 40 hours each week," he said.

A Web site called Glassdoor.com also provides insights about employers, although it focuses primarily on data about wages and opinions about chief executives.

Abdul reasons that the way layoffs are handled can say a lot about an employer, so Abdul is hoping Teluno's new program encourages more people to write about their firings on the Web site.

"It's a reflection of the times," said Abdul, who has had to dump workers in previous management at McAfee Inc. and Procter & Gamble Inc. "There is a huge healing process that goes on when people realize that all these layoffs aren't really about them, but more about what went wrong at business."

FUENTE: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090223/ap_on_hi_te/tec_techbit_layoff_tracker

Mobile banking: Safe, at least for now

Someone asked me recently whether I thought mobile banking was safe or not. I admitted that I don't do it but that doesn't really say much. Then I mumbled something incoherent and vowed to get a real answer.

After talking to a number of mobile and security experts, I've come to the conclusion that far from being less secure, mobile banking may even be more secure than logging on to your bank Web site over your PC. And the consensus is that it's probably less risky than using checks, which can be forged, and credit cards, which can be stolen or skimmed at ATM machines for clones to be made.

As Bruce Schneier, chief security technology officer at BT, summed it up: "Yes, there are going to be security issues and they will have to shake out. The question is, if something happens will the bank make it up to you?"

Apparently it will. The rules regarding liability in mobile banking are the same as they are for other methods of banking, said Jim Van Dyke, president of Javelin Strategy & Research.

"Credit card companies have zero liability policies that apply regardless of channel," he said. For instance, "Wells Fargo has a written guarantee that they will cover all your losses if it is through mobile banking."

That's good news for the brave few who have ventured into the market. Of all U.S. Internet users, 6 percent have done mobile banking in the last week, and 12 percent have done it in the last month, according to Javelin figures.

An estimated 30 million consumers in the U.S. do mobile banking, and half of all consumers think it's not secure, the research firm said in a mobile banking security standards report in December.

Despite the fact that online banking options abound in the U.S.--from AT&T, Nokia, Sprint Nextel, Visa, and the major banks--consumers have been reluctant. That could be for several reasons, my colleague Marguerite Reardon has concluded: they don't like downloading apps to their phones as is required by some banks, they are turned off by the small screen, and they can do it on their PCs more easily.

"We're not hearing of security issues in the mobile world," because the security benefits with mobile banking outweigh the disadvantages, Van Dyke said.

First, the con to mobile banking security:

Mobile devices are easy to lose: "It's more or less as safe as banking you would do from your home computer, maybe slightly more risky, similar to using a laptop at Starbucks," said Charlie Miller, a principal analyst at consultancy Independent Security Evaluators. "The biggest difference is you are carrying the thing around with you and are more likely to lose physical custody of it than a computer."

Even so, the convenience outweighs the risk, he said. "It is no riskier than calling someone using your debit card or buying on Amazon with a debit card."

Now for the pros:

Mobile banking can be done anywhere at any time: Because people can do mobile banking at any time, they are more likely to log on more frequently and thus the chances of them detecting fraud are increased, said Van Dyke.

Mobile has a diversity of platforms: In the mobile world in the U.S., there is no one dominant mobile platform that can be targeted by malicious hackers like there is with Windows in the PC market. The lack of standardization also reduces the chances that malware will be interoperable with a broad range of mobile software and get widely distributed, Van Dyke said.

No banking-related mobile viruses or malware yet: "In the mobile era, we're not seeing any such Trojans," said Roel Schouwenberg, a senior antivirus researcher for security firm Kaspersky, which has partnered with Barclays in the U.K. to offer security software to mobile customers.

Mobile banking functions are limited at this time: In general, U.S. consumers can check their account balances, transfer funds between their accounts, and see recent transactions over their mobile devices.

"You're getting information that is not transactional," said Nick Holland, a senior analyst at consultancy Aite Group. "In most instances, if someone found your phone and logged into your mobile banking account, the worst they could do is pay your electricity bill."

However, things will change as more transaction functions are enabled on mobile devices, the experts said. For instance, point-to-point transactions and cross-border money transfers are on the horizon, according to Holland.

"There will be more risk as payments move over to mobile devices because criminals will put more focus there and you will get spoofing attempts," said Van Dyke.

The ability to use your cell phone to buy things will undoubtedly put a dent in the credit card business, but it will also give mobile carriers additional revenue to make up for voice business they are losing to things like Skype and text messaging, said Jan Volzke, head of global marketing for McAfee Mobile.

"There is no reason people have to pull out a plastic card with a magnetic strip, technology developed 30 years ago, to buy a latte," he said. "Just hold the phone next to a cashier, it goes beep and there you go."

Other countries are already offering mobile transactions. For example, NTT Docomo in Japan, which uses McAfee security software to monitor for malicious activity on its mobile phones, initially started allowing consumers to use their phones to pay for public transport, and then added payments for things like ice cream and eventually banking, according to Volzke.

In the U.S., banks are more cautious. Payments and banking are the biggest security concern for mobile device manufacturers, according to a Mobile Security Report McAfee is set to release on Monday.

At the same time, the manufacturers aren't installing additional security protection on the vast majority of the devices and won't allow consumers to install security software like they can with computers, said Volzke.

To safeguard against security risks, mobile users should use their device PIN codes, download mobile apps only from their financial institution, switch Bluetooth off when not in use, and avoid lending their phone to strangers to minimize the chance of someone downloading a malicious app onto the device.

All in all, "mobile banking is secure and there's not really any cause for concern," said Holland of Aite Group.

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Cisco’s Boss Sees Recovery Despite Poor Sales Outlook

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Cisco Systems faces a precipitous decline in sales of its networking equipment, but John T. Chambers, the chief executive, is issuing one of the more optimistic forecasts from Silicon Valley — that the United States economy will recover this year.

According to Mr. Chambers, most of Cisco’s customers expect the economic downturn to linger well into 2010, while a smaller number expect the downturn to ease late this year.

In an interview after announcing the company’s second-quarter results Wednesday, Mr. Chambers said be believed things might get worse before they get better, but agreed with customers who foresaw better times sometime this year.

“The reason I am more optimistic than others is because you have $1.6 trillion coming in from governments around the world, with the U.S. accounting for about half of that,” Mr. Chambers said.

Like many major high-tech companies, Cisco, the largest maker of networking equipment, faces declining corporate spending. Growth in orders fell 9 percent in November, 11 percent in December and 20 percent in January. These declines prompted Cisco, based in San Jose, Calif., to forecast Wednesday that revenue for the current quarter will plummet as much as 20 percent compared with the $9.8 billion reported in the same period last year.

Cisco’s bleak assessment of corporate spending on technology could prove especially worrisome for investors. The company’s second quarter closed on Jan. 24, giving Wall Street the most up-to-date glimpse into customers’ spending patterns of any major technology company.

In addition, only 20 percent of Cisco’s sales come from regularly repeating deals, so Cisco must fight for 80 percent of its sales every quarter. This gives it better insight into current fluctuations in customer demand than many companies have.

Mr. Chambers’s optimism stems from the large amounts of government spending both here and abroad on infrastructure projects, including things like better broadband technology, health care and education, that should drive equipment sales. Mr. Chambers credited governments in the United States and abroad with relatively efficient action in enacting new infrastructure programs.

“The central banks around the world are working very aggressively to get that money into the marketplace,” he said.

During the conference call, Mr. Chambers, who says he is a Republican, also complimented the new president. “President Obama is off to a great start,” said Mr. Chambers. “I think his economic team is world class.”

Cisco plans to increase its investment in sales programs aimed at customers in America, China and India, viewing those countries as the first to increase their spending. It will then mount a second sales effort in Mexico, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Russia, expecting business in those regions to pick up next.

Despite such optimism, Cisco must deal with some harsh immediate realities.

The company’s second-quarter net income tumbled 27 percent to $1.5 billion, or 32 cents a share, which compares with net income of $2.1 billion, or 38 cents a share, reported in the same period last year. Cisco beat the consensus forecast from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters of 30 cents. Revenue in the second quarter fell to $9.1 billion, or a drop of 7.5 percent from the $9.8 billion recorded a year earlier.

Seeking to save about $1 billion in costs this year, Cisco is considering laying off 1,500 to 2,000 of its 67,300 workers. Mr. Chambers hesitated to characterize this as a “broad-scale layoff,” which he defined as cutting at least 10 percent of a company’s work force. However, he added, larger layoffs remained a possibility if conditions worsened.

During the second quarter, Cisco amassed $3.2 billion in cash — one of the highest amounts in company history — leaving it with $29.5 billion. The majority of that cash remains overseas. Cisco could use its cash hoard to continue acquiring companies, placing an immediate emphasis on bolstering its consumer electronics business.