Google Fiber Roll-Out Zips Along in Kansas City

by Peak Positions

Story first reported from USA Today

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – It doesn't take long to figure out Google's pitch for Fiber. The potentially disruptive broadband service that Google is making available to residents in certain Kansas City neighborhoods is all about speed —Usain Bolt fast.

The search giant recently opened the Google Fiber Space store that I visited here to explain the promise of Fiber to the public and show it in action. The main virtue is speeds of up to 1 "gigabit per second" (1,000 megabits per second, or Mbps), a whopping 100 times zippier than the typical Internet. The results of a speed test during my visit: download speeds of 800.54 Mbps and upload speeds of 945.29 Mbps.

It's one thing to look at a number. It's another to put it in perspective. Where it might take you more than 2 minutes to download a high-definition movie on what is considered a fast connection today, and a lot longer on a poky connection, Google Fiber promises to do so in seven seconds. Fetching 100 photos might take three seconds on Fiber vs. close to a minute on a setup today. The blurring and buffering delays you might experience before a Street View on a Google Map materializes or a painting in the Google Art Project comes into focus all but disappear. At the Fiber store, there was no visible lag as Google streamed games off the OnLive streaming platform. And Google says Fiber will be ready to handle televisions based on so-called 4K (4,000-plus pixels) supersharp video tech.

While residents of Kansas City, Kan., have first shot at Fiber — ahead of their Missouri neighbors — there are restrictions that could prevent some people who want it from getting it. Either way, it'll be a slow roll-out for the rest of the country. Google isn't specifying when Fiber comes to a town and city near you. But it's a long-term effort.

Those eligible for Fiber can preregister in person at the Fiber store in Kansas City or at fiber.google.com and must do so by Sept. 9. The $10 to preregister is applied to your service. But to actually get Fiber, you may have to rally your neighbors. Google will start building out the network in a given community only if enough people in that neighborhood sign up. Google established thresholds based on size and density as well as speed and ease of Fiber construction. As the company explains it, houses that are spread out in the suburbs require more time, fiber and labor, and therefore are more difficult to connect than homes in a dense urban environment. There are 204 Fiberhoods (as Google calls them) so far; 64 have qualified. Fiberhoods with the most preregistrations get first dibs on Google starting construction.

Those who get the green light from Google have three plan options. The first provides free monthly Internet for a period of at least seven years, provided you pay a one-time $300 fee (or $25 a month for 12 months) covering the cost of construction. Under that plan, Google promises speeds only on par with today's Internet — up to 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload. There are no data caps, and you can upgrade to superfast Fiber at any time. Google will supply a network box (with up to 4 gigabit ethernet ports, plus Wi-Fi).

If you want to cruise the Internet fast lane, you have to sign up for either a Gigabit Internet plan or Gigabit + TV plan. Under both plans the $300 construction fee is waived. The Gigabit Internet plan costs $70 a month and comes with a network box as well. Plus you get 1 terabyte of cloud storage backup on Google Drive. Optional add-on: a Google Chromebook for $299.

The Gigabit + TV plan delivers 18 local channels, plus more than 100 cable channels, with additional premium channels available for a fee. For now, some key channels are missing, including ESPN, Disney and HBO. You also get a 2 TB box to store up to 500 hours of high-definition television and record up to eight shows at the same time. Google is also throwing in its Nexus 7 tablet, which can double as a remote control and search vehicle for the TV.

At the very least, what Google is promising with Fiber should force broadband rivals to step up their game. Time Warner Cable is confident, says spokesman Justin Venech. "Kansas City has been a highly competitive market for some time now, and we take all competitors seriously."

The bottom line:

fiber.google.com

$300 construction fee for free plan (for at least seven years). Construction fee is waived for Gigabit Internet and Gigabit TV plans that are $70 and $120 month, respectively.

•Pro. Gigabit service is blazing fast and affordable. Option for free Internet (at slower speed) for seven years.

•Con. Only available in Kansas City for foreseeable future. Even there, folks who want it may not be able to get it. "Free" plan requires one-time $300 construction fee. Google TV lacks certain popular channels for now.


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HSBC Banker Sues Yahoo Singapore for Impostor’s Identity

by Peak Positions

Story first reported from Bloomberg News

Sandeep Sharma, a managing director at HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA)’s private banking arm, claimed in a lawsuit he had been defamed by a Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) user impersonating him and making offensive remarks about Singaporeans.

Sharma asked Singapore’s High Court to order Yahoo! Asia Pacific Pte to reveal details including the identity of the person using the moniker “Sandeep” and claiming to be Sharma. A closed hearing is scheduled for today.

“Sandeep” made at least three posts in July on Yahoo’s websites disparaging Singaporeans including calling them “highly incompetent” and saying foreigners are Singapore’s future, according to a lawsuit filed on Aug. 8, the eve of the Southeast Asian city’s 47th National Day.

The complaint highlights tensions that have developed in Singapore between foreigners, who make up a third of the country’s 5.2 million population, and citizens whose anger over the influx contributed to the ruling party’s worst performance since independence in last year’s general election.

Yahoo hasn’t filed its response to the complaint. Yahoo’s Southeast Asia general counsel Siew Kum Hong referred questions to Madhavi Tumkur, the company’s spokeswoman, who didn’t respond to two e-mails and a phone call to her office.

Sharma, who filed a police report last month on the same matter, didn’t reply to two e-mails or return a call requesting comment. Gareth Hewett, a HSBC spokesman, declined to comment.

Foreign Talent

“The issue of foreign talent in Singapore is a touchy one,” Sharma, 44, said in court papers. “I believe these posts will lead to and excite continued ill-feeling and disaffection among Singaporeans to foreigners like me living and working in their midst.”

Sharma moved to Singapore from India in 2007 with his wife and two children and became a permanent resident the next year, he said in court papers. He joined HSBC as the head of Global South Asian Diaspora in March 2010 from Barclays Plc’s wealth management unit, where he was head of its South Asian business.

He doesn’t have a Yahoo account and has no suspects in mind, according to court papers.

At least one person has written to the London-based bank that he will not be a client because of the posts, according to court papers. HSBC’s requests to Yahoo to provide information about the user were rebuffed, according to the complaint.

User Data

“HSBC and Mr. Sharma are victims of this callous post by a person who evidently is happy to hide behind the screen of anonymity,” according to a July 6 e-mail to Yahoo from the bank’s legal adviser Jerome Robert cited in the complaint. “Yahoo can help in putting things right.”

Yahoo said it couldn’t reveal data related to its users unless there was a court or police order, the operator of the biggest U.S. Web portal said in a July 10 e-mail to HSBC and cited in the lawsuit.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong introduced stricter immigration policies and trimmed ministerial pay after his ruling People’s Action Party won the general election last year with the smallest-ever margin of popular votes.

The case is Sandeep Sharma v Yahoo! Asia Pacific Pte. OS750/2012. Singapore High Court.

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Google Slices Motorola Mobility Staff

by Peak Positions

Story first reported from WSJ.com

Google Inc. said Monday that it will reduce Motorola Mobility's workforce by about 20% to help streamline the unprofitable wireless-phone maker.

The roughly 4,000 job cuts are the first large-scale layoffs in Google's 13-year history. They are aimed at returning Motorola's once-dominant mobile-devices unit to profitability after the business spent 14 of the past 16 quarters in the red, and come as analysts speculate about whether Google is considering a spinoff of its home-television business that provides set-top boxes and other equipment to cable providers.

Google expects severance-related charges of as much as $275 million, most of which will be booked in the third quarter. The remaining severance-related costs will be recognized by the end of 2012. Google also expects to record other, possibly "significant" charges tied to the restructuring effort largely in the current quarter.

The company warned Monday that "investors should expect to see significant revenue variability for Motorola for several quarters," adding that it will likely take longer for Motorola to trim expenses than it will for the company's revenue to feel the impact from the latest cuts.

Niki Christoff, a Google spokeswoman, declined to elaborate on the restructuring effort beyond the company's latest statement in a filing with U.S. regulators. She added in a written statement that Motorola has a "vibrant Home business with good market leadership and a strong strategy."

Google in May bought Motorola Mobility through a $12.5 billion deal that armed it with thousands of patents, which have become increasingly valuable as technology companies trade lawsuits over intellectual property.

All of Motorola's new handsets use Google's Android mobile software.

Google said it plans to cull Motorola's product portfolio, which includes 27 different mobile phone models, to emphasize a smaller set of smartphones.

Motorola, which contributed about 10% of Google's second-quarter revenue, recently posted a $41 million operating loss in its mobile segment. The home business eked out a $3 million profit.

Two-thirds of the cuts in Motorola's mobile business will take place outside the U.S. The company also plans to close or consolidate about 30 of its 90 facilities. Motorola last month agreed to move the company's Libertyville, Ill., headquarters to downtown Chicago's Merchandise Mart building.

Investors reacted positively to the restructuring plan, along with an analyst's upgrade of Google's stock and a separate deal to buy John Wiley & Sons Inc.'s Frommer's travel brand. Shares in Google rose 2.8% to $660.01 on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange Monday. The stock is up 17% over the past 12 months.

"They're taking steps to make what has been an unprofitable unit for some time right-sized," RBC Capital Markets analyst Sean Kim said.

Morningstar analyst Rick Summer called the moves "quick" and "decisive" signs Google is committed to making the handset maker profitable, though one goal for Motorola—to drive the popularity of Android-based smartphones with cutting-edge hardware—could be an uphill effort. "It's not clear what Google and Motorola can do to push that market forward more than Samsung [Electronics Co.] already has," he said.

Morgan Stanley on Monday upgraded Google's stock to "overweight," highlighting the company's stable revenue growth and attractive valuation.

Fears of a messy Motorola integration were overplayed, the bank said, adding that reports of a possible spinoff of Motorola's home-equipment unit "reinforces our view that Google is indeed interested in [Motorola's] patents and smartphone hardware expertise, but is not seeking to overextend itself."

Analysts said the latest move wasn't unexpected. Google this spring hired Marsh & McLennan Cos. Chief Financial Officer Vanessa Wittman, who previously oversaw restructuring efforts at Seattle-based 360networks, to work at Motorola.

Former Motorola Chief Executive Sanjay Jha left when the deal closed, as did top executives Christy Wyatt, Bill Ogle, John Bucher and Juergen Stark, among others. New leaders include Motorola unit head Dennis Woodside and former Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency chief Regina Dugan, who joined Google in March and will lead an advanced technology group at Motorola.

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With Frommer's, Google Taps Gurus

by Peak Positions

Story first reported from WSJ.com

Google Inc. for years swore it wasn't interested in creating content, choosing instead to point people to information on the Web. Google also championed the vox populi, letting crowd-sourced opinions bubble to the top when users search for answers online.

Slowly, though, the experts have been moving up in Google's eyes, and its business.

On Monday, Google said it is acquiring the Frommer's travel-guide business in a bid to attract more advertising dollars tied to online-travel bookings and local-business information. Google is buying Frommer's from publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Google paid around $25 million for Frommer's, according to a person briefed on the deal, which hasn't yet closed. But the deal is more significant for its strategy than its price tag.

By owning Frommer's travel-guide content and showing it in search results, Google could sell travel-related ads against it and provide more tools for people to book travel arrangements.

The Frommer's deal follows Google's 2011 acquisition of Zagat Survey, whose reviews and ratings of millions of businesses have since been incorporated into Google+ local-business listings. Google said Monday that the Frommer's brand would be melded with the Zagat brand. Frommer's data about local businesses around the world could boost the Google+ business listings—where both Zagat ratings and individual customer reviews are displayed—and Google Maps.

With Zagat and Frommer's, Google is betting it can become a trusted guide for travel and local-business information by using expert ratings and aggregating online comments from thousands of customers, the way Yelp.com and TripAdvisor.com do.

Frommer's is more evidence that Google has grown fonder of professionally produced content. There are other examples: It recently took an equity stake in Machinima Inc., which creates video content mainly for Google's YouTube video site.

A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.

In addition, Google is investing more than $350 million to help create and market professional-grade videos for YouTube, located on special "channels," as the site upgrades its offerings from the simple user-generated videos of its roots.

A separate content effort, though—Google's Knol online encyclopedia, which took contributions from experts—wound down this year as Google CEO Larry Page killed off some underperforming services.

In addition to owning content, Google also is trying to become "vertically integrated" in terms of mobile devices. Google's strategy for years was to allow manufacturers to use its free Android operating software, helping them compete with Apple Inc. gadgets and ensuring that its search engine would be built into the devices. But Google recently bought handset maker Motorola Mobility and has embarked on an effort to build its own mobile devices.

The Frommer's deal could put Google at odds with other website publishers. In recent years, Google has expanded its array of services that seek to directly answer users' queries, departing from its original strategy of sending them quickly to the most relevant site. For example, people who search for local-business information now often see links to Google+ business listings—and Zagat ratings—in the search-engine results above other sites like Yelp.

Google—and its ambitions to capture more online ads related to travel and local-business information—are under scrutiny by antitrust authorities, who are looking into allegations that the company directs its search-engine users to its Google+ business listings, undermining travel and online-review sites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp. The Frommer's deal is too small to trigger an automatic review by antitrust authorities.

Google has denied any anticompetitive practices and has repeatedly said it creates its services to benefit users, rather than other websites. Some U.S. courts have agreed with Google's assertion that its search-engine results are a kind of opinion that is protected by free-speech rights.

Stephen Kaufer, the CEO of TripAdvisor Inc., said Monday, "It is puzzling to us that Google is going backwards to the opinion of one—a writer—when TripAdvisor is proof that travelers like the wisdom of crowds" and their social-network friends.

Mr. Kaufer, who has spoken out about Google's practice of pointing users to Google-owned sites, added: "I absolutely worry that Google will preference Frommer's content above organic search results to the detriment of the users' experience and the enrichment of Google."

Yelp Inc. declined to comment.

TripAdvisor shares fell 4.6% in Monday trading; Yelp's stock dropped 7.7%.

Google in 2010 made its first big foray into the travel industry by acquiring flight-data company ITA Software, which powers the flight-booking tools of numerous websites.

Last year Google launched its own flight-booking service.

Google generates about $2 billion to $3 billion per year from selling travel-related ads on its search engine and hotel- and flight-booking service, with travel sites Expedia Inc. E and Priceline Inc. being among the top advertisers, according to Herman Leung, a stock analyst at Susquehanna International Group LLP.

The U.S.-based leisure-travel industry spent $2.56 billion on online advertising last year, up 40.6% from a year earlier, according to research firm eMarketer Inc. Last year U.S.-based travelers spent more than $100 billion to book trips online, a figure that is expected to grow by around 10% annually, eMarketer said.

Google said Monday it hasn't yet decided whether the Frommer's guidebooks will continue to be published in print or whether they will eventually migrate entirely to online.

"Our commitment is to keep things as they are today and once we combine operations, we'll know better what the future looks like," said Bernardo Hernandez, a director of product management within Google's Zagat unit.

"Consumers need fresh, accurate information," Mr. Hernandez said. "When you add information you can trust to phone numbers and addresses as part of the Google search experience, it enables users to convert their intentions into actions," meaning to book travel online.

Wiley, which has owned Frommer's since 2001, said it intended to sell the brand in March as it no longer aligned with its long-term strategies. Frommer's dates back to 1957, when Arthur Frommer, founder of the Frommer's series, published "Europe on Five Dollars a Day."

Bill Newlin, publisher of Avalon Travel, an imprint of the Perseus Books Group that publishes travel expert Rick Steves and the Moon branded guides, said he wasn't worried about Frommer's titles getting an unfair advantage in Web search.

"There's only one way to spell Rick Steves," he said.

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Yahoo May Reverse Alibaba Cash Plans

Story first reported from WSJ.com

Yahoo Inc. said Thursday it could reverse its May decision to return more than $4 billion to shareholders from selling part of its stake in a Chinese Internet company, a signal that new Chief Executive Marissa Mayer may want to use the cash for other purposes.

Yahoo's statement, contained in a regulatory filing signed by Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse, sent the Sunnyvale, Calif., company's shares down 3.5% in after-hours trading to $16.17.

In May, Mr. Morse helped engineer the sale of part of Yahoo's stake in Chinese Web company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. He said on a July 17 earnings call with analysts that Yahoo's board was committed to returning the proceeds from the Alibaba sale to shareholders, though the company hadn't determined the form or timing of such an action.

On Thursday, Yahoo said in the filing it may change its prior decisions because Ms. Mayer, who was hired three weeks ago, is reviewing the company's strategy.

Ms. Mayer's "review process may lead to a reevaluation of, or changes to, our current plans, including our restructuring plan, our share repurchase program, and our previously announced plans for returning to shareholders substantially all of the after tax cash proceeds" from the sale of Yahoo's stake in Alibaba.

Anne Espiritu, a Yahoo spokeswoman, said in a statement that Ms. Mayer is "carrying out a careful review of the company's business" and is looking at "potential strategy changes to Yahoo's current plans" along with fellow Yahoo directors. She declined to elaborate.

Joseph Grundfest, a law professor at Stanford University who is an expert on corporate governance, said that "management can, for entirely legitimate reasons, change its mind as long as it hasn't made a binding commitment" to return the cash to shareholders. Mayer seems to have a different plan in mind for the funds than what was originally intended, as she works to pull Yahoo back to it's earlier successes, while the market is focused largely on Google SEO.

The potential about-face in Yahoo's spending plans falls in line with Ms. Mayer's technology-heavy background, said Ron Josey, an analyst with research firm ThinkEquity, but it still caught some investors by surprise.

He noted a lot of shareholders bought the stock thinking that Yahoo was going to start a multibillion-dollar buyback plan that would help lift the stock's near-term value.

For years, the vast majority of Yahoo's market valuation has been tied to its stakes in Asian Web companies Alibaba and Yahoo Japan. Investors have placed little value on Yahoo's core business, which generates around $5 billion in revenue annually, mainly from selling online advertising.

Yahoo currently has around $2 billion in cash, and Ms. Mayer already has shown signs she is willing to spend substantial sums to turn around the struggling Internet company.

"She didn't come here to wind the company down," Mr. Josey said. "She came here to restore Yahoo to what it used to be."

She has told colleagues she is interested in hiring or acquiring new talent and products through acquisitions, among other things, and possibly investing in Yahoo's advertising technology, according to people briefed on the matter.

"For someone who's thinking about a growth strategy, of course you should maintain as much cash on the balance sheet as possible, maybe for acquisitions," said Mark Mahaney, a stock analyst at Citigroup Inc.

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Salesforce Attracts Big Rivals as Strategy Delivers

Even before Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) went public in 2004, Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff wasted few opportunities to poke fun at bigger, more established software companies, calling their products “landfill.”

In his management book “Behind the Cloud,” Benioff advised upstarts to “box above your weight.”

Now, Oracle Corp. (ORCL), SAP AG (SAP) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) are punching back, buying companies that offer business-management tools over the Internet, gaining traction in an area pioneered by Salesforce.

That’s stepping up pressure on Benioff to move beyonrd his core -- programs that manage sales -- and accelerate a push into software-development and social-media marketing, part of a bigger market valued by UBS AG at more than $100 billion.

Salesforce is facing pressure to expand into new markets.

When he started Salesforce, Benioff bet that wider use of the Internet would help enterprises stop buying servers and software and installing them in-house. The bet paid off, as companies look to use online services -- now called cloud computing -- to cut costs and streamline operations.

Salesforce now faces greater competition as Microsoft, Oracle and SAP have all made recent moves to become more broadly competitive against Salesforce.

For Rent

Concern over accelerating competition has diminished Salesforce’s value. The company’s enterprise value -- which accounts for its debt and market capitalization -- will fall to 5.85 times sales in the current fiscal year, versus its yearly average of 7.72 since 2005, data compiled by Bloomberg show. On the same basis, Oracle’s value has held up better amid an acquisition spree, with a ratio of 3.56 for its current year, compared with an average of 4.64.

Salesforce’s revenue growth may taper this year and next, from the 37 percent rate in the fiscal year that ended Jan. 31. The rally that lifted Salesforce’s stock 64 percent through April 19 from a low on Jan. 4 has since fizzled. The shares have declined 15 percent since that peak.

Benioff for years has beaten the drum for corporate software delivered as an online service as a more efficient way for companies to run sales, marketing and customer support. Instead of paying multimillion-dollar licensing fees up front, SAAS allows customers to rent applications by the month via a Web browser, with Salesforce handling updates.

Tough Rivals

Recently Oracle, SAP and Microsoft have all made moves that validate what Salesforce.com has been delivering to companies over the past decade.

Benioff, who recently joined the board of Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), spent 13 years at Oracle before starting Salesforce in 1999 with the blessing of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who also invested $2 million in the venture.
A decade later, Ellison, speaking at a posh Silicon Valley hotel three summers ago, lambasted Salesforce, accusing the software maker of repackaging decades-old technology. Cloud computing, Ellison ranted, was “nonsense.”

“All it is, is a computer attached to a network.” Of Salesforce, Ellison added, “They change a term and they think they’ve invented technology.”

These days, Ellison has embraced cloud computing, buying companies and starting his own online computing service to deliver Oracle’s business applications and database software.

Gathering Clouds

Oracle, based in Redwood City, California, says it’s already booked $1 billion from cloud computing, as well as online human resources and customer support companies it acquired in the past year. Customers include Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO), Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) and Hyatt Hotels Corp. (H)

Beyond the $13 billion customer relationship management software segment, UBS analyst Brent Thill estimates the broader platform software market, which includes databases and development tools, to be worth $101 billion.
“We’re the second biggest software-as-a-service provider today and to be honest with you, we just got started,” Oracle co-President Mark Hurd said in a recent interview.

Oracle also plans to add accounting, supply chain management, and manufacturing planning to its online offerings.

Dream Deals

SAP, the world’s largest maker of business management applications, reported better-than-estimated earnings thanks to its SuccessFactors online HR software. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, a perennial Benioff target, last month bought Yammer Inc., a Facebook-like corporate networking tool that competes with Salesforce’s Chatter.

To contend with the newfound competition, Salesforce is expanding into human resources and tools for marketing on Facebook and Twitter. At its annual Dreamforce conference on Sept. 18 in San Francisco, where Salesforce is based, the company plans to detail its new human resources offering. Benioff will unveil Work.com, which will let managers set organizational goals and recognize employees.

One of Salesforce's  customers DuPont has been acquiring companies through structured M&As and making a lot of acquisitions that give them new capabilities.  said DuPont Co. DuPont has standardized on three vendors -- SAP, Salesforce and Microsoft -- and expects each to deliver technology it can rent on a monthly basis.

Star Hire

Salesforce can hit $10 billion in sales given its pace of growth, though no target dates have been set. Analysts expect Salesforce to reach $10.8 billion in annual sales by 2020, according to estimates.

Salesforce has begun to lean on the expertise of a Silicon Valley engineering executive who joined Salesforce last year after spending 12 years at Oracle and almost three at SAP.

The challenge at Salesforce is that the company grew out of selling primarily to small and medium-sized businesses, not necessarily large enterprises.

The newest senior developer at Salesforce are determined to establish credibility after presiding over the years-late Fusion suite at Oracle, then departing SAP after less than three years.

Social Element

Salesforce and Oracle are also dueling to take advantage of growing corporate demand for marketers to create campaigns and garner product feedback from Facebook and Twitter users’ streams of posts.

Oracle bought closely held Involver Inc. following deals for Vitrue Inc. and Collective Intellect Inc. in the past three months. Google Inc. (GOOG) recently said it would buy Wildfire Interactive Inc. for about $250 million to let ad clients design social media marketing campaigns.

The acquisitions echo Salesforce’s $745 million latest deal for social marketing company Buddy Media Inc.

Oracle and Salesforce are buying social media ad delivery companies because they see a lot of activity, and the growth rates are very high.

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Key Mobile, Marketing Talents Exit Facebook

Story first reported from USA Today

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook hasn't just been losing market value.

Since its poorly received IPO in May, the social-networking company has lost a handful of top-ranking executives.

The latest defections came last week, when Ethan Beard, who is responsible for developing relationships with top app makers, and Katie Mitic, platform marketing director, announced pending departures. Jonathan Matus, mobile platform marketing manager, also is leaving.

The announcements come after the high-profile exits of chief technology officer Bret Taylor in June to start his own company, and Open Graph product manager Carl Sjogreen last month.

The loss of key mobile and marketing personnel, on the heels of a $157 million second-quarter loss, won't help Facebook shares, which have drooped to $20.72 — nearly half of their $38 starting price. Questions about its online and mobile advertising business have led to a drop in the company's initial valuation to $43.5 billion, from $100 billion.

Shares may further decline when Facebook's first lockup period for stock ends Aug. 17, allowing employees and early investors to sell some of their shares.

The talent drain underscores intense competition for employees in Silicon Valley, and the temptation for workers — even those at Facebook — to flirt with start-ups, where they can wield more influence, says social-media analyst Greg Sterling.

"Start-up junkies get restless after a few years," says Sterling, noting that fledgling companies offer bigger potential salaries and greater long-term stock payoffs. "This is not a time to lose top talent. That is Facebook's challenge."

"We're fortunate to have many, many talented people join the company each week, and we believe this will serve us well over the long run," Facebook spokesman Larry Yu said in a statement.
But stock options don't appear to be enough to keep employees rooted at Facebook.

Beard worked at Facebook more than four years, and most of his stock options have likely vested. Four years is the customary amount of time for options to fully vest at Silicon Valley companies. Mitic has been at Facebook only two years; Matus, one.

Both are likely to have received stock before Facebook's IPO. It's possible they're betting Facebook's stock will not rise so steeply the next year or two that they'd be leaving serious cash on the table.

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Baidu Fires 4 Employees for Deleting Content in Exchange for Money

Story first reported from foxbusiness.com

Baidu Inc. (BIDU) said on Monday it has fired four employees suspected of having taken payments to delete posts from its website.

Baidu spokeswoman Betty Tian confirmed in an email to Dow Jones Newswires on Monday that three employees had been arrested by the police due to the large amounts of money that had been transferred in exchange for the deletions. She didn't elaborate on why only three of the employees had been arrested.

The emailed statement follows local media reports that Baidu has fired several employees over payments in return for deleting content.

"Baidu has always firmly cracked down on the illegal behavior of online posts deletion for payment," the Ms. Tian wrote in an email.

Baidu said that illegal deletion of online posts remains a major problem in China, and that it would proactively report illegal activity to the authorities. It is common for individuals or companies to pay money to have controversial or negative posts deleted from websites and blogs, according to Chinese media reports.

Baidu said that it maintains a record of original posts and of deletions made by employees, and verifies the records later.

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Google Chief Has Unknown Ailment

 Story first reported from wsj.com

Google Inc. says Chief Executive Larry Page has "lost his voice," but it won't say much more about the matter. Some corporate governance experts think the Internet company should speak up.

The billionaire co-founder missed Google's annual meeting Thursday, and the company said he will miss two other important engagements over the next several weeks.

Google gave no further information about Mr. Page's problems, though it said he continues to lead the company. The lack of details surrounding the matter prompted some speculation on Wall Street about whether he may have a serious medical condition.

In an email to employees on Thursday, however, Mr. Page wrote that "there is nothing seriously wrong with me" and that he would "continue to run the company," according to a person familiar with the matter.

The 39-year-old Mr. Page took over as chief executive last year, his second stint running Google in its 14-year history. He was absent from the shareholder meeting at the company's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters.

At the meeting, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said Mr. Page had "lost his voice" and "can't do any public speaking engagements for the time being," including the coming week's Google annual conference for software developers and at the second-quarter earnings conference call that is expected in mid-July. He added that "Larry will continue to run the company, he's running all the strategic business decisions and all that."

Mr. Schmidt, who wished Mr. Page a "quick recovery," also joked that co-founder Sergey Brin "has said that this problem will make Larry a better CEO because he's going to have to choose his words very carefully."

Few watchers of the Internet giant seemed in a joking mood, however. That is especially true in Silicon Valley, where the death of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs is still fresh in people's minds.

Apple's disclosures about the health of Mr. Jobs, who died in October after a battle with pancreatic cancer, were criticized at times for providing few details about his condition.

"We have no specific reason to think there is anything more to Larry's condition, but we find it odd that the company would already rule him out of the 2Q call which is likely still a few weeks away," wrote JP Morgan stock analyst Doug Anmuth in a note to clients.

He added, "We think this could raise some questions among investors."

Mr. Anmuth also noted that Mr. Page, who regularly posts links and comments on his Google+ social network account, hasn't posted anything publicly since May 25.

Inside Google, some executives were told Mr. Page's issue isn't serious and that he's "OK," according to a person familiar with the matter.

Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Herman Leung says he's started to get calls from investors, asking if they should be worried about this. "Yeah, probably a little bit," he said. "Hopefully, Google will give us an update."

Mr. Page's voice generally sounds slightly strained, raspy or hoarse. A recording of a 20-minute speech last month in London showed Mr. Page noticeably pausing several times to swallow before continuing to speak, but it is unclear whether that was a symptom of his current problem.

Some leadership experts contend Google should divulge more about Mr. Page's voice problem. As the CEO of a public company, "he's not entitled to his privacy,'' said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a senior associate dean at Yale School of Management.

"We need to know if it [his voice] is imperiled," he said.

The Google board should inform shareholders about the cause and likely duration of Mr. Page's condition, according to Mr. Sonnenfeld, author of several leadership books. A degenerative health problem "could have a material adverse impact on the company,'' he added.

Securities laws require publicly held companies to disclose material information that could affect investors' decision to acquire or sell shares. Directors decide what's material, however, and many boards have trouble deciding how much to tell shareholders about a CEO's sudden illness because corporate leaders prefer privacy.

Seth Cohen, a laryngologist and associate professor at the Duke University Voice Care Center, said Mr. Page could have wide range of ailments including acute laryngitis, which is a viral infection that causes inflammation of the vocal cords and requires resting one's voice for at least week or two.

Another potential cause is muscle tension dysphonia, which occurs when the muscles around the larynx, or voice box, are too tight and causes a person to use excess tension while speaking. Voice therapy is often required for such an ailment, said Dr. Cohen, who hasn't treated Mr. Page.

Some people who naturally produce an unusual-sounding or hoarse voice may develop benign lesions that grow on the vocal cord, he said. "That could have progressed to the point where he's having difficulty speaking," he said.

Surgery is sometimes required to remove the growths, Dr. Cohen added, and recovery could take a month or longer.

Robert Robins, a retired Tulane University political science professor that studies disabled leaders, sees parallels between the dearth of disclosures regarding Mr. Page and Apple's Mr. Jobs.

The Google situation "seems to be following the same pattern," said Mr. Robins.

Google's conference for developers, called I/O, runs from June 27 to June 29. Its second-quarter earnings report and conference call haven't been scheduled; last year they occurred on the second Thursday of the month, an indication they could be held on July 19, or in nearly four weeks.

Mr. Page's expected absence from the two events seems "highly unusual," said Rick Devine, head of Devine Capital Partners LLC, a high-tech search boutique in Redwood City, Calif. "It's hard to imagine a CEO missing that much stuff and not have a serious problem."

Investors have taken the news in stride. Google shares gained $6.27 or 1.1% on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday to $571.48. The stock has gained 17% over the past year.

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Funds Exit Early from Facebook

 Story first reported from WSJ.com

It wasn't supposed to end like this.

Fidelity Investments was an early buyer of Facebook Inc. shares. In the spring of 2011, two dozen of its funds bought more than $200 million worth of the company's private stock. Then, when Facebook went public in May, many of those funds and other Fidelity funds loaded up on publicly traded shares.

Now, many of the giant Boston-based company's fund managers are shrinking their stakes.

Twenty-one Fidelity funds sold more than 1.9 million public Facebook shares combined in June, with 16 of them selling more than a quarter of their stakes in the company, according to investment-research firm Morningstar Inc. Private shares can't be traded until later this year.

It is unclear whether the Fidelity funds made or lost money on the Facebook shares, but the stock has languished below its $38 offering price on May 18. In June, it traded between $25.52 and $33.45; shares hit an all-time low of $20.84 before closing at $20.88 on Wednesday.

The moves represent an about-face for Fidelity, one of the first institutional investors to take a significant stake in Facebook and the country's third-largest mutual-fund company by assets. Fidelity's funds owned the shares for at most six weeks—much shorter than the median holding period of about 22 months for U.S. stock funds, according to Morningstar.

To be sure, the sales represent a very small portion of the funds' holdings. Also, 13 Fidelity funds bought 2.2 million shares of Facebook in June, though more than 1.3 million of those went to index funds, which passively track established stock indexes.

Mutual-fund analysts say it is uncommon for mutual funds to flip shares so quickly.

Nearly two dozen Fidelity funds are dumping Facebook funds at a hurried clip, and they sold nearly two million shares in June alone.

A Fidelity spokeswoman said, "Our managers are not tied to a minimum holding period and need to be able to respond to changes in market conditions."

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg met with Fidelity executives, along with other large asset managers, during Facebook's IPO roadshow in May. Morgan Stanley and other underwriters of Facebook stock also called top institutional clients, including Fidelity, before the IPO to tell them their analysts had lowered Facebook's earnings and revenue estimates.

Fidelity wasn't the only company with funds that flipped Facebook shares. Turner Investment Partners' Large Growth fund, which has a typical holding period of about seven months, sold 28% of its shares within weeks of buying them. OppenheimerFunds Inc.'s Global Allocation fund in June sold more than 10,000 shares, or 10% of its holdings.

A fraction of mutual-fund companies, including Fidelity, report holdings on a monthly basis, while the majority report only quarterly. That means investors in most funds that sold shares in May and June won't ever know how much Facebook stock their funds once owned.

The biggest reported seller of shares in June was the Fidelity Puritan fund, a "balanced fund" that invests in both stocks and bonds. It sold more than 623,000 shares, or a quarter of its overall stake. Other big sellers included Fidelity Disciplined Equity, which invests in both growth and value stocks and sold more than 444,000 shares, or 47% of its stake, and Fidelity Dividend Growth, which sold more than 167,000 shares, or 25% of its stake. Fidelity Magellan, one of the best-known actively managed funds in the country, sold more than 155,000 shares, or 17% of its stake.

Fidelity Puritan has an average holding period of about eight months, according to Morningstar, and Fidelity Dividend Growth has an average holding period of a year and a half.

It is unusual for an IPO like Facebook to be sold so quickly by long-term fundamental investors. Typically, IPOs see growing ownership by such investors and shrinking ownership by trade-oriented hedge funds, according to a study completed last year by Ipreo, a capital-markets data and advisory firm.

In a study of 270 IPOs of U.S. companies between 2009 and 2011, institutions such as mutual funds and pension funds represented 45% of the IPOs' initial allocation. But one quarter later, they represented 67% of the shareholders in those same stocks.

This doesn't mean many mutual-fund managers won't try to cash in on a post-IPO pop, said University of Florida finance professor Jay Ritter, who studies IPOs. Such managers, many of whose companies pay millions in commissions to underwriters, expect to get shares of an IPO and try to flip the shares for a profit once they are widely traded, he said.

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