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Samsung appoints Roh Tae-moon as its new smartphone CEO
Samsung Electronics has named Roh Tae-moon CEO of its key smartphone division, according to Bloomberg. He'll take over the position from DJ Koh, who will continue to head up Samsung's IT and mobile and communication arms. Roh is Samsung's third CEO in the last dozen years, as Koh was appointed in 2015 while Koh's predecessor JK Shin held the job for around six years.
Former Apple exec claims the company spied on his text messages
A former Apple executive is claiming the company spied on his text messages before suing him. In February, Gerard Williams III, who spent almost 10 years working on mobile device chips at Apple, left the company. The same month, he joined NuVia Inc -- a company founded to develop processors for data centers -- with several other Apple developers. In August, Apple sued Williams for breach of contract. Now, Williams is disputing the lawsuit and claims Apple illegally snooped on his texts and phone records.
Netflix’s CFO for the last eight years is stepping down
Netflix is undergoing some changes at the top of the company, as Chief Financial Officer David Wells plans to leave after helping to find his successor. He's held the role since 2010 and has been with Netflix since 2004. Wells plans to focus on philanthropy, though says he isn't entirely sure what his future holds. The timing of his departure is somewhat notable, as Netflix fell shy of its subscriber target last quarter.
Twitter replaces its head of product yet again
As vital as Twitter is in many respects, the product itself has suffered from a lack of direction at various points. It took Twitter a long time to figure out what the service is truly for and why people should use it, though after doubling down on news and live video, user numbers are growing again. Still, that doesn't mean its product is in perfect shape, and the company is replacing its VP of product yet again.
Alexa exec calls it quits after five years at Amazon
After a five year stint at Amazon, Charlie Kindel — an exec instrumental to Alexa's stunningly effective home invasion — has called it quits. In a post on his personal blog published earlier today, Kindel cited the intense, frenetic pace of life at Amazon as his main motivation for leaving.
Faraday Future continues to struggle as three more executives depart
Faraday Future is having a tough year. The electric automotive startup began 2017 cutting its planned 7-car line down to 2 vehicles before scaling down the size of -- and then suspending -- a planned $1 billion Nevada production facility. Today brings more woes, as news emerged that three top executives are leaving or have already left Faraday, including chief financial officer Stefan Krause.
Uber's financials improve, but it really needs a new CFO
Uber has revealed that its losses for the first quarter of 2017 amounted to $708 million. Huge, but still smaller than the $991 million it lost in the last quarter of 2016. While the fact that it didn't bleed as much money as it did last year could be considered a small victory, the company is now much too busy to celebrate: it has to find a replacement for Gautam Gupta, the head of finance who's leaving the ride-hailing service for another startup. Uber is reportedly looking for someone with public-company experience, since it's planning to launch an IPO as soon as next year.
Apple hires digital retail exec from Burberry for 'special projects'
Apple has picked up another former Burberry employee. The company hired former Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts in October 2013, and has now added Chester Chipperfield to the Apple payroll. Chipperfield was previously Burberry's Vice President of Digital and Interactive Design and has joined Apple's Special Projects team. The announcement was made on Twitter this past December, but noticed today by 9to5Mac. Goodbye London. I have been lucky to call you home for 31 years, time to discover another city.. http://t.co/CRxTDxckQB - Chester Chipperfield (@chesterchip) December 28, 2014 Chipperfield's exact position with the company is not known, but his work with Burberry was largely in user experience and digital retail. His experience with online sales in the fashion industry may come in handy as Apple launches its first major wearable product with the Apple Watch in the coming months.
Report: Sony top brass to take pay cut
Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai and other company executives will decline their annual bonuses and accept up to a 50 percent pay cut following Sony's fourth annual loss within the last five years, the Wall Street Journal reports. Sony downgraded its financial forecast earlier this month, and expects to report a 30 billion yen loss (around $294 million) for the year ending March 31. The company announced in February that it plans to sell off its Vaio PC business and reform its television manufacturing division. Sony will disclose its full financial results for the recently concluded fiscal year on May 14. [Image: Sony]
Long-time Google employee Susan Wojcicki is the new head of YouTube
Introducing the new head of YouTube: Susan Wojcicki, former SVP of ads and commerce at Google, who boasts some serious connections in the tech sphere. Mountain View has confirmed the news, and the outgoing YouTube head Salar Kamangar will reportedly work on other projects within the company. Truly, few Google employees can claim roots as legendary as Wojcicki's; she was hire number 16, who famously rented her garage in Menlo Park to founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Oh, and it just so happens that her sister, 23andme founder Anne Wojcicki, was married to Brin until late last year. Sound like a soap opera story line? Maybe so, but Susan's new role at YouTube could help strengthen the video service's ad revenue strategy. In an email statement shared with Re/code, Google CEO Larry Page said: Salar and the whole YouTube team have built something amazing. YouTube is a billion person global community curating videos for every possibility. Anyone uploading their creative content can reach the whole world and even make money. Like Salar, Susan has a healthy disregard for the impossible and is excited about improving YouTube in ways that people will love. "Improving YouTube" will likely entail new ad formats -- possibly some that move away from the TrueView in-stream commercials you're used to skipping after five seconds. With the TrueView model, advertisers only pay when their spots are viewed. YouTube reportedly brought in $5.6 billion in ad revenue last year, and Wojcicki will no doubt be focused on pushing up those numbers.
BlackBerry ousts marketing and operations chiefs, replaces CFO
The high-level shakeups aren't over at BlackBerry just because the company has a new CEO. The company has just let go of Chief Operating Officer Kristian Tear (pictured at left) and Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben (right), both of whom had assumed their roles roughly one year ago. There's no mention of immediate replacements. The Waterloo firm is also replacing Chief Financial Officer Brian Bidulka with the company's Compliance head James Yersh; Bidulka will stay on as an advisor for the rest of the fiscal year to ease the transition. CEO John Chen hasn't provided explanations for the individual departures, but he describes the executive shuffle as necessary for focusing on BlackBerry's "core strength" in mobile device management. Let's just hope that Chen is better at engineering a turnaround than his predecessors.
Apple's e-commerce chief leaves for eBay
It's beginning to look like Apple's executive offices have a revolving door at the entrance. The company recently announced that Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts will be heading to Apple to be the new senior VP of Retail and Online Stores; now AllThingsD reports that the man who was responsible for design, product management and development of Apple's e-commerce platform, RJ Pittman, is moving to eBay. Sources told AllThingsD that the timing of Ahrendts' hiring and the departure of Pittman was entirely coincidental. Pittman will be going into a new position at eBay as the chief product officer of eBay Marketplaces. eBay Marketplaces President Devin Wenig said that the hire highlights eBay's efforts to improve the design of the platform across desktop and mobile devices, noting that, "We're placing a lot of emphasis on the user experiences, and so this feels like a natural evolution." Pittman, who will report to Wenig starting next month, said "I loved what I was doing at Apple; it's a great company ... but eBay is on a completely different level by an order of magnitude when it comes to e-commerce." It's not the first big move for Pittman; just three years ago, Pittman defected to Apple from Google, where he held the position of director of Product Management.
Senior VP Bob Mansfield removed from Apple's leadership page (updated)
It could mean nothing, but it could mean everything. As of this morning, Bob Mansfield was still a senior vice president at one of the world's most iconic technology firms. As of now, his leadership bio is nowhere to be found on Apple's official web presence. If you'll recall, Mansfield has had an interesting couple of years at Apple. In June of 2012, he abruptly announced that he was retiring. A couple of weeks later, he publicly addressed mounting criticism regarding Apple's computers and their relationship with EPEAT, seemingly putting the kibosh on said retirement. A few weeks following that, Mansfield actually got a promotion, with his responsibilities growing once again during the executive shakeup of October 2012. It's unclear if someone accidentally deleted the profile of one of Apple's most important figureheads (read: unlikely), or if Mr. Mansfield truly has stepped aside, but we'll be reaching out to Apple in hopes of clarifying things. Update: Reuters' Poornima Gupta is reporting that Mansfield is "no longer with Apple's executive team, but will remain at Apple working on special projects reporting to Tim Cook."
Former Eidos Montreal GM leaves Square Enix, citing 'irreconcilable' differences
Former Eidos Montreal studio head Stephane D'Astous has resigned from Square Enix, criticizing the company's "lack of leadership, lack of courage and lack of communication." "Since last year's financial short-coming performance of Square Enix Europe, we (HQ London and GM Eidos-Montreal) have had growing and divergent opinions on what needed to be done to correct the situation," D'Astous told Develop. "The lack of leadership, lack of courage and the lack of communication were so evident, that I wasn't able to conduct my job correctly. I realised that our differences were irreconcilable, and that the best decision was unfortunately to part ways." D'Astous was ousted from his leadership role during a Square Enix managerial shakeup in June, and was replaced by Deus Ex: Human Revolution executive producer David Anfossi. Following the corporate restructuring effort, Square Enix representatives told Develop that D'Astous had "taken on a new project in the company working directly with [current Square Enix head of studios] Darrell Gallagher across our studios focusing on cross studio operations."
Microsoft's metamorphosis: Ballmer restructures Redmond, focuses on services and devices
Rumors of a massive reorg in Redmond have been floating around for awhile now. And the noise reached a fever pitch when Don Mattrick left Microsoft for Zygna's (apparently) greener pastures -- purportedly because he didn't like the role he'd receive in the pending restructuring. Now, a mere ten days after the ex-Xbox chief's departure, we know what the new Microsoft will look like. As expected, the company has been bifurcated into services and devices divisions, with Julie Larson-Green getting the nod as hardware chief and Terry Myerson becoming the Grand Poobah of Windows. Of course, quite a few other execs have seen their roles shift as well, with Qi Lu managing productivity, communication and search apps and services, and Satya Nadella heading up the company's cloud initiatives. Additionally, Skype president Tony Bates has been tapped to manage the Business Development and Evangelism group, where he'll lead corporate strategy and developer outreach. There are even more changes afoot. CTO Eric Rudder is now responsible for an Advanced Strategy and Research group and Tami Reller is the new US marketing chief. COO Kevin Turner, CFO Amy Hood, General Counsel Brad Smith and Chief People Officer Lisa Brummel will maintain their current positions. Finally, Office president Kurt DelBene will be retiring from Microsoft, according to the company-wide reorganization email published on the company's site. So what this all this mean for MS? Hit up the source for a 2,700-word memo detailing Steve Ballmer's vision.
Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch steps down; Michael Huseby appointed CEO of Nook Media
Following reports earlier this year that Barnes & Noble may be sliding away from producing its own Nook hardware, the outfit's CEO has just stepped away from his corner office. Announced in a series of shuffles, William Lynch has resigned as chief executive officer and director of the company effective immediately, while Michael P. Huseby has been appointed CEO of the Nook Media division (as well as president of B&N as a whole). The firm also announced that vice president Allen Lindstrom was being subsequently promoted to CFO, reporting to Huseby. Moreover, Kanuj Malhotra -- VP of corporate development, has been promoted to CFO of Nook Media. Chairman Leonard Riggio thanked Lynch for his leadership during an era where B&N emerged as a real rival to Amazon in the reader / tablet market, while the man himself said that he "appreciated the opportunity to serve as CEO over the last three years." As for his immediate plans? Kicking back on the shores of Ocracoke and reading a book... on a Nook, of course.
Gregory Lee becomes President of Samsung's US mobile division, Dale Sohn to advise JK Shin
Samsung is shaking up its US mobile efforts: it just appointed Global Marketing Operations head Gregory Lee as the President of Samsung Telecommunications America, effective immediately. The company hasn't explained why it's making such an abrupt swap, but it's bringing outgoing President Dale Sohn back to South Korea as an Executive Advisor to mobile division CEO JK Shin. This may amount to a promotion -- when much of Samsung's recent success in smartphones is based on its American presence, Sohn's advice could carry a lot of weight.
Mattrick's exit from Microsoft reportedly due to impending executive shuffle
So what's next for Microsoft after the sudden departure of former Xbox chief Don Mattrick to lead Zynga? The move is reportedly related to an executive restructuring that will be announced soon, directed by CEO Steve Ballmer as part of a shift in strategy towards devices and services. Bloomberg sources suggest detailed plans of at least one possible version of the future, putting current Windows leader Julie Larson-Green at the head of hardware engineering for the company. That shift would also give Windows Phone corporate VP Terry Myerson more control over the Windows OS across platforms, and Skype president Tony Bates the lead in acquisitions and developer relations. The report claims Mattrick was a contender for the hardware post before he left, while an earlier Fast Company article tied his exit directly to not receiving an expanded role once all the new seats are filled. The Wall Street Journal has its own speculation over who may take over all things Xbox -- Marc Whitten,Yusuf Mehdi and Nancy Whitten are all name dropped -- but if the rumors are true we could find out who is leading this new direction for Microsoft as soon as next week.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, live at D11
Elon Musk is a busy man. He's also a man who isn't afraid to speak his mind, as we found out during his SXSW keynote earlier this year. This evening, he's capping off a day of interviews at D11 with one of his own. As CEO of both Tesla Motors and SpaceX, he knows a thing or two about transportation -- both within this atmosphere and beyond. Grab a cup of cocoa and join us after the break as we cover it live, won't you?
Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann: consumers will soon expect every service on every platform, mobile included
Ben Silbermann has found himself in a pretty swell spot. He's the CEO of Pinterest -- a company that was recently valued at $2.5 billion, despite not making a single cent to date. He took the stage today at D11 in Southern California, answering questions shot from Kara Swisher. One of the key points he made was on the topic of mobile. Swisher was asking about Pinterest's mobile efforts, and Silbermann suggested that in the very near future, asking such a thing would be borderline silly. "It'd be like asking a business today if they're a dot-com business," he said, suggesting that every business created in 2013 should absolutely have some sort of presence on the web. It's perhaps due to the shocking uptake of Pinterest's apps. Said Silbermann: "A growing number [of users] use Pinterest exclusively on their phone or tablet. When we released our mobile apps, we were taking bets on how long it'd take for those to surpass our web traffic. I figured it'd take a few weeks. It was literally the day it was released [that the traffic was passed]. I think it's because phones and tablets are largely always around you, whereas you're not always around a [traditional] computer." It's perhaps the token example of how consumers at large are moving away from needing a full-fledged machine at their fingertips, and the redefining of what a "computer" is for the newest generations.
