Semel Out Yang In
Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel has resigned in the face of ongoing criticism from stock holders. He will be replaced by Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang, with former CFO Susan Decker taking over as president of the company. Last week, at Yahoo!’s annual meeting, Semel weathered several angry questions from shareholders, but an effort to restructure his $71.7m compensation package was voted down. Yahoo!’s stock price has dropped 10% in the past year, and the company continues to trail Google in the ever-important Web search market. According to the latest figures from Hitwise.com, Yahoo! accounts for only 21 per cent of Web searches, with Google at 65 per cent. After six years in the CEO job, Semel will remain with the company as a non-executive chairman. In a statement released by the company, the former Warner Brothers CEO said that his decision to resign came out of ongoing discussions with the Yahoo! board about "the importance of ensuring a smooth succession in Yahoo!'s senior leadership." "As we discussed my future goals and plans, I was clear in telling the Board of my desire to take a step back sooner rather than later," he said. "I believe Jerry and Sue, with their superb talents and intense dedication to Yahoo! and its people, are the perfect combination to carry us forward. This is the time for new executive leadership, with different skills and strengths, to step in and drive the company to realize its full potential - it is the right thing to do, and the right time is now." Yahoo!'s stock price is up five percent in after-hours trading

Wall St. Dodges Bullet
The Supreme Court blocked a landmark anti-trust case against Wall Street’s top investment banks, banishing ghosts from the 1990s tech boom that threatened to spook today’s IPO market. In a 7-1 decision, the justices reversed an earlier ruling by the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that had allowed the case of Credit Suisse First Boston v. Glen Billing to proceed. Had the case advanced, legal and industry experts say it could have cast a pall on an IPO market that has shown signs of buoyancy in recent months and a securities industry faced with challenges from regulators and foreign competition. The anti-trust suit charged that investment banks—including some of the best-known names on Wall Street—maneuvered to inflate prices on IPOs during the late 1990s. The investment banks, including Credit Suisse First Boston, Bear Stearns, Citigroup Global Markets, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley, were charged with cutting deals that required buyers who bought stock at the IPO price to also purchase stock once it was on the open market, artificially levitating its price. The high court’s decision, however, found that the investment banks had implied immunity from anti-trust laws through their regulation under securities laws.

AT&T quietly offers $10 DSL plan
Without any sort of fanfare, AT&T has started offering a broadband Internet service for $10 a month, cheaper than any advertised plan. The DSL, or digital subscriber line, plan introduced Saturday is part of the concessions made by AT&T to the Federal Communications Commission to get its $86 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp. approved last December. The $10 offer is available to customers in the 22-state AT&T service region, which includes former BellSouth areas, who have never had AT&T or BellSouth broadband. Local phone service and a one-year contract are required. The modem is free. The plan was not mentioned in a Friday news release about AT&T's DSL plans, and is slightly hidden on the AT&T Web site. A page describing DSL options doesn't mention it, but clicking a link for "Term contract plans" reveals it. It's also presented to customers who go into the application process, Coe said. The service provides download speeds of up to 768 kilobits per second and upload speeds of up to 128 kbps, matching the speeds of the cheapest advertised AT&T plan, which costs $19.95 per month in the nine-state former BellSouth area and $14.99 in the 13 states covered by AT&T before the acquisition. BellSouth generally had higher prices for DSL before it was acquired, and the price difference persists, though AT&T did cut the price of the cheapest advertised plan in the Southeast region by $5 from $24.95 on Saturday.

Most parents critical of media content
Most U.S. parents don't believe in blind trust to make sure their kids are using the Internet safely, suggests a large national survey on media use out Tuesday About 3 out of 4 check what websites their children have visited, and even more look at how kids are profiled on MySpace and who's on their Instant Message "buddy" lists, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation survey. The poll of 1,008 parents with kids aged 2 to 17 has a margin of error of plus of minus 4 percentage points. "Whether parents really know as much as they think they know is an open question. But when it comes to what happens inside their own homes, they feel they're getting a handle on it. Two-thirds still say they're "very" concerned that U.S. kids see too much inappropriate content in the media overall. But the number of parents who feel their own children are exposed to too much violence and sex in the media has dropped in the last eight years to about half. Many parents find TV ratings confusing, the survey shows. Roughly half do use TV and video game ratings, or music advisories. And about 3 out of 4 say they consult movie ratings. The findings challenge "an image of parents as befuddled and behind the curve on media. Two-thirds of parents with teens say they "check up" on kids who go online, and about half use software that monitors computer use or blocks content. Still, some surveys show over half of kids say they've been approached suggestively online, "and 3 out of 4 don't tell their parents, and we've heard from kids that there are multiple MySpace pages — 'one for my parents and one for me.'

YouTube makes international move
YouTube has announced international versions of its web video service. The video site, owned by Google, has launched nine versions across Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK. Each site is translated into local languages and has country-specific video rankings and comments. "Video is universal and allows people around the world to communicate and exchange ideas," said Chad Hurley, YouTube co-founder. YouTube has also unveiled content partners around the world, including deals with France 24, Antena 3 in Spain, European football clubs such as AC Milan, Chelsea, Barcelona and Real Madrid, as well as organisations such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace. Despite the assurances, YouTube is facing widespread legal action from copyright holders over the use of material that is being uploaded by the site's users without permission. Mr Hurley said only a small amount of material on YouTube was being shared without approval.

MySpace to team up with eBay?
Social network MySpace may be about to team up with with online marketplace eBay. Chris DeWolfe, MySpace founder and CEO, said: "We will at some point offer user-generated e-commerce transactions. If you're on your site and you have a line of T-shirts you have designed and you want to sell them to your friends, we want to be able to provide you with the tools you need to do that. "We could partner certainly with someone like eBay to do that," DeWolfe said. "Someone like eBay could be a good partner," he added. The partnership would help MySpace expand its features with eBays online marketplace services. Recently, rival social network Facebook made 65 partnerships with content providers, including Amazon, allowing users to interact with one another in an increasing number of ways.

Sony pulls plug on digital music store
The Sony Connect experiment is about to get, well, disconnected: it will be winding down its music and video services in the next couple of months, and focus on servicing the Playstation group on the technical needs. In an all-hands meeting in Sony’s offices in Los Angeles, employees were told that about 20-plus jobs are being phased out during this winding-down phase as a result of this closure. The eBooks division will remain however, as it will be servicing Sony Reader product. Steve Banfield, the head of the Sony Connect division, will be leaving in the next few weeks, and Tim Schaaff and Fumi Kanagwa from Sony corporate will now run what’s left of Connect engineering team. The remaining team of around 80 will be devoted support Playstation. Few things are unclear: whether Sony Connect brand will remain after this restructuring; and whether SonicStage software will continue. An unfortunate end to a business hampered from the start by the internal politics, and inability of the corporate parent to give any real attention to this digital media unit

In-flight mobile gets air-safety green light
The European air-safety body has given the green light for airborne GSM equipment to be fitted by airlines planning to allow passengers to use mobile phones in-flight. The launch of in-flight mobile services by several airlines had been hit by delays in the award of the safety certificate by the European Aviation Safety Authority. Air France will now be the first airline to install the GSM equipment on an A318 Airbus short-haul aircraft and is due to start offering the service from July. For the first three months of the six-month Air France trial passengers will only be able to use the connectivity for data, such as text messaging or sending emails from a BlackBerry or similar device. For the second three months passengers will be able to use their mobiles to make voice calls during a flight. Later this year UK airline BMI and TAP of Portugal will also trial the in-flight mobile technology on a single aircraft before any wider deployment. No-frills airline Ryanair will be the first fleet deployment of the technology across its Boeing 737 planes. The in-flight mobile technology has been developed by OnAir, a joint venture between Airbus and airline industry IT body Sita. The on-board equipment incorporates technology from Tenzing, the company that pioneered in-flight email, while Inmarsat will be providing the satellite communications. A picocell located on board the Airbus aircraft will pick up mobile phone signals via a 'leaky cable' antenna running along the length of the plane. The signal is then converted, sent to a satellite and routed to the ground network. The service is expected to initially cost between $2.30 and $2.50 for making in-flight calls. For texts and emails, no formal pricing plan has been released by the airlines.

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