The activist shareholder gunning for Yahoo’s board is about to ratchet up the pressure.

Daniel Loeb, who heads the hedge fund Third Point, seized on the revelation this week that Yahoo’s CEO had lied on his resume to demand that the board fire CEO Scott Thompson by noon EDT Monday.

And what happens if, at 12:01, Yahoo decides to maintain radio silence? For Third Point, it would signal the start of an escalating power struggle for control over a company in crisis.

“Isn’t everyone a fan of the 1952 western ‘High Noon?’”a source close to Third Point deadpanned as we tossed around possible Yahoo scenarios.

Earlier this week, Thompson, who may be the most lonesome CEO in techdom right now, was found to have falsely claimed to hold a computing science degree from Stonehill College near Boston. Thompson’s fib gave new life to Loeb’s campaign to convince shareholders that Yahoo’s board is in immediate need of a shakeup.

Yahoo has so far rejected Loeb’s proposed slate of directors to the board, a list that includes him along with former NBC Universal head Jeff Zucker; Michael Wolf, the former MTV Networks executive; and turnaround expert Harry Wilson. (You can examine Loeb’s pitch on a Web site he set up, here.)

Before “resumegate” erupted, most of the attention had been on whether the board had installed a CEO who knew what he was doing. Since taking over in January, Thompson has ordered a controversial patent lawsuit against Facebook as well as a big layoff, without articulating how Yahoo plans to reverse its decline. But Thompson’s dissembling provided Third Point with the opening it needed to press its argument that Yahoo’s board of directors is not up to the job.

“This board needs new blood, new processes, and best practices of corporate governance,” the source said.

Indeed, from Third Point’s perspective, Thompson turns out to be less relevant to the Yahoo novella than the competency of the board. “The resume issue is just the latest in a long line of catastrophes that show this board is not the right one to lead Yahoo.”

Third Point believes it can be patient and that it has “a range of options” at its disposal. While it waits for Yahoo’s next step, Third Point can afford to be patient while keeping the focus on the board and its processes. That’s essentially the same goal Third Point has pursued since sending its first letter to Yahoo in September 2011.

Meanwhile, Thompson must be wondering whether anybody has his back.

“The fact that (Thompson) slightly embellished his resume is not good. But when there’s no constituency standing up for him inside or outside Yahoo, [that] isn’t good at all,” says another source familiar with Yahoo’s thinking. “Where’s the board? He’s not been able to make friends with them yet.”

The only word out of the board was a hardly resounding brief statement that it is “reviewing” the matter. Interesting aside: On Thursday former Yahoo board member Eric Hippeau tweeted, “The hapless company: Yahoo goes from mishap to catastrophe, all self-inflicted.”

source from: cnet

It is the second time in a year that the website has fallen victim to hackers.

“We elected to take the website offline temporarily at about 10:00 pm (2100 GMT) last night,” a SOCA spokesman said.

“That was as a result of a distributed denial of service attack on other clients hosted by our service provider. We would emphasise that our website only contains publicly available information.”

The spokesman said the website would be back up “in due course”.

The website was taken down in June last year after it was hit during a month-long rampage against sites which also included the CIA by the hacker group known as Lulz Security or LulzSec.

SOCA is a national police unit responsible for investigating organised crime.

source from: yahoo

Lockheed beat out General Dynamics Corp, which previously ran the center, to win the contract in January, but the award was held up by a protest filed with the General Accountability Office.

General Dynamics had protested the contract award but dropped its protest after securing a subcontract with Lockheed, according to a source familiar with the decision.

Lockheed spokeswoman Darci Bushey declined comment on the role that General Dynamics would play on the new contract.

The company said it would deliver a full range of technical, functional, and managerial support to the lab, which helps investigate criminal, espionage and terrorist threats to government networks.

The center also provides support to the Defense Industrial Base, a pilot program that allows the U.S.government to swap data on cyber threats with 37 weapons makers and which is due to be expanded to 200 companies in coming months.

Lockheed said the contract has a ceiling value of $454 million if all options are exercised.

Lockheed, the largest provider of information technology to the federal government, said it would bring its extensive cyber analysis expertise to management of the center.

“Because of its size and importance, the (Department of Defense) is targeted by cyber criminals ranging from terrorists to spies to identity thieves,” Lockheed said, noting that its team of cyber experts would help the government deal with the threat, which is growing in volume and complexity.

The company said its work will include digital and multimedia forensics examination, analysis, research, development, test and evaluation, information technology and cyber analytical services.

source from: yahoo

Google’s Cloud Print in Chrome might not be for everybody, but if you’re on the go and must print something in a hurry — and in the United States — it could be exactly the service you want thanks to a new partnership with FedEx Office.

Cloud Print will now offer a “Print to FedEx Office” option so that you can print from Chrome directly to a FedEx Office location (formerly known as Kinko’s). When you use it, Google says that you’ll receive a retrieval code for use on any FedEx Print and Go self-service kiosk. FedEx Office has more than 1,800 stores around the U.S.

With this update, Canon printers have been added to Google’s list of Cloud Print Ready options, and Chrome for Android beta can now be used as a destination to send documents via Cloud Print. It’s not really clear at this time how that’s better than just using Google Docs to access a document on your phone or tablet, but being able to print work documents or concert tickets on the fly could be immensely useful as necessary.

source from: cnet

While the Java language is free to use and that isn’t being contested by either Google or Oracle, one of the key tasks Oracle needs to accomplish if it wants to win its intellectual property lawsuit is prove the value of Java APIs.

Part of that task has fallen on Mark Reinhold, chief architect of the Java platform group at Oracle, who testified as an expert witness during the Oracle-Google trial at the U.S District Court, Northern District of California, on Wednesday.

Reinhold previously worked at Sun Microsystems, from when he joined in 1996 until the Oracle acquisition in 2010. Reinhold has worked on the Java platform for the last 16 years. He explained that he is referred to as an “architect” because he looks after the coherence of the Java platform as a whole so that it “continues to make sense.”

Reinhold informed the jury that a Java class library is a type of software library of pre-written programs that are pre-tested with pure documentation, which can be then referenced in developers’ own codes.

Part of Oracle’s case against Google rests on the argument that Google engineers knowingly copied select strips of code, line for line, from Java APIs without a license to do so.

However, explaining the Java class library system to the jury became a source of debate between the plaintiff and defendant lawyers in the case as Google’s legal team objected to Reinhold explaining this system in detail with a slideshow.

Nevertheless, Judge William Alsup overruled the objection and let Reinhold continue.

Most importantly (at least to Oracle’s case), Reinhold affirmed that the structure of Java APIs and structure of the Java class libraries are exactly the same because they are built from the same source code.

Specifically, there are 37 Java APIs at question in this suit of being used in Android illegally — including two files in APIs that contain nine lines of arranged checked code, accused here by Oracle of being assembled line by line and copied. Furthermore, there are two more files where some comments in the files are also accused of being copied.

In earlier testimony, Oracle chief corporate architect Edward Screven testified as a witness on behalf of Oracle, reiterating the specific value of Java to Oracle.

In fact, Screven asserted that he told Oracle CEO Larry Ellison in 2009 that “we should buy Sun for no other reason than Java,” and that “Java was easily worth the purchase price.”

Screven continued:

Oracle is in the hardware and software businesses now. In software, people pay us for licenses to use our software. It’s important to us that we actually enforce intellectual property rights around our software. Otherwise, people would take our software without paying us, undermining our business model.

In an interesting side note, Reinhold mentioned that the name “Java” was chosen for the language as a replacement for the term “Oak,” which had already nabbed by another technology company. During a discussion meeting about the name, it simply came about when someone came in with a cup of — wait for it — java.

source from: cnet

New smartphone apps enable people to pinpoint where they’ve recently seen critters in Yellowstone. People who drive to those locations can — at least in theory — improve their odds of seeing wildlife compared to the typical tourist’s dumb luck.

One app called Where’s a Bear promises “up to the second” animal sightings in Yellowstone. Recently a website called Yellowstone Wildlife began offering a similar app.

Websites long have kept track of animal sightings in Yellowstone. Already this spring the Yellowstone Wildlife site shows signs of life: Mule deer near park headquarters at Mammoth, bison in the area of a landmark petrified tree.

A message on the site warns of grizzlies feeding on a bison carcass near the Yellowstone River Trail. The statement relayed from the National Park Service could save a life. Grizzly attacks killed two tourists in Yellowstone last summer.

But not everybody thinks that making a lot of wildlife sighting information readily retrievable by phone is a hot idea. As it is, the crowds that stop to gawk at roadside wildlife in Yellowstone can grow to hundreds of people, pointed out Vicky Kraft, of Pine Mountain, Calif., who maintains a Facebook group about Yellowstone.

Grizzlies are especially challenging for park rangers who have to both direct traffic and keep people a safe distance away.

“It’s crazy. There’s no parking. People sideswipe each other because they’re looking at the bear,” Kraft said Monday.

Wildlife becoming too comfortable around people is another concern. A grizzly habituated to people is even more dangerous than your average bear.

“I think there’s a responsibility that a person should have if they really like Yellowstone to say, ‘Gee, is this going to be bad for the animals? Is it bad for the ranger? Is it bad for the park?’ And I think when you look at a situation with that app, the answer would have to be yes,” Kraft said.

Attempts to reach the app developers through their websites Monday and Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Yellowstone officials said the apps could become a problem depending on their popularity.

“If it did take off it would be a concern. It’s got other applications but at its worst core it would send more people to wildlife jams,” Yellowstone spokesman Dan Hottle said.

Though there’s no app for Grand Teton National Park, officials there share the concern. Two mother bears and their cubs already draw crowds and stop traffic at the park without any tech help.

“It could add to an already congested situation we’re experiencing with roadside bears,” Grand Teton spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs said.

One technical problem with the apps is the vast majority of Yellowstone doesn’t have cellphone coverage. Also, it’s not like anybody is going to persuade a moose, elk, or bald eagle to wait around for the next tourist to show up.

On the other hand, a pack of wolves seen killing a bison might stick around for days while they fed on the meat, suggested Tom Mangelsen, a wildlife photographer who lives in Jackson Hole, just south of Yellowstone.

“I imagine it would be helpful, certainly for tourists or people who aren’t familiar with Yellowstone, and I suppose for people like me, too,” Mangelsen said.

Mangelsen counts himself among the many photographers and tourists who have been watching a popular grizzly in Grand Teton over the past few years. The grizzly recently emerged from hibernation with her three cubs — big news in Jackson Hole.

Mangelsen said he didn’t rush off to share the news online.

“I haven’t been on one of those websites more than three times in my life to see what’s going on in Yellowstone,” he said. “But I know people live by it.”

source from: yahoo

The taciturn Page often looked uncomfortable on the witness stand as he sparred with David Boies, a tenacious lawyer who made headlines for grilling former Microsoft Corp. CEO Bill Gates in an antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. government in 1990s.

In this trial, Boies is working for business software maker Oracle Corp., which accused Google Inc. of building its Android software by stealing pieces of the technology from Java, a programming platform that Oracle now owns.

Oracle, which is based in Redwood Shores, Calif., is seeking hundreds of millions in damages and royalties for Google’s future use of Android, which powers more than 300 million smartphones and tablet computers.

In a measure of the trial’s high stakes, Oracle has already called two multibillionaire executives to the witness stand. Oracle’s own CEO, Larry Ellison, appeared Tuesday, as did Page for a brief round of questioning before his Wednesday return for more extensive interrogations. In both appearances, Page sported a suit and tie, a departure from the casual attire he wears around Google’s Mountain View, Calif. headquarters.

Page looked like he wished he could have stayed in Mountain View Wednesday. During his time on the stand, he rarely looked at Boies and frequently said he couldn’t remember seeing some of the internal Google documents that Oracle is using to build its case.

Page’s foggy memory seemed to exasperate Boies, perhaps because the haze may have worked to Google’s advantage.

Boies’ attempts to display exhibits containing inside information about Google were blocked by U.S. District Judge William Alsup because Page couldn’t recall seeing them. Although it’s unclear what was in the exhibits, it was clear Google’s own lawyers didn’t want the contents to be exposed in a public courtroom.

Some of the evidence currently being kept under court seal is believed to include disclosures about how much money Google has made from Android since the software hit the market in 2008 — a financial nugget that Google has never revealed.

Although Google gives away the software to mobile device makers, Android brings in revenue from digital advertising and sales of mobile applications that run on the system.

Boies spent much of his interrogation trying to prove Page and other Google executives realized that the company probably would have to pay a licensing fee to use elements of Java as far back as 2005. That’s when Page orchestrated the deal to buy the Silicon Valley startup that hatched Android and brought in Android founder Andy Rubin to oversee an effort to make Google’s online search engine, advertising and other services more accessible on mobile phones.

When shown emails from Rubin and others mentioning the need to license some of Java during 2005 and 2006, Page linked the references to Google’s attempts to build Android in a partnership with Sun Microsystems Inc., Java’s owner at that time. Oracle entered the picture in 2010 when it bought Sun Microsystems for $7.3 billion.

Page later elaborated on Google’s discussions Sun under while he was under more cordial questioning from one of his company’s lawyers. “We really wanted to use Sun’s technology,” Page said. “It would have saved us a lot of time and trouble to use Sun’s technology. When we weren’t able to have our business partnership, we went down our own path.”

Oracle’s case hinges on whether Android infringes on 37 copyrights for “application programming interfaces,” or APIs, that provide the blueprints for making much of Java work effectively. Other major companies, including IBM Corp, have licensed some of Java’s APIs, but Google hasn’t — one of the few things that Boies was able to get Page to confirm during his testimony Wednesday.

Google contends the Java APIs aren’t covered under U.S. copyright law because they aren’t a form of creative expression.

But various Google emails presented in the trial so far have included internal recommendations to work out a license for some elements of Java. One August 2010 email from Google engineer Tim Lindholm to Rubin mentions being asked by Page and Google’s other co-founder, Sergey Brin, to review possible alternatives to Java. Lindholm advised Rubin all the other choices “suck” and urged him to negotiate a license for Java.

When Boies asked about Lindholm’s email in Wednesday, Page wouldn’t acknowledge telling Lindholm to look into the issue, let along knowing him. Page did point out that Lindholm’s email had misspelled Brin’s first name as “Sergei.”

In an apparent attempt to cast Google’s stance on Java as hypocritical, Boies asked Page if his company copyrighted the APIs that run its services. “I am not sure,” Page responded. “I think things are copyrighted by default, but I am not a lawyer.”

Boies then asked Page if Google might use copyrights to prevent an outsider from improperly using its technology. “Google is a company based on intellectual property,” Page said. “That’s one of the major intellectual property protections.”

Page left the courtroom smiling, but still didn’t look completely relaxed. Maybe that’s because the judge told him that Oracle would probably call him back to testify before the trial is over.

source from: yahoo

The Federal Trade Commission’s long-awaited 57-page final report on privacy recommendations relies heavily on industry voluntarily adopting best practices.

It also called on Congress to pass broad privacy legislation that would allow consumers to see how their online data is collected, used and sold, and give consumers the ability to stop such practices.

The report is in response to growing consumer concern about how Internet giants such asGoogle, Facebook and Twitter collect and trade in vast amounts of detailed information about their users’ online activities and real-life identities.

The lack of force in the FTC’s report is due in part to limits on the agency’s powers.

The FTC has a very limited ability to write rules, and is instead leaning on Internet companies to adopt tougher internal privacy policies. The FTC does have the power to punish companies that violate their own policies or otherwise engage in deceptive practices.

The FTC is also raising the specter of legislation, but that is a largely hollow threat, at least in the short-term, due to the gridlock gripping a divided U.S. Congress.

In one of its top “action items,” the FTC urged Internet companies to follow through on pledges to implement a Do Not Track system that would let consumers click a button on their Internet browsers to ensure their data is not being collected.

“We are confident that consumers will have an easy to use and effective Do Not Track option by the end of the year because companies are moving forward expeditiously to make it happen and because lawmakers will want to enact legislation if they don’t,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.

The Digital Advertising Alliance, a self-regulatory body representing media and marketing trade associations, announced last month that its members would honor Do Not Track requests.

Some privacy advocates were disappointed in the FTC’s report, which was two years in the making.

“‘Do not track’ is like vapor policy. There’s nothing there in terms of actual protections for users,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Privacy advocates said the industry-backed commitment to Do Not Track was of limited scope and consumers should avoid thinking their Internet activity would be totally shielded.

The Worldwide Web Consortium standards group is developing a safeguard that would allow consumers to completely cut off collection of their personal information. The FTC said it would work will all stakeholders to implement Do Not Track.

Consumer groups were disappointed by the FTC’s reliance on self-regulation in the report.

“The commission’s overall support for industry self-regulation is disappointing, and reveals a FTC still too often constrained from effectively protecting the public,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.

STRIKING A BALANCE

The FTC’s push for self-regulation comes after years of failing to get Congress to pass broad privacy legislation.

Privacy laws have been narrowly tailored toward protecting children, or categories of sensitive data such as credit reports and health records. Policy experts see little chance of a comprehensive privacy bill passing this year.

Legislation that would curtail Internet companies’ ability to collect and cash in on users’ data would be a severe blow to a billion-dollar industry.

Data collection on the Internet allows advertisers to target users in a demographic who are more likely to buy their product. These ads often subsidize Web content.

Internet giants have already gotten into trouble for various abuses, including secretly tracking users’ locations, selling consumers’ data to advertisers without their knowledge and other blunders.

Both Google, the world’s No. 1 search engine, and Facebook, the No. 1 social networking site, reached settlements with the FTC last year because of privacy problems which resulted in the companies being subject to privacy audits for 20 years.

But industry argues that intrusive government scrutiny will harm Internet companies that are important drivers of economic growth.

“The FTC’s recommendations would create economic burdens that could stifle the efficiency and innovation that consumers also want from the Internet. The report does not strike the right balance,” said Daniel Castro, senior analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

The White House was sensitive to this argument when it announced its own position onInternet privacy last month.

President Barack Obama, who is fighting for re-election in November, said companies should give consumers a “privacy bill of rights” that includes basic protections. He was careful to note that his plan will foster growth in the “digital economy”.

Joseph Turow, a mass media expert at the University of Pennsylvania, said the FTC was in a difficult position because of the administration’s desire to be seen as friendly to business.

“There’s an essential tension going on in not wanting to be known as anti-business but at the same time wanting to show that they care about privacy,” he said.

A Google representative said the company looks forward to working with the FTC. Erin Egan, Facebook’s chief privacy officer-policy, said the company intends to participate in future meetings to develop enforceable codes of conduct. Twitter declined to comment.

ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF PRIVACY

The FTC’s report also targeted online data brokers who buy, compile, and sell personal information about consumers. It said there should be legislation that would provide consumers with access to information held by data brokers.

Further, the FTC said data brokers should explore a centralized website where consumers could get information about their practices and their options for controlling data use.

Joel Reidenberg, an Internet privacy expert who teaches at Fordham University School of Law, said that the FTC report was significant even though the FTC’s power to issue regulations on privacy is limited.

“The large companies are looking for guidance to be on the right side of privacy. And to the extent that the FTC is providing indications of what best practices should be in the privacy world, that will be of assistance to large companies,” he said.

source from: yahoo

The news drove Best Buy shares down as much as 10 percent to touch an intraday low of $23.97, shaving $920 million off its market capitalization to $8.4 billion. The shares were down just over 7 percent at $24.71 in afternoon trading.

Analysts said the company needs to close more than 50 of its 1,100 big box stores to cut costs at a time when shoppers are increasingly buying electronics online. The retailer, which employs 180,000 people, said it would cut 400 corporate and support jobs, but did not say how many jobs would be lost as a result of the store closures.

“These are steps in the right direction,” BB&T Capital Markets analyst Anthony Chukumba said. “Beyond the weak (sales), I think what the market is telling you is that they don’t think they went far enough from a restructuring perspective.”

Best Buy should try to relocate more stores to smaller locations, sub-lease portions of their bigger stores and shutter more unprofitable stores, he said.

A Best Buy spokeswoman said it has yet to finalize the locations and timing of the store closings. The company expects the restructuring efforts to cut costs by $800 million in the next three years, including $250 million this year.

Overall, landlords with the biggest exposure to big-box stores are Canadian company Callowy Real Estate Investment Trust , National Retail Properties Inc and Retail Properties of America Inc, which is set to go public and was formerly known as Inland Western.

“But nearly everyone has some exposure to Best Buy at this point,” said Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Benjamin Yang.

THE REAL ESTATE IMPACT

Best Buy’s decision to close big-box stores was not surprising to the real estate investment community, Yang said.

But the sector, particularly real estate companies that focus on big-box shopping centers, has been wrestling with filling empty stores or soon-empty stores left by the bankruptcies of Circuit City, Mervyns and more recently Sears Holdings Corp’s decision to close or sell off stores.

Some landlords have filled spaces left by closings. While others, such as General Growth Properties Inc’s plan to raze the big boxes and replace them with smaller, specialty stores.

“It’s hard to say today who the natural replacement would be for that space,” Yang said. “I think right now there are none. But longer term, down the road, it’s hard to say who might take those big-box spaces or even if big-box space will be a thing of the past.”

AMAZON BEATING BEST BUY?

Despite offering bigger discounts and free shipping to lure shoppers from its rivals, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Amazon.com Inc , Best Buy’s same-store sales fell 2.4 percent in the quarter, including a 2.2 percent decline at its U.S. stores open at least 14 months.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter was looking for a 1.8 percent same-store sales decline in the quarter, including a 1.4 percent decline at its domestic stores.

Its sales rose to $16.63 billion, but fell far short of the analysts’ average estimate of $17.23 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Unlike the 2010 holiday season, when Best Buy held the line on discounts and promoted only expensive goods, this time it offered deep discounts on everything from flat-screen TVs to digital cameras. It also promised to match any lower prices that its brick-and-mortar competitors advertised during the season’s peak and offered free online shipping.

Still, industry watchers contend that Best Buy stores increasingly serve as physical showrooms for online retailers.

Amazon enjoys its largest pricing advantage versus brick-and-mortar rivals in the consumer electronics segment, with prices 17 percent lower on average, Chukumba has estimated.

“We remain concerned about the sustainability of Best Buy’s big-box model. The company is gradually becoming a physical showroom for online retailers and the prevalence of smartphones makes comparison shopping increasingly easy,” Pachter said.

Best Buy lost $1.7 billion, or $4.89 a share, in the fourth quarter that ended March 3, compared with net income of $651 million, or $1.62 a share, a year earlier.

Excluding charges, it earned $2.47 a share. Analysts were looking for a profit of $2.16 a share on that basis, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

THE SMALLER THE BETTER

Best Buy is now trying to focus on its smaller format stores. It will close 50 U.S. big-box stores and open 100 Best Buy small-format, stand-alone stores in the current fiscal 2013.

The changes should help lower the retailer’s overall cost structure, Chief Executive Brian Dunn said in a statement.

Best Buy plans to invest some of the savings into improving customer service, including expanding its Reward Zone Silver loyalty program, and giving store employees more training before the next holiday season.

It will also offer competitive prices as part of its push to drive revenue, and over time, some of the savings should fall to the bottom line, Dunn said.

For the current financial year, Best Buy sees earnings of $3.50 to $3.80 a share, before items.

source from: yahoo

The online Wal-Mart price is $798, about $100 less than the standard model on HP’s Web site.

Wal-Mart’s SKU uses a 1.4GHz Intel Core i3-2367M processor compared to the higher-end 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-2467M chip in the $899 model on HP’s site.

Everything else is pretty much the same, including 4GB of memory and a 128GB solid-state drive.

The Folio 13 is one of the lest expensive SSD-packing ultrabooks — skinny laptops that strive to combine tablet-like portability with standard laptop productivity — from a top-tier vendor. Toshiba’s Portege model Z835-P330 has been priced as low as $799.99 and generally sells at retailers like Best Buy for under $850. The Portege also includes a 128GB SSD.

A major ultrabook marketing campaign will begin next month, according to Gap Intelligence analyst Deron Kershaw. Though Intel will likely turn up the sales pitch volume later this year too when ultrabooks packing its next-gen Ivy Bridge chip begin to appear in volume with Windows 8.

“A flood of new models are hitting the market in the second half of the year,” Kershaw said.

source from: cnet