July 25th, 2008
EIC podcast: Microsoft's analyst meeting; Icahn's deal; Facebook
On this week’s EIC squared podcast, Dan is back and we talk about Microsoft’s analyst meeting, Kevin Johnson’s departure from the software giant, Carl Icahn’s deal with Yahoo and Facebook.
The big news this week was Microsoft’s financial meeting (see Mary Jo Foley and Ina Fried’s coverage) where CEO Steve Ballmer talked strategy and outlined the company’s plan for the year ahead. There was a healthy dose of enterprise and a lot of talk about search. I argue that Microsoft needs a little IBM-ish moment of clarity and that it should focus. Dan says that theory is nuts and Microsoft should be investing in multiple markets.
We briefly touch on Kevin Johnson’s departure from Microsoft. Johnson was the bigwig in charge of Microsoft’s platform and services division. He’s going to Juniper. We’re not sure what it all means, but it’s big.
In addition, Icahn blinked and called a truce with Yahoo. We both wondered how much power Icahn will really have. One thing is clear: Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang bought himself more time to turn things around.
And finally Dan recaps the Facebook developer conference and handicaps the company’s move to be a big portal.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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