paid

In an attempt to capitalize on the success of the iTunes App Store AOL has decided to split its iPhone chat client AIM into a free, ad-supported download version called AIM Free (iTunes Link) and a paid version called AIM Paid.

Both versions of AIM have some new features, including the ability to use SMS notifications, multiple account support and access to the GPS for location services. Contacts from your iPhone address book can be accessed inside of AIM and then reached via IM or SMS text message. Login time for an account can last up to 24 hours, persisting … Read more

Picture this: more venture funding for an advertising-related start-up operating in hard economic times.

Apparently, Tremor Media has gotten just that--to the tune of an $18 million third round of funding, according to a Silicon Alley Insider report.

Meritech Capital Partners led the round in the Web video ad network company, with existing investors Canaan Partners, Masthead Venture Partners, and European Founders Fund participating, according to the report.

Tremor Media, which provides advertisers with in-banner and in-stream video advertising on various publisher sites, has raised a total of $37 million in venture funding, SIA notes.

Tremor's funding comes as … Read more

Updated at 7:21 a.m. PDT with a Collins Stewart analyst report.

Former Vodafone chief Arun Sarin reportedly is withdrawing his name from the Yahoo CEO search, in part due to the uncertainty whether the Internet search pioneer will be broken up and sold, according to a report in the Financial Times.

Sarin, who was considered a strong candidate who had made it through to a narrowed list of prospective candidates, reportedly had several issues in considering the Yahoo post.

According to the Financial Times:

Mr. Sarin is considering alternative roles at other U.S. public companies, plus at … Read more

As part of its settlement agreement stemming from a shareholder lawsuit, Yahoo announced Wednesday it revised its controversial severance policy that had the potential of making a buyout of the company more expensive to a prospective buyer.

Yahoo faced investor wrath when it rolled out the change-in-control severance policy in mid-February, less than two weeks after Microsoft announced its $44.6 billion unsolicited buyout bid for the company.

The change-in-control policy would have applied if a buyer took control of Yahoo, or a new board of dissident directors were elected that constituted a majority on the board. The provisions of … Read more

Updated 2:43 p.m. PST with precise layoff total.

Updated at 7:23 p.m. PST with comments from Yahoo employees.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--Yahoo began issuing pink slips Wednesday to the majority of the employees affected by its previously announced 10 percent job cut, the company confirmed.

Most of the 1,520 layoffs affect employees at Yahoo's U.S.-based locations and come from a number of areas within the company, the company said.

"There was an across-the-board review (for potential cuts) and no one area received a pass," said Brad Williams, a Yahoo spokesman, who … Read more

Update at 7:29 p.m. PDT with closing stock price

Major Yahoo investor Ivory Investment Management on Wednesday called on Yahoo's board to restart talks with Microsoft and offered up a search buyout proposal that it claims could yield investors a value of $24 to $29 per share.

Ivory, which holds a 1.5 percent stake in Yahoo, is proposing Yahoo sell its search business to Microsoft for an upfront payment of approximately $15 billion, in which Microsoft then becomes the search provider for all of Yahoo's properties and its existing affiliates.

Microsoft would own and operate … Read more

Yahoo's search for a new CEO is narrowing, with former Vodafone Group chief Arun Sarin reportedly on the list, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Yahoo has authorized reference checks for a few candidates in order to narrow the field even further so the informal search committee can make a recommendation to the board of directors, according to the report.

And while the CEO selection process has moved at a rapid clip since co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang announced in mid-November he would step down as soon as a replacement is found, the process could very … Read more

Christmas is coming and so are the pink slips.

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang noted in his post-quarterly earnings e-mail to employees in late October that employees affected by the 10 percent job cut would be "notified of layoffs in the next several weeks" -- that is, before Thanksgiving.

Apparently it took a little longer to wade through the approximately 1,430 positions.

A report in Dow Jones' AllThingsD site notes that the pink slips are expected Wednesday morning and will be across the board.

And while Yang, in the most recent earnings report call, noted that further layoffs … Read more

Growth projections for online advertising received another knock to the knees on Monday, as analysts continued to lower their outlooks.

The online advertising industry is expected grow 11 percent in the U.S. and 9 percent worldwide next year, down from a previous estimate of 13 percent for both figures, according to a research note by analyst Jeff Lindsay of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

Earlier this the month, Jim Friedland of Cowen & Co. placed a much more dire outlook on the industry, predicting an anemic 3 percent growth in the U.S. next year, down from his previous … Read more