Yahoo

In a classic high-tech case of if-you-can't-beat-them-sue-them, Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) Feb. 27 accused partner Facebook of infringing on patents related to social networking and other technologies.

Yahoo is struggling to boost user engagement at a time when it is losing eyeballs to Facebook, Google, Twitter and other Internet companies. Yahoo wants Facebook to pay to use technology spanning 10 to 20 patents covering online advertising, Website personalization and social networking, according to The New York Times.

Four longtime Yahoo board members, including the chairman, are leaving the company, as the embattled online media giant aims to turn around its fortunes with a new team at the helm.

In a letter to shareholders this week, Yahoo! chairman Roy Bostock said he and three other directors are to step down. The other exiting board members are Vyomesh Joshi, Arthur Kern and Gary Wilson.

The 15 companies will be announcing on Monday DMARC.org, which stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance--a system for verifying that e-mails are coming from legitimate companies and not imposters trying to trick people into clicking a phishing link. Basically, the system offers a common way for companies to authenticate their legitimate communications with customers.

Yahoo's new CEO has just emerged from his office having seen all the books and realised what a poisoned chalice he has taken on.

Scott Thompson said that there was no question that Yahoo needed to do a lot better and he thinks that reviving the company's flagging display advertising business was the way forward.

Spammers sent mails to people falsely informing them that they were winners in a lottery of Yahoo

A New York federal district court judge awarded Yahoo $610m in a lawsuit against spammers who sent mails to people falsely informing them that they were winners in a lottery of Yahoo.

Google, Yahoo, Facebook and several other large Web companies today joined a growing chorus of strong opposition to proposed legislation that aims to curb online IP and copyright theft by foreign sites.

The opponents contend that the two proposed laws, the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261) and the PROTECT IP Act (S.968), would result in Internet censorship. Critics say both bills are overly broad and mostly serve the interests of Hollywood and the U.S. music industry.

The company's annual poll of its workers--called the Yahoo Employee Satisfaction Survey--reveals a workforce plagued by low morale and a lack of confidence in its leadership. The survey, according to an AllThingsD report, was distributed to employees the same week the board sacked CEO Carol Bartz and responses were returned the following weeks.

Apple has hired Scott Noteboom, the chief of Yahoo's Global Data Center Infrastructure, away from the Web company.

Noteboom, who had led Yahoo's data center operations since 2005, is now a "distinguished gentleman" at Apple, according to his LinkedIn profile. The job change was first reported by GigaOm.

Carol Bartz is no longer the CEO of Yahoo, reported AllThingsD, citing sources at the company.  CFO Tim Morse will take over as the interim CEO.

AllThingsD reported that the board of the company, specifically Chairman Roy Bostock and Co-founder Jerry Yang, informed Bartz of "the need to make a change."

Yahoo! is being criticised for the new Ts & Cs for its webmail service, which give it the right to scan your emails as well as making you responsible for telling anyone who might be emailing you, but the ICO has no problem with the changes.

Such scanning has been common for some time; Google was the first to scan all messages. But this led some to choose Yahoo! on the basis that it did not carry out such snooping.