Tech Roundup: Yahoo Stumbles, Dell Grumbles, VC Tumbles, More
Yahoo tries to find a path — At this point, any direction might be better than the tail spinning for Yahoo, which is considering CEOs with no Internet or media experience. Could it be because anyone already in the field and qualified to do the job is ducking phone calls? At least someone has some confidence: Carl Icahn has raised his stake in the company to 5.5 percent of outstanding shares. Good thing, too, as it looks like Microsoft is not interested in a purchase. [Source: Silicon Alley Insider, AP, Reuters]
Dell is hurting — Michael Dell’s plans to rescue his eponymous company are running into trouble. Falling revenue and shrinking profits aren’t what investors want to see, especially when profit margins only increased because of cutting new consumer electronic product lines and laying off huge numbers of people. [Source: Wall Street Journal]
WiMax still hot– There is still a flood of WiMAX equipment orders from telecom service operators going to Taiwan network equipment manufacturers. [Source: DigiTimes]
Cash crunch for some VCs — We’ve looked at the financial meltdown through the eyes of at least one venture capitalist. Now you can see the other side — hording cash and dumping stakes in portfolio companies for pennies on the dollar. [Source: BNET Industry Technology Blog, Silicon Alley Insider]
Erik Sherman is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in Newsweek, the New York Times Magazine, Technology Review, the Financial Times, Chief Executive, and other publications. Follow him on Twitter.
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