Microsoft has a new CEO – but don't worry, Satya Nadella isn't out of a job.

The tech giant has announced Judson Althoff will become CEO of Microsoft's commercial business, while Nadella is staying on as the wider CEO, but better able to focus on the technical aspects of the company amid the AI race.

Althoff will head a new organization inside Microsoft that will take in sales, marketing, finance, and operations.

Nadella said in a blog post that the move was necessary to continue to manage and grow the existing commercial business while also building the "new frontier" of AI – and "executing flawlessly across both."

"To accelerate this, we will increasingly need to bring together sales, marketing, operations, and engineering to drive growth and strengthen our position as the partner of choice for AI transformation," Nadella said, later adding: "With this context, I have asked Judson Althoff to take on an expanded role as CEO of our commercial business."

Passing off that work to Althoff will allow Nadella to focus on tech – notably that around AI.

"This will also allow our engineering leaders and me to be laser focused on our highest ambition technical work – across our datacenter buildout, systems architecture, AI science, and product innovation – to lead with intensity and pace in this generational platform shift," Nadella added.

Promotion for Althoff

Althoff joined Microsoft in 2013 as the president of Microsoft North America, according to Reuters, and in 2021 led the newly organised division that brought together global sales, marketing, and commercial.

"Over the past nine years, Judson has led our global sales organization and was the architect behind designing and building Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS) into what it is today: the 'number one seed' in the industry and our company's most important growth engine," Nadella noted.

This latest move now adds operations into the mix, with marketing now reporting to Judson as well as operations. "By bringing operations into the commercial business, we can tighten the feedback loop between what customers need and how we deliver and support them," Nadella added.

Beyond that, Judson will lead a new commercial leadership team that brings together leaders from engineering, marketing, operations, and finance to drive our strategy, governance, market readiness, and sales.

Major change at Microsoft

The change is a significant reorganisation for a company that has only had three CEOs in its entire history: Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and now Nadella, who took over in 2014.

"This isn't just evolution, it's reinvention, for each of us professionally and for Microsoft," Nadella said.

But it isn't the first time a company has split the top job. Oracle last month named two CEOs to take over from Safra Catz, who herself shared the role with Mark Hurd until his death in 2019. Spotify this week announced dual CEOs to take over the top job from founder Daniel Ek, while Netflix has used a similar model since 2020.

MORE FROM ITPRO

• INSERT CONTENT

HPE has announced the imminent departure of its chief financial officer (CFO), Tarek Robbiati, who is set to become CEO of RingCentral. 

The cloud and infrastructure giant will replace Robbiati – when he officially departs on 25 August – with Jeremy Cox, senior vice president, corporate controller, and chief tax officer, as HPE’s interim CFO.

Robbiati joined HPE in 2018 after spending just over two-and-a-half years as CFO at Sprint. His CV also includes ten years at Accenture and just under two years as VP of corporate finance at Orange.

Antonio Neri, president and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, paid tribute to Robbiati, who joined HPE shortly after Neri became CEO, wishing him success as CEO of RingCentral.

HPE has undergone significant changes during Robbiati’s tenure. Neri highlighted the organization's transition to an edge-to-cloud company, adding: “We are in a strong position to capitalize on significant market opportunities at the edge, in hybrid cloud and with AI.”

As well as a shift in portfolio to higher-growth and higher-market segments, HPE also launched its hybrid cloud service, GreenLake, shortly before Robbiati's arrival.

“We transformed an iconic company to a platform-based model, fueled by a software and services-rich portfolio,” said Robbiati, reflecting on his nearly five-year stint at the company.

HPE recently reported revenues of $7 billion, up 4% year-on-year, and an increase in its annualized revenue run-rate to $1.1 billion, up 35% from the previous year. It estimated Q3 2023 revenue to be $6.7 billion to $7.2 billion and fiscal 2023 revenue growth to be 4 – 6%.

His interim replacement, Jeremy Cox, is an HPE veteran who’s been with the company for over 18 years. He’ll serve as CFO while while the board of directors search for a permanent replacement.

Vlad Shmunis, RingCentral’s founder and current CEO, will transition to executive chairman when Robbiati takes the helm on 28 August. Robbiati has been a member of the RingCentral board of directors since December 2022. RingCentral’s president and chief operating officer (COO), Mo Katibeh, will also step down, but plans to remain a special advisor.

Salesforce has a new advert (featuring Matthew McConaughey) that manages to trash some of the world’s most famous tech CEOs in just one minute.

“While the others look to the metaverse and mars, let's restore ours,” McConaughey rhythms (almost) while riding in a hot air balloon. The advert starts in Space and riffs on the classic Star Trek line about the final frontier, which is then dismissed as corporate escapism. “It’s not time to escape,” McConaughey explains. “It’s time to engage”.

Now, let’s not be naive. This is nothing but opportunistic marketing by Salesforce; they’ve clearly seen the memes that mock space-obsessed billionaires and decided to incorporate that in their own advertising. There is, however, a beauty in the shade it manages to throw at Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg.

Organisations are often a reflection of their leaders; you may have recently heard the phrase “a fish rots from the head down” when people talk about the UK government, for example. It’s, therefore, hard to ignore that a large part of a company’s culture usually comes directly from its CEO.

The feeling I get – having never worked for or met the Salesforce founder and co-CEO, Marc Benioff – is that he is effortlessly cool. He’s cool in a way that Elon Musk would clearly love to be when he’s trying to be a bantersaurus on Twitter; men would rather talk trash on social media than get therapy. Benioff doesn’t go in for that kind of attention-grabbing nonsense. Instead, he strikes the right balance between likeability and respectability. That includes wearing stylish hats and sharing the CEO role for his own company with Bret Taylor.

Marc Benioff (pictured) is co-CEO of Salesforce alongside Bret Taylor

Amazon founder and former CEO, Jeff Bezos, is also keen on space flight and many people hate him for this. Partly, this is because he seems hell-bent on spending billions of dollars on finding a ‘new world’ while the one we already have slowly burns. Amazon workers – the ones generating his vast wealth – would probably prefer better working conditions and wages than funding his fantasy life on Mars. I doubt they also want to see the city of Rotterdam temporarily dismantle its Koningshaven bridge just to accommodate his massive superyacht, as reported by Dutch media. Men would rather takedown historic buildings than get therapy.

From our perspective on the ground, these billionaires seem to be trying to fly away from certain responsibilities (like proper taxation), which also seems to be the case for Mark Zuckerberg and his virtual world. His company is taking extreme steps to avoid facing the consequences of building a toxic platform, like changing its name to ‘Meta’ and indulging in the dead cat strategy that is the metaverse. Men will literally tank their businesses for a new concept than get therapy.

You don’t see Benioff fobbing off employees for a couple of minutes at the edge of space with Captian Kirk and you certainly don’t see him shirk responsibility. He often refers to the Salesforce ecosystem – partners and employees – as his “Ohana” which is Hawaiian for family. Throughout the pandemic, with the pros and cons of remote working being hashed out by CEOs around the world, Benioff was announcing the end of the nine-to-five and offering more flexibility to his staff.

What’s more, the company is exploring new frontiers here on Earth. It recently announced plans for its own business-focused TV channel last year. We can expect some polished programmes if this latest advert is anything to go by; it’s the best thing McConaughey’s done since Interstellar.

Research In Motion (RIM) shares surged to a 13-month high yesterday after its chief executive said the company may consider licensing its software to other mobile phone makers.

In an interview with a German newspaper on Monday, Thorsten Heins, the chief executive, said RIM's ongoing review could potentially lead to the sale of its handset business or the licensing of its software to rival smartphone companies.

"The main thing for now is to successfully introduce Blackberry 10. Then we'll see," Heins was reported as saying.

The main thing for now is to successfully introduce Blackberry 10.

The company, set to launch its new line of devices on January 30, played down the significance of the comments, saying that Heins's comments were in line with his prior statements.

"We do not have anything new to report on our strategic review at this time," said RIM spokesman Nick Manning.

The comments sent RIM's Toronto-listed shares up as much as 17.6 per cent, with the shares up 15.3 per cent at C$18.12 at 1400 ET. The company's typically more-active Nasdaq-listed shares were not being traded on Monday because US financial markets were closed for a public holiday.

RIM announced a far-reaching strategic review last May in which it was widely expected to examine all options, from software licensing deals to an outright sale of the company.

The company virtually invented mobile email with its first BlackBerry devices more than a decade ago, but its market share has evaporated as consumers have flocked to Apple's iPhone and devices based on Google's Android operating system.

RIM now hopes its revamped line of touchscreen and keyboard devices will help it win back market share.

RIM shares are down almost 90 per cent from an all-time high of over C$150 in 2008, but the stock has rallied in the last four months as the launch of the BlackBerry 10 devices nears. Its shares have nearly tripled in value since dipping as low as C$6.10 in late September.

The stock rose more than 6 per cent on Friday alone, after an influential analyst raised his rating on the company and said that the BlackBerry 10 operating system performed as well or better than rivals in recent tests.

Byron Capital analyst Tom Astle on Monday raised his price target on RIM shares to C$18 from C$14.

"There are several emerging datapoints that suggest this may be a more successful product cycle than many expected," said Astle in a note to clients.

Yahoo shares reached their highest level in a year and a half, as investor confidence grows that new CEO Marissa Mayer can pull off a comeback that eluded three of her predecessors.

The internet pioneer has yet to actually provide Wall Street with any hard evidence that its business is turning a corner - and she has warned that it will be a lengthy job - but investor faith in the ex-Google executive is running high.

Hedge funds Tiger Global Management and Greenlight Capital Management recently disclosed large stakes in Yahoo, accumulated during the third quarter.

"Money managers are staring to want to own this name again," said Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Partners.

"For the amount of traffic they have, and the assets they have, they should be able to squeeze some value out of that," Gillis said, referring to Yahoo.

Google people wouldn't be following her if they didn't think she had some good cards to play.

With Mayer at the helm, he said, Yahoo has "finally got somebody who the market believes can do that."

Gravity Capital Management's Adam Seessel said that Mayer's recruitment of various Google employees, including recently hired Yahoo chief operating officer Henrique de Castro, has also helped burnish Yahoo's image.

"What the market is seeing is not (financial) numbers so much as they're seeing people voting with their feet, people moving from Google to Yahoo," said Seessel, whose firm owns Yahoo shares.

"All these people from Google wouldn't be following her if they didn't think that she didn't have some good cards to play," he said.

Shares of Yahoo finished Monday's regular trading session up 2.8 per cent at $18.36, amid a broad market rally. The last time Yahoo traded above $18.30 was in May 2011.

Yahoo ranks among the world's most popular websites, with roughly 700 million monthly visitors. But the company's revenue has eroded, amid competition from Google and Facebook and an industry-wide change in the online advertising market that has compressed prices for the online display ads that are key to its business.

The company has been rocked by internal turmoil: CEO Carol Bartz was fired over the phone and CEO Scott Thompson left after less than six months on the job due to questions about his academic credentials. Mayer, Google's first female engineer, took the top job at Yahoo in July.

In a conference call with investors last month, Mayer said that making Yahoo's online products more smartphone-friendly was her top priority.

Investors and analysts dismissed a weekend report in The Telegraph that said Yahoo was in discussions with Facebook about a search deal, particularly after Facebook issued a statement denying any such talks.

"People expect a better search experience on Facebook. We are working on improvements to better meet those expectations but are not in talks to enter into a new search partnership," Facebook said in a statement on Monday.

Everybody hated the board, and they went through three or four CEOs quickly.

Still, analysts say that search represents one of the key opportunities that Mayer will focus on as she moves to revive Yahoo's fortunes. A 2010 deal struck by former CEO Bartz outsourced the back-end technology of Yahoo's search to Microsoft Corp, but deal has failed to deliver an expected boost to Yahoo's search advertising revenue.

"Certainly search could be resuscitated," said Gabelli & Company analyst Brett Harriss, who said Yahoo should be worth $26 a share based on a six-times multiple of its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

"It was a disaster for a year and a half," said Harris. "Everybody hated the board, you had a while of transition where you went through three or four CEOs quickly."

Now, he said, there's finally a CEO "that investors can believe in."

Steven Sinofsky, the executive most widely tipped to be the next chief executive of Microsoft has left - barely two weeks after launching the flagship Windows 8.

The exit of the 23-year company veteran, head of Microsoft's Windows unit, is the latest - and most prominent - in a line of high-profile departures from the Redmond, Washington-based company, which is struggling to keep pace with Apple and Google in mobile computing

It comes hard on the heels of Sinofsky unveiling the most radical revamp of Windows since 1995, designed to catapult Microsoft back into the forefront of Internet-based, touch-screen technology and reinvigorate a stock price that has been static for the past decade.

The move was unexpected and neither Microsoft nor Sinofsky gave an explanation, although an executive at the company, who asked not to be named, said the decision was "mutual" and said he was not expecting Sinofsky to take a job at another company soon.

"This is shocking news. This is very surprising," said Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities. "Like a lot of people, I thought Sinofsky was in line to potentially be Ballmer's successor."

Sinofsky, 47, joined Microsoft in 1989 and made his mark as Bill Gates' technical assistant. He grew into an uncompromising leader whose ruthless style of cutting layers of management and formalizing the process of software development gave rise to the term "Sinofskyization" in the company.

He wielded immense power as head of the Windows unit, the traditional center of Microsoft's business, but was not known for working well with other executives.

One former Microsoft staffer who worked with Sinofsky and other executives said his relentlessly aggressive style exasperated other leaders and may have alienated too many people, including his mentor Gates.

"He had no one left to fight for him," said the staffer, who asked not to be named. "Gates gave him cover, so he must have eventually caved."

Leadership style

Ballmer, 56, shows no sign of leaving after almost 13 years in the job, despite almost constant criticism. He has now replaced all the leaders of Microsoft's five main operating units in the past four years.

He told employees in a memo on Monday simply that: "Steven Sinofsky has decided to leave the company."

In a later media statement, he added that it was "imperative that we continue to drive alignment across all Microsoft teams, and have more integrated and rapid development cycles for our offerings".

That could be interpreted as disappointment in Sinofsky's ability, or willingness, to work with other units.

"Windows has to be much more thoroughly integrated with Xbox, with other parts of the company," said Barnicle. "I don't know that was something Steven was as excited about as focusing on Windows."

It could also suggest that Ballmer was not happy with the pace of progress under Sinofsky.

"Within Microsoft's lead cycle, Sinofsky was delivering at the early edge of it," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial. "But now the competition has moved from a one-year cycle to a six-months cycle."

Sinofsky had a stellar career at Microsoft, overhauling the hugely profitable Office division before going over to manage the release of Windows 7 in 2009.

That was regarded as a success and Sinofsky was then tasked with overseeing Windows 8, Microsoft's new-look, touch-friendly operating system designed to bridge the gap with mobile computing leaders Apple and Google.

At the same time, Sinofsky led the development of Microsoft's Surface tablet, its first own-brand computer, aimed at tackling Apple's wildly successful iPad head on.

Analysts said it may be too early to judge whether Windows 8 and the Surface have been a success, after launching on 26 October, but Sinofsky's departure could have been tied to his abrasive management and ambition for the top job.

"It sounded like it had more to do with his leadership style," said Barnicle at Pacific Crest. "There wasn't really a next move for Steven at this point."

Sinofsky forfeited some of his bonus this year due to falling sales of Windows and Microsoft's embarrassing failure to comply with an agreement with European regulators to allow users a choice of browsers, which could cost the company millions of dollars in fines.

Sinofsky himself shed no light on his exit.

"It is impossible to count the blessings I have received over my years at Microsoft," he said in a statement. "I am humbled by the professionalism and generosity of everyone I have had the good fortune to work with at this awesome company."

He did not announce any plans to take a job elsewhere.

Sinofsky will be succeeded by Julie Larson-Green, who will head the Windows hardware and software division, and Tami Reller, who will remain chief financial officer of the Windows unit. Together, they will report directly to Ballmer.

Sinofsky's departure comes two weeks after rival Apple shook up its own top management, forcing out mobile head Scott Forstall and retail chief John Browett.

One analyst cited talk that the moves might be related.

"Some are speculating that the availability on the market of Forstall might have something to do with Sinofsky's departure," said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. "I doubt we will have to wait long to know if this is the case."

(Additional reporting by Sakthi Prasad, Nicola Leske and Sarah McBride)

Facebook grew mobile advertising revenue at a faster-than-expected pace to help drive shares in the social networking giant nearly 13 per cent higher.

Facebook said it now gets 14 per cent of its advertising revenue from mobile ads, helping to reassure investors that the social network is beginning to figure out how to earn money off smartphone and tablet users.

Mobile ad revenues totaled roughly $150 million, up from an estimated $40 million to $50 million in the second quarter and almost nothing in the first.

They've started to generate decent revenues form their mobile applications.

"This certainly dispels the most bearish view, that Facebook couldn't monetise people on phones or tablets," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Robert Baird & Co.

"In about a six-month period they've actually started to generate decent revenues form their mobile applications," Sebastian added, though he said Facebook still needs to show that its mobile ads can command the same rates as its traditional ads.

Mobile advertising has been among the key investor concerns hanging over Facebook, helping slash more than $40 billion off its market value since its May IPO. As its users increasingly access the social network with their smartphones, Facebook has struggled to transition its business to mobile devices.

The mobile ads helped reignite Facebook's overall advertising business during the third quarter, following several consecutive quarters of slowing revenue growth that raised questions about Facebook's long-term prospects.

Advertising revenue increased 36 per cent to $1.09 billion, up from 28 per cent growth in the second quarter. But revenue from its payments and other businesses increased just 13 per cent to $176 million.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said mobile was the "most misunderstood aspect" of the company and took issue with the "myth" that Facebook could not earn money on mobile.

"Over the long run we're going to see more monetisation per time spent on mobile than on desktop," Zuckerberg said on a conference call with analysts yesterday.

The company's shares leapt nearly 13 per cent to $21.97 in after-hours trading on Tuesday.

Facebook said it had crossed the 1 billion threshold for monthly active users by September 30, of which 604 million were mobile users, a gain of 61 percent from a year earlier.

Zynga's woes were visible in Facebook's results, with Facebook's payments revenue from the maker of Farmville down 20 per cent year on year.

Zuckerberg said he was not pleased with revenue from gaming, but said that beyond Zynga - which accounts for 7 per cent of Facebook's total revenue - the situation was brighter.

"The interesting thing is that the rest of the games ecosystem has actually been growing. Our monthly payments revenue from the rest of the ecosystem increased 40 per cent over the past year, since payments has been adopted," he said.

Zuckerberg also said Instagram, the photo-sharing app that Facebook acquired for roughly $750 million this year, now has 100 million users, up from 27 million when Facebook bought the company.

Facebook posted a net loss of $59 million or 2 cents a share in the three months ended September 30 after booking a big provision for income taxes.

Excluding share-based compensation and income tax adjustments, it earned 12 cents a share, a penny higher than the average analyst expectation.

Facebook finance chief David Ebersman said the company would continue to invest aggressively during the fourth quarter, though the company did not provide a specific financial outlook, in keeping with its previous practice.

Ebersman said that the total number of ads that Facebook delivered in the third quarter increased 27 per cent year-on-year and that the average price per ad increased 7 per cent.

Facebook's third-quarter mobile revenue marked a big jump from the second quarter, when Facebook said it was generating more than $1 million a day from a new class of ads that appear in users' newsfeeds.

Facebook said roughly half of that revenue was from mobile ads, suggesting that mobile advertising revenue totaled $45 million in the second quarter.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan said Facebook's mobile ad revenue was impressive, but said the site needs to proceed carefully not to damage the user experience by overloading its service with too many ads.

And he said that Facebook's desktop PC advertising business appeared to have shrunk by about $40 million from the second quarter. Rohan said he would rather see the desktop ad business remain stable as the mobile ad business grows.

Facebook's third-quarter revenue of $1.26 billion was a hair above the average analyst expectation of $1.23 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

New Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer wants to return the company to its technology roots, sources claim, as she battles to turnaround the fortunes of the beleaguered internet giant.

Long torn between whether it should focus on media content or on tools and technologies, Yahoo under Mayer is focusing on the latter camp, according to industry sources.

Her hires, acquisition musings, and other early moves hint at an ambitious, technology-driven comeback plan designed to revitalise aging but well-trafficked properties such as Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports.

Yahoo has been criticised for allowing these sites to stagnate - they look very much like they did five years ago, and do not have many bells and whistles to encourage users to spend more time on them.

Mayer's plan is to make Yahoo's properties much more interactive, on PCs and on mobile devices, using social media tools to personalise the user experience and new technology to boost advertising sales.

Her well-known focus on user design is expected to result in a simpler, less-cluttered email and home page, one source said.

Yahoo declined to comment for this article.

Mayer, who gave birth to her first child weeks ago, will unveil details of her comeback plan when Yahoo reports quarterly results later today.

Mayer's focus on technology in many ways reverses a course set by her predecessors, who had concentrated on media content deals.

She's spending almost all her time with the product folks. She's spending it on technology.

The new strategy is not without risks: it positions Yahoo squarely against Facebook and Google.

It also risks alienating a large, media-focused contingent that is already weakened by the departure of Ross Levinsohn, who had championed a media-centric approach when he was interim CEO before Mayer's arrival in July.

Mayer has been meeting with internet gurus including AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, Silicon Valley lawyer Larry Sonsini, and Wall Street investment bankers, according to people familiar with the matter.

Bankers have pitched Mayer and her team on a slew of potential acquisitions, and they appeared to show interest in restaurant reservation site OpenTable and advertising technology companies PubMatic, Turn and Millennial Media, one of the people said.

Caterva, a small start-up whose technology analyses social media activity, has also been in low-level talks with Yahoo, said another source familiar with the situation.

OpenTable and PubMatic declined comment. Millennial Media and Caterva did not respond to requests for comment.

With more than $2 billion in cash and short-term securities, Yahoo has the money to acquire engineering talent or bolt-on services.

"What they've signaled so far is that the deals will be more niche in nature, smaller deals that maybe have a lot of promise," said Ken Allen, a director at Blackstone Advisory Partners.

Many industry insiders believe Mayer is Yahoo's final hope for reversing the company's decline. Four of her predecessors have tried in vain to right the ship - Yahoo's market value of $19 billion, is less than half its $44 billion value in 2005.

Mayer, who earned a masters degree in computer science from Stanford University specialising in artificial intelligence, has moved quickly on the personnel front, shelling out rich pay packages to attract ex-colleagues from Google and elsewhere.

"She's spending almost all her time with the product folks. She's spending it on technology. She's talking about engineering hires," a person close to Yahoo said about Mayer's early days.

Roughly 700 million users visit a Yahoo website every month - putting it in the top ranks globally. But the amount of activity people engage in on many sites is steadily declining, and its smartphone offerings are deemed lackluster.

"The largest change is to be deadly serious about mobile," said a former Yahoo manager who remains in touch with people at the company.

To count Yahoo out would be an enormous mistake.

Yahoo faces tough competition from Facebook and Google, two companies that have taken consumers' time, engineering talent and market value from Yahoo. They are also trying to make the transition to mobile, but it has been difficult.

Some say the direction signaled by Mayer is not so different than strategies espoused by previous CEOs that Yahoo has consistently struggled to implement.

A fragmented culture in which short-term finances usually trump product plans is to blame, according to those who know the company.

The recent departure of CFO Tim Morse could signal a change in approach, said several former Yahoo employees.

Morse was considered the force behind Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group and Yahoo's $7.6 billion deal over the summer, which saw Yahoo sell about half of its 40 percent stake in Alibaba after years of wrangling over terms.

But now Yahoo's Asian partners, including Yahoo Japan Corp, are not on the front burner for Mayer, one source familiar with the situation said.

Whether Wall Street has the patience for yet another Yahoo revival plan remains to be seen.

"Every CEO needs time to have their full vision articulated and understood," said Dan Rosensweig, a former Yahoo chief operating officer, who now serves as CEO of online textbook rental company Chegg.com.

"To count Yahoo out would be an enormous mistake, because the users have not counted Yahoo out.

"It's not like MySpace, where all the users went away," he added.

Yahoo has hired Henrique de Castro, a Google executive, to be its chief operating officer, as CEO Marissa Mayer aims to revitalise the web firm.

De Castro, who will oversee Yahoo's global sales, operations, media and business development, and will be eligible for a whopping $58 million total compensation package, according to an SEC filing by Yahoo on Monday.

Yahoo said that de Castro would receive $600,000 in annual base salary, as well as $36 million in restricted stock units and stock options as a one-time retention award, among other parts of his compensation package.

De Castro will start at Yahoo by January 22, but may have to work in London for a Yahoo subsidiary if he has not obtained a work visa by this time.

Mayer, a former Google executive who joined Yahoo as CEO in July, in a statement cited de Castro's experience in Internet advertising and his work "structuring and scaling global organizations."

The 37-year-old Mayer, who gave birth to her first child on September 30, also announced the hiring of de Castro with a Twitter message in which she noted that Monday was her first full day back in the office.

Yahoo is one of the world's most-visited online properties, but revenue has declined in recent years amid competition from Google and Facebook. Yahoo has also been beset by internal turmoil that has resulted in a revolving door of CEOs. The surprise appointment of Mayer in July made her Yahoo's third chief in about 12 months.

Mayer has yet to reveal her plan for revitalizing Yahoo, but has made a few key hires, including new finance chief Ken Goldman and marketing head Kathy Savitt, a former Amazon.com executive.

De Castro is currently vice president of Google's worldwide partners business solutions group, overseeing advertising services for the company's publisher and commerce partners.

Shares of Yahoo, which reports third-quarter results on October 22, were up 7 cents at $15.75 in after-hours trading on Monday. The shares fell 1.3 percent to $15.68 during the regular session.

HP's shares plunged to a nine-year low yesterday after CEO Meg Whitman warned of an unexpectedly steep earnings slide in 2013, with revenue set to fall in every business division except software.

Wall Street had hoped for quicker signs of progress on Whitman's turnaround plan, which centers on transforming the former industry powerhouse into an enterprise computing corporation that can take on IBM and Dell.

Whitman told investors the company's recovery would start to become visible only in fiscal 2014, when investments begin to pay off.

The problem here is a lack of investor confidence in the current strategy.

She blamed unprecedented executive turnover in past years for dragging out the Silicon Valley company's turnaround.

Analysts say HP is struggling to shore up its credibility on Wall Street while battling crumbling margins, the tapering-off of IT spending, and an internal organisational overhaul that involves thousands of layoffs.

"I was surprised that nothing new was really said in terms of strategy, and the problem here is there is lack of investor confidence in the current strategy," said Shaw Wu, an analyst with Sterne Agee.

HP shares tumbled 13 per cent on Wednesday in the biggest single-day decline since August 2011.

Shares of some of HP's contract makers in Asia also fell when trading opened there on Thursday.

HP gave a particularly gloomy outlook for enterprise services, its business providing services to corporations and a key component of Whitman's rescue plan.

Revenue from that division will dive 11 to 13 per cent in fiscal 2013 and be barely profitable, with operating margins of zero to 3 per cent. That stands in stark contrast to IBM, which raised its full-year earnings outlook, reflecting its ability to manage costs, despite flat software revenue in the second quarter and a 2 per cent decline in services.

Whitman became HP's third CEO in as many years after taking over following Leo Apotheker's abrupt dismissal just over one year ago. She is trying to revitalise the former industry icon via layoffs, cost cutting, and expansion into areas with longer-term potential such as enterprise computing services.

"The single biggest challenge facing Hewlett-Packard has been changes in CEOs and executive leadership, which has caused multiple inconsistent strategic choices, and frankly some significant executional miscues," Whitman told the investor conference in San Francisco.

"This is important because as a result it is going to take longer to right this ship than any of us would like," she added.

HP has lost more than two-thirds of its value since 2010, when its capitalization topped out at about $104.5 billion. Squeezed by crumbling demand for personal computers in a mobile era, significant leadership turbulence, and the advent of Apple Inc's iPad that year, HP's stock embarked on a steady decline. The company now has a market value around $30 billion.

Since Whitman took the helm in September 2011, the stock has fallen about 35 percent.

Mike Nefkens, HP's acting global enterprise leader ,said fiscal 2013 "will be a fix and build year."

"We expect long-term growth to be back in the 3-5 per cent range and long-term profit to be in the 7-9 per cent range," he added.

New Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer received an enthusiastic reception from the internet giant's workforce after setting out her plans for the firm.

Mayer mainly sketched broad visions rather than concrete details for her turnaround strategy, according to several sources.

But her personal credibility as a long-time senior Google executive, combined with some recent morale-boosting moves, such as providing new iPhones and free food for employees, have had a positive impact on the company, one source said.

Speaking at Yahoo's Sunnyvale, California headquarters, Mayer stressed the importance of personalising Yahoo's web services and adapting the company's products to mobile devices, AllThingsD reported.

Although her speech touched on frequently mentioned industry themes, Mayer's delivery nonetheless won spontaneous applause from the workforce, according to a second person with knowledge of the company meeting.

"It was some of the same types of lines that had been said before, but people believe it now," said the person, who declined to be identified because the information is private.

After a steady stream of occasionally embarrassing reports, Yahoo in recent months has clamped down firmly on leaks to the press. Attendees at Tuesday's assembly were instructed to shut their laptops during Mayer's address.

Yahoo declined repeated requests for comment.

Mayer first presented her strategy to Yahoo's board in meetings last week, outlining plans to bring back advertisers and expand the company's user base, said a third source, who declined to be identified because the information was not public.

Yahoo also announced that it appointed as its new chief financial officer Ken Goldman, formerly CFO at cybersecurity software firm Fortinet.

The appointment comes two months after Yahoo's board tapped Mayer to restore a household internet name overshadowed by rivals like Facebook and Google in recent years.

Yahoo remains one of the world's most popular websites, with more than 700 million monthly visitors who use products like its email service and read its news pages, according to the company.

But Yahoo's revenue has stagnated as online display advertising prices have fallen and as it faces competition from Facebook and Google.

Mayer, Yahoo's third CEO in about a year, arrived after a tumultuous period in the company in which former CEO Scott Thompson resigned after less than 6 months on the job over a controversy about his academic credentials.

Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang had also stepped down as CEO, and an internal reorganization eliminated thousands of jobs.

Mayer's latest hire, Goldman, replaces Tim Morse, who served last year as interim Yahoo CEO while the company underwent another episode of leadership turmoil.

Meg Whitman faces a tough task trying to turn around HP, according to Cisco chief John Chambers.

"There's not been a company ever turned around by the fifth CEO on the job," Chambers said in a wide-ranging interview with Reuters, referring to HP's management history.

There's not been a company turned around by the fifth CEO ever.

Whitman replaced the harshly criticized Leo Apotheker at the helm of HP almost exactly one year ago in a bid to restore investor confidence in the iconic Silicon Valley company.

Chambers said there was potential for HP, the world's number one PC maker, to grow in market transitions to cloud computing and the move from PCs to tablets, but the company may not be able to catch up. Cisco and HP compete in a number of areas such as networking equipment.

"Its a tough hand to play, but clearly as a competitor I like competing against that hand, and we are going to try and accelerate while they are struggling," Chambers said.

HP has continued to struggle since Whitman took the helm, posting an $8.9 billion loss for its fiscal third quarter ended July 31. Its shares on Tuesday hit a more than one-year low of $16.70, before nudging up a penny to close at $16.71.

Chambers softened his comments by saying that he is a "huge" Whitman supporter, pointing to his backing of her unsuccessful run for governor of California in 2010.

He said he believes she took the chief executive job at Hewlett Packard in part because of her deep respect for the culture of Silicon Valley.

"She did it, I believe, because she cares about the Valley so much and HP is an integral part of the Valley," Chambers said.

Speaking to the shared interest among technology company CEOs in preserving Silicon Valley's distinct culture, Chambers related an experience he had during his early days at Cisco with another HP boss, Lew Platt.

Chambers said that when he first got to "the Valley," he didn't know anything about it so he asked Platt to teach him about the culture.

"He met with me, and I asked for the next quarter and he met with me again; three years later we met every quarter," Chambers recounted. "He let me bring my team and he would bring his team, after three years we were on a roll."

Years later, when Chambers asked Platt what was behind his generosity he replied, "John, this is what our culture is about."

A 30 minute talk by Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has translated into $6.785 billion in additional market valuation for his company.

Facebook shares finished Friday's regular trading session up 6.2 per cent at $22 as Wall Street's confidence in the company continued to improve, in the wake of Zuckerberg's first public appearance since a rocky initial public offering in May.

The social networking company is planning to introduce a new advertising service that gives marketers improved ways to reach consumers on Facebook, which analysts claim has bolstered the company's share price.

"People are starting to feel a little more comfortable," said Arvind Bhatia, an analyst with Sterne, Agree & Leach.

They're not completely out of the woods, but sentiment is improving.

Zuckerberg's comments, in which he highlighted mobile business progress, suggested Facebook could enter the search market and expressed confidence in future money-making prospects, have improved the perception of the stock, said Bhatia.

Zuckerberg has a reputation for spending his time building the company from the inside rather than going around promoting it to investors.

On Thursday, Facebook said its nascent ad exchange was no longer in testing mode, and several advertising agencies reported encouraging early results using the service.

The Facebook Ad Exchange allows marketers to target consumers with pitches based on their past Web browsing activity, such as the websites they've visited - a standard online advertising technique that until now has not been available on Facebook.

The ad exchange hints at improved monetisation potential for Facebook, said Lazard Capital Markets analyst William Bird.

The world's number one online social network with 955 million users, Facebook has faced a rough debut since its May initial public offering. Investors and analysts have fretted about a sharp slowdown in its revenue growth. Shares of Facebook remain well below their $38 offering price.

The ongoing expiration of "lock-up" restrictions on Facebook insiders selling shares have added further pressure on the stock.

"I don't think they're completely out of the woods, but it does feel like the sentiment is improving," said Sterne, Agee & Leach's Bhatia.

The shares are up roughly 13 percent since Zuckerberg spoke at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.