The digital business week

A digest of the top business and technology news stories from the past week.

Google top exec Marissa Mayer to take CEO helm at Yahoo!

Yahoo! has appointed long-time Google technology executive Marissa Mayer as its new CEO. On her Google+ profile, Mayer relayed her excitement about taking over as Yahoo! chief.

The New York Times was apparently the first to break the news that Mayer, who has been with Google since its early days, is to take the top spot at Yahoo! in a move that will make her one of the hot shots in Silicon Valley and indeed in corporate America.

In a Yahoo! statement Mayer said: “I am honoured and delighted to lead Yahoo!, one of the internet’s premier destinations for more than 700m users. I look forward to working with the company’s dedicated employees to bring innovative products, content, and personalised experiences to users and advertisers all around the world.”

VMware appoints Pat Gelsinger new CEO

Virtualisation software provider VMware has appointed EMC’s information infrastructure products president and COO Pat Gelsinger chief executive officer, effective 1 September. Gelsinger succeeds Paul Maritz.

Maritz will remain a board member of VMware and will take on a new technology strategist role at EMC. Gelsinger will also be named to VMware’s board of directors, effective 1 September, as well.

Gelsinger spent 30 years at Intel before joining EMC. He possesses expertise in the x86 architecture and ecosystem underpinning most virtualised environments today, which is recognised as the foundation for cloud computing, VMware said in a statement.

At Intel, Gelsinger served as senior vice-president and co-general manger of the company’s Digital Enterprise Group, Intel’s largest business group accounting for more than half of its annual revenue.

Google reaps US$12.2bn in second-quarter revenue

Internet search giant Google’s revenue jumped 35pc to US$12.2bn in the quarter ended 30 June 2012 compared to the same period last year.

Operating income amounted to US$3.20bn, or 26pc of revenues, compared to US$2.88bn, or 32pc of revenues, in the second quarter of 2011.

Net income totalled US$2.79bn compared to US$2.51bn in the same period last year.

Google revenues when it came to advertising reached US$10.96bn, or 90pc of consolidated revenues, representing a 21pc increase over Q2 2011 revenues of US$9.03bn.

Google-owned sites generated revenues of US$7.54bn, or 69pc of Google revenues, marking a 21pc increase over revenues of US$6.23bn during the year-ago period.

Revenue from the company’s partner sites reached US$2.98bn, or 27pc of Google revenues, which is a 20pc increase from US$2.48bn in the same time last year.

Google revenues from outside the US totalled US$5.96bn, representing 54pc of Google revenues in the second quarter of 2012, compared to 54pc in the first quarter of 2012 and 54pc in the second quarter of 2011.

Microsoft posts first loss of US$192m since going public – loss mars an otherwise strong Q4

After writing down a US$6.2bn charge on the value of its failed investment in online advertising firm aQuantive, Microsoft has posted its first loss of US$192m since becoming a public company in 1986. The loss mars an otherwise record quarter for the company with US$18bn worth of revenues.

Microsoft also deferred US$540m of revenue in relation to the Windows 8 upgrade offer.

The company delivered an operating profit of US$6.93bn on revenues of US$18.6bn.

For Microsoft’s fiscal year 2012, the company’s revenue, operating income, and earnings per share were US$73.72bn, US$21.76bn, and US$2 per share.

RIM loses patent case, ordered to pay US$147.2m

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) has said it is evaluating all legal options after a jury found the company liable for US$147.2m in damages for infringing patents held by Mformation Technologies.

“Additionally, the trial judge has yet to decide certain legal issues that might impact the verdict. RIM will await those rulings before deciding whether to pursue an appeal,” RIM said in a statement.

Jurors in San Francisco, California, determined recently that RIM’s remote device management software, called BlackBerry Enterprise Server, infringed on Mformation patents and awarded damages of US$8 for each of the 18.4m units that have been sold.

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