TECHNOLOGY REPORT

Only in Silicon Valley could a CEO get away talking about their brand “kicking ass”, but Yahoo’s in Silicon Valley and Carol Bartz is their new tough talking CEO, who today wrote in Yahoo’s official blog “Yahoo Anecdotal” that Yahoo is “Getting our house in order“.  Among other thing Bartz says she is :

….rolling out a new management structure that I believe will make Yahoo! a lot faster on its feet. For us working at Yahoo!, it means everything gets simpler. We’ll be able to make speedier decisions, the notorious silos are gone, and we have a renewed focus on the customer. For you using Yahoo! every day, it will better enable us to deliver products that make you say, “Wow.”

When former Yahoo CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang (Yahoo was co-founded with David Filo) left the company a few months ago Carol Bartz stepped in aggressively, presumably tasked by Yahoo’s board to either turn the company around or prepare for a sale of Yahoo Search, or perhaps even the entire company, to Microsoft.

Given that turning Yahoo around is considered by most to be extremely challenging and long term,  I think we should assume Bartz is working the Microsoft sales angle even though much of the tough talk is more along today’s lines of restoring the second most recognizable internet brand to at least a shadow of Yahoo’s former glory.     Note though that even assuming a sale to MIcrosoft is in the goal, it’s probably in Yahoo shareholder’s best interests for Bartz to talk and work towards shoring up the brand, hoping to encourage Microsoft to offer more of a premium over the current share price than they might if they knew a deal was inevitable.

We can get some insight into what Carl Icahn – one of Yahoo’s largest shareholders and board members -  is looking for in this deal thanks to this excellent report on his stock holdings and pricing.   With an average share price is in the neighborhood of $20-25,  I would argue that Icahn wants Microsoft to come in somewhere north of that for him to agree to a sale.     Microsoft offered $31 officially last year before the stock meltdown and most fell they would have paid about $34, but clearly that deal is long off the table. However given Microsoft’s lackluster online performance and the chance for a crack at Google’s dominance, look for Microsoft to make an offer soon.  Look for Yahoo to probably take it.

DISCLOSURE:   Technology Reporter Joe Hunkins is long on YHOO

Technology Report will be reporting from several conferences in 2009 including the following:

CES 2009 See our CES 2009 coverage HERE.  We’ll be back at CES in 2010 with more extensive coverage.

CES is the world’s largest and most prestigious consumer computer event where over 110,000 attendees and 2700 sponsors come together in Las Vegas for product launches, presentations, and much more.

Word Camp 2009:  This is the closest thing there is to an official WordPress blogging conference and only the second year of this one day event.   Google’s Matt Cutts and WordPress Matt Mullenweg will join other distinguished presenters in what promises to be a great event.

“SES” Search Engine Strategies San Jose, CA.

For about ten years SES has brought the gospel of search marketing all over the world, and the San Jose event is the flagship of this prestigious search conference series.

Mashup Camp

Convergence

Update:  We’ll be at Twitter 140 in Mountain View too!

Update:  Here is the Kindle info from Amazon – Amazon Press Release on Kindle 2

Engadget is reporting that the the Amazon Kindle 2 will be announced on Monday with a release date of about February 24th. (Picture from Engadget website but I think it’s an Amazon press photo).

The new Kindle looks a lot better than the first edition, but at a reported price of $359 I’ll be surprised if this takes off to the extent many have predicted. However I certainly would say that based on the very weak Kindle imitations we saw at CES last month Amazon certainly appears poised to have the best in class book reader.

Amazon remains conspicuously silent on sales information for the Kindle leading to what I’m still inclined to think are extraordinary claims by some analysts, but if they really can corner the book reading market maybe the Kindle 2 really will become the new “must have” gadget.

Tekzilla’s Patrick Norton and Veronica Belmont tape their show at CES 2009 at the NBC Universal mega display area which included exhibits, surface computing tables, a bizarre TV Octopus thing,, and a “blogging lounge” where celebrity bloggers were featured.

Note to NBC – IMHO celebrity blogging is something of an Oxymoron – part of the value and power of the medium is the massive exchange and shared voices. Next year you might host a “real” blogging lounge along the lines of the superb Cntrstg Blog Lounge setup bloggers enjoyed over at the Wynn.