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Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter, live at D11
The man worth at least a few billion tweets is about to take the stage here at D11, and we'll be covering Dick Costolo's every utterance as he's interviewed in one of these famed red chairs. The sit-down comes just hours after Facebook's own Sheryl Sandberg took the stage, and we're expecting quite the wide range of questions. Twitter has evolved into a global communications platform, not just for individuals looking to rise up against an oppressive regime, but for brands looking to better address their audiences. How to balance all of that? Join us after the break as we find out in real time.
Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, live at D11
Sheryl Sandberg has served as the chief operating officer of the world's most popular social network since 2008, and today she's taking the stage at D11 here in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. She's kicking off a day of high-profile interviews just hours after Apple CEO Tim Cook got things started last night, and we're expecting her to be grilled on all manners of things -- the company's stock price, the future of mobile advertising, the success (or failure) of Facebook Home, international growth and how many Likes this here liveblog will receive. Join us after the break for the blow-by-blow, won't you?
Microsoft's Amy Hood named CFO as Peter Klein departs
If you'll recall, Microsoft revealed as a footnote to its Q3 2013 earnings report that then-CFO Peter Klein would be stepping down. Today, we're learning a bit more about the transition. Starting right now (well, a few minutes ago), corporate vice president Amy Hood has been moved up to chief financial officer, and while Klein is set to remain onboard through June, Hood is grabbing the title right away. Prior to this role, Hood served as CFO for Microsoft's Business Division, and has been with the company for just over a decade. Asked if she had any immediate plans, she softly nodded and whispered: "I'm bringing Clippy back." Just kidding. But that would've been awesome.
Fusion-io's CEO and co-founder step down, new leadership looks to increase growth
Times are a-changin' for Salt Lake City-based Fusion-io, as the company's CEO David Flynn has resigned alongside co-founder and CMO Rick White. It seems that both are stepping away in order to "pursue entrepreneurial investing activities," leaving the act of running one of the world's leading flash storage makers for Mr. Shane Robison. Effective immediately, Robison will be knighted chairman, chief executive officer and president, offering up over 30 years of experience in prior roles for AT&T, Cadence Design Systems, HP and Apple. The outfit's stock price hasn't fared so well in the shuffle, and it seems that it's once again battling murmurs that a sale could be on the horizon. Combating that sentiment, Robison was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that a sale "is not my focus." Rather, he's hoping to "grow the company and build on what [it] has." Here's hoping it all pans out -- the world most certainly doesn't need one less company fighting for the death of the conventional hard drive.
Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello resigns, Larry Probst appointed Executive Chairman (update)
Electronic Arts has had a rough go of it lately due to the launch difficulties of Sim City. Today, TechCrunch reports that the company is changing its leadership at the top, with CEO John Riccitiello submitting his letter of resignation to the company and stating he will be stepping down on March 30th. Larry Probst, the current Chairman of the Board for EA and CEO of the company before Riccitiello, has been appointed Executive Chairman effective immediately. Probst will lead EA while the board searches for a permanent CEO. Update: The Wall Street Journal got ahold of Riccitiello's internal resignation letter to the game publisher's staff, as well as his letter to Larry Probst. We've added both below the break.
EA's Digital EVP and Playfish co-founder departs
Kristian Segerstrale has left Electronic Arts, where he served as the head of the EA Digital team and was responsible for overseeing most of EA's games-as-services, including Sim City Social. Segerstrale had joined the company as a co-founder of Playfish, which EA picked up about four years ago for $300 million. The division has been leaking executives, with two of Playfish's other co-founders leaving last year.With Segerstrale's departure, EA Digital will be transferred under the direction of good old Peter Moore, who will now oversee all of EA's revenue groups, including Global Publishing, Global Media Solutions, Worldwide Customer Experience, and Mobile and Social Publishing. That's a lot of responsibility already, but you know Peter – he can always do Moore.
Apple's hunt for a new retail chief continues
Remember when Apple fired retail head John Browett at the end of October? Well, his job is still open in the company, and as AllThingsD's John Paczkowski notes, Apple may be taking its time to replace Browett because they can't afford to make another mistake hiring a senior VP for this critical position. The retail stores are a key to Apple's success; in the fourth quarter alone, the 390 worldwide Apple Stores generated an average of $6,050 per square foot. That's huge -- Tiffany & Company stores only earn about half that amount. Paczkowski's article lists five candidates whose names have been bandied about, including Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts, Victor Luis of Coach, Jeanne Jackson of Nike, John Culver of Starbucks (China and Asia Pacific) and Paul Gainer, executive VP of Global Disney Store. They're all definitely qualified, but it's entirely possible that one of three internal candidates would fit the bill much better. Steve Cano is Apple's manager of retail stores; Bob Bridger is the current VP for retail real estate and development; and Jerry McDougal is the existing VP of retail. Many industry sources who talked with Paczkowski seem to think that Cano is the best Apple-internal candidate. He started as the manager of Apple's first Soho store, saw the Tokyo Ginza store through its opening, transferred to London to head international retail operations and is now head of all Apple Stores. Unlike Browett, he understands the culture at the stores. The man Browett replaced, JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson, says that "I think Tim (Cook) will take his time with this. The internal team is very strong and capable of running well until he finds the right person."
Google's Eric Schmidt focused on growing Android's share, admits it won't be 'perfectly controlled'
During a wide-ranging Bloomberg interview with Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, the executive focused for a bit on the current status of Android, while also making a few interesting comments about its future. "This is a huge platform change; this is of the scale of 20 years ago -- Microsoft versus Apple," he said. Following that, he stated that Google was "winning that war pretty clearly now," referencing the 72 percent market share figure that was tallied up by Gartner at the end of Q3 2012. And with some 1.3 million Android devices being activated each day, it's hard to argue with the sheer momentum of the thing. Beyond all that -- phrases that have been said before by bigwigs at the company in roundabout ways -- things got particularly interesting when he pivoted to talking about his plans for the operating system's future: "The core strategy is to make a bigger pie. We will end up with a not perfectly controlled and not perfectly managed bigger pie by virtue of open systems." In many ways, this touches directly on the fragmentation issue that's becoming more and more prevalent with each passing Android release. The longer the platform lives, the more people are being left behind on older builds. Without trying to read too closely betwixt the lines, it sure sounds as if Google's top priority is to get Android to as many people as possible, while letting the details -- things like percentage of Android users able to update to its latest version -- fall as they may. It's obviously a very different tactic from that taken in Cupertino, but then again, thinking differently sure hasn't hurt either of the two.
Go Daddy hires former Microsoft and Yahoo exec Blake Irving as next CEO
Just in time to stand behind what will undoubtedly be the most grotesque Super Bowl ad of the 2013 contest, Blake Irving is taking the top seat over at Go Daddy. The infamous, flip-flopping domain registrar has confirmed that Irving will begin duties as CEO starting January 7th of next year, succeeding interim CEO Scott Wagner. Prior to this, Irving spent a grand total of 15 years in various hallways at Microsoft, most recently as Corporate Vice President of the Windows Live Platform. He also served as the Chief Product Officer at Yahoo, while he presently serves on the Board of GolfLogix. Mum's the word on whether or not his introductory video will be too risque for American television.
Apple snags Amazon's A9 head to lead Siri team
Companies poach each other's employees and execs all the time. But, Apple's latest score, William Stasior, is a pretty substantial one. For the last six years he has served as president and CEO of A9, Amazon's search and ad subsidiary. Before that he held other search-related roles at Amazon and worked at AltaVista, departing around the time of the Yahoo! acquisition. In his new role at Cupertino, Stasior will be leading the Siri team. The MIT Ph.D will be taking the helm of the voice-powered virtual assistant, which has led some to speculate that Apple could be stepping up search and advertising game. Considering the on-going drama between Mountain View and the purveyors of all-things-i, we wouldn't be entirely surprised to see the two go head to head on Google's home turf. But we'd say such a move would be a long term goal, at best.
John Legere confirmed as new Chief Executive Officer of T-Mobile USA
Back in the heat of summer, T-Mobile USA's then CEO Philipp Humm resigned to take up the mantle at Vodafone. In the interim, former COO Jim Alling stepped up to keep the chair warm while a permanent replacement was found. Today we learn that John Legere, former CEO of Global Crossing, will relieve Alling of those duties, and fill the top spot full-time. With 32 years experience in the industry, Legere also spent time at Dell as president of European, Middle East and African operations. For now, his first task will likely be leading the firm's LTE deployment, and trying to win some of the faithful back. Head past the break for the full PR and the new CEO's first video address to employees.
Craig Federighi, Dan Riccio promoted to Senior Vice Presidents at Apple
On Monday, Apple announced that it was promoting vice president of Mac Software engineering Craig Federighi and vice president of Hardware Engineering Dan Riccio to senior vice president positions. The two men will report directly to Tim Cook. Federighi, shown on the left in the above image, is a public face for Apple and recently appeared in the last WWDC where he introduced Mountain Lion. He worked with Steve Jobs at NeXT and then moved to Apple. He left Apple in 1999 to work for software and information technology services company Airba. He stayed there ten years before returning to Apple in 2009. Riccio, shown in middle in the above image, joined Apple in 1998 after a stint at Compaq where he worked on the mechanical design of Compaq's consumer PC products. He started off as vice president of Product Design and has played an important role in the development of the iPad. The announcement also confirmed that Bob Mansfield (above right), who announced his retirement from his position as senior vice president of Hardware Engineering in June, will stay on at Apple and work on future projects under the guidance of Tim Cook. There was no title given to Mansfield's new position, so it's not clear what role he will play in the company. Regardless, it's good news that the man who guided the teams which delivered the MacBook Air and the iMac will remain at Apple for a while longer.
Apple promotes pair of execs to Senior VP level, Bob Mansfield to hang around after all
It's a day of upheaval in the boardroom at Apple -- in the good sense. Remember how Hardware Engineering Senior VP Bob Mansfield said he would retire in June? He's had a change of heart and will keep working on future products. Meanwhile, two of the vice presidents who've been mainstays of Apple's recent plans, Mac Software Engineering VP Craig Federighi and Hardware Engineering VP Dan Riccio, have been promoted to Senior VP. All three will report directly to CEO Tim Cook, and both Federighi as well as Riccio will get their first turns at Apple's executive management team. While the shift isn't going to signal a dramatic change in strategy, it's notable that Riccio's role is expanding: he's moving from his earlier iPad focus to overseeing all the hardware Apple makes. We can only guess at what the ultimate goals might be for the new assignments, although we can imagine Apple jumping through hoops to keep a hardware executive as skilled as Mansfield on its side.
Fisker lands former GM exec and Chevy Volt guru Tony Posawatz as CEO
Fisker hasn't had what you'd call the best year so far, but it may have found the ticket to turning its hybrid vehicle business around. Meet Tony Posawatz, Fisker's new CEO -- and, until just weeks ago, GM's Vehicle Line Director. Despite being the second new chief executive at Fisker since Tom LaSorda arrived in February, Posawatz needs little explanation for his sudden rise to power. He's an original member of the Chevy Volt leadership structure and could very well know a thing or two about developing a hybrid car from start to finish. His influence might only be keenly felt when the Atlantic wheels its way towards driveways in 2014, but there's no doubt he's onboard to right the good ship Karma and improve Fisker's reputation in the short term. We wouldn't want to be in GM's shoes as it watches one of its EV-friendly veterans so publicly jump ship, however.
AMD exec behind Wii and Xbox 360 graphics jumps the fence to NVIDIA
AMD has been suffering a conspicuous brain drain, with executives like ATI veteran Rick Bergman and CTO Eric Demers crossing over to tangentially or directly competitive companies like NVIDIA and Qualcomm. Chalk up another one for the list -- strategic development VP Bob Feldstein has bounded towards NVIDIA's (literally) greener pastures. The blow cuts deeper than usual through Feldstein's responsibility for graphics in most of the consoles from the past few years: he headed up work behind the Xenos chip in earlier Xbox 360s and the Hollywood core in the Wii, and he likely had some say in the Wii U's video hardware as well. While the staff shuffle won't directly affect AMD's Fusion processors or Radeon cards, it's hard to see much of a positive for AMD's future in video gaming, even in the light of rumors that the next PlayStation and Xbox might use some of Feldstein's work.
Facebook and Walmart to 'deepen' involvement, won't rollback FarmVille prices just yet
The involvement between Facebook and Walmart is about to get a lot cozier than gift cards in aisle three. Facebook says it wants to "deepen" its connection to Walmart and hopes to learn from the big-box retailer's skill in building a long-term business; that's rather important when the social network is still young enough for the ink to be wet on shares from its initial public offering. To that end, Facebook's entire executive team will meet with Walmart at its Arkansas headquarters on July 20th in the hopes the two companies will be singing kumbaya when all is said and done. Knowing that both companies have taken a bruising in their public images from time to time, we can understand why some might be apprehensive about the idea of any tighter collaboration -- not until they can buy FarmVille harvests for 88 cents, at least.
RIM's Thorsten Heins denies company's 'death spiral,' predicts successful transition to BlackBerry 10
RIM CEO Thorsten Heins has the unenviable task of, well, being the CEO of RIM. Still, in spite of some gloomy numbers, the exec thinks the company is on the right track. Heins told CBC Radio that, since taking over, the company has been implementing changes that are helping Research in Motion transition to BlackBerry 10, adding that "there's nothing wrong with the company as it exists right now." Heins told the Metro Morning radio show, "This company is not ignoring the world out there, nor is it in a death spiral," adding, "Yes, it is very, very challenged at the moment - specifically in the U.S. market. The way I would describe it: we're in the middle of a transition." It's a transition from which, Heins insists, RIM "will emerge successfully." What's more, Heins also has an op-ed in today's Globe & Mail, where he mostly reiterates that stance and flatly says "don't count BlackBerry out." You can find it at the source link below.
HTC picks former AT&T exec Mike Woodward as North American president
HTC has been fighting to get a better relationship with US carriers lately, and it may have just chosen a clever (if roundabout) approach: hire one of their executives. As of today, AT&T's former phone portfolio VP Mike Woodward is now HTC's president of its North American division, reporting directly to worldwide sales head Jason Mackenzie. The new position won't necessarily get him any privileged access, but it certainly gives HTC someone who's well versed in what carriers want out of a device launch. We'll have to wait awhile to see what Woodward's strategy will be; suffice it to say that the company wants more One X-level anticipation and fewer of those bumpy, Inspire 4G-like releases.
Apple Senior VP of Hardware Engineering Bob Mansfield to retire, be replaced by Dan Riccio
Apple has announced that its Senior VP of Hardware Engineering, Bob Mansfield, will retire and over the course of the next few months transfer his role to Dan Riccio. Mansfield is credited with leading the Mac engineering team since 2005 and took on a more visible role as an exec during the reshuffling in 2008. He's also mentioned as leading iPhone and iPod engineering since 2010 (when he took over the role from Mark Papermaster in a move curiously timed around those antenna troubles) and the iPad since it began. He'd been with Apple since 1999 when it acquired his previous employer, Raycer Graphics, and most recently popped up on our radar earlier this year while integrating another acquisition, flash memory maker Anobit. If you'd like to get familiar with his replacement, Dan Riccio is currently vice president of iPad hardware engineering. Check the press release after the break for a few more details on both individuals, there's no word on Mansfield's post-retirement plans.
HP names Bill Veghte new COO, hands over the keys to HP Software
After successfully piloting HP's software division and, presumably, performing well as the company's chief strategy officer, Bill Veghte is getting a promotion. Effective immediately he'll be taking over as COO of the struggling computer manufacturer and finally handing over the keys to HP Software. As Veghte is forced to give up his executive vice president's position, George Kadifa will be stepping it to take up the charge of leading the non hardware-based part of the business. The move will also mean that Veghte will be working even more closely with CEO Whitman, who expressed confidence in Veghte. The shakeup comes shortly on the heels of a particularly tough financial quarter and the announcement of 27,000 layoffs. Check out the complete PR after the break.
