Monday, January 7, 2008

Yahoo CEO stakes out mobile phone market strategy

(Reuters) - Yahoo Inc's Jerry Yang will seek on Monday to demonstrate in his first major speech since taking over as chief executive in June the inroads the company is making putting Web services on mobile phones.

In a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show, an industry agenda-setting conference taking place in Las Vegas this week, the Yahoo co-founder will highlight a series of enhancements the company is making to its Internet services to optimize them to run on hundreds of millions of existing mobile phones.

Marco Boerries, the executive in charge of Yahoo's division supplying Web services for phones, TVs and other devices beyond PCs, told Reuters in an interview ahead of Yang's speech that Yahoo wants to play a big role in these new markets while staying true to its roots as an Internet services pioneer.

Sallie Mae Names Terracciano Chairman; Lord Still CEO

(Bloomberg) -- SLM Corp., the biggest U.S. educational lender, named Anthony P. Terracciano chairman, succeeding Albert L. Lord.

Lord will be vice chairman of the board and remains chief executive officer, Reston, Virginia-based SLM, known as Sallie Mae, said today in a Business Wire statement. John F. Remondi was named vice chairman and chief financial officer.

Lord, 62, served as Sallie Mae's CEO from 1997 to 2005 and resumed the post on Dec. 14, after the collapse of a proposed $25.3 billion takeover by investors including J.C. Flowers & Co.

Sallie Mae has slumped 40 percent in New York Stock Exchange trading since Dec. 13, as Lord has completed a sale of $2.9 billion in shares to pay for stock buybacks and to help improve the company's credit rating.
 

U.S. Stocks Rise for First Time in 2008; JPMorgan, Celgene Gain

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks advanced for the first time this year on speculation the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates to prevent the world's largest economy from sinking into recession.

Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. banks, climbed. Celgene Corp., a maker of cancer treatments, rose after saying profit will jump 45 percent in 2008. Microsoft Corp. gained after Chairman Bill Gates said the world's biggest software maker shipped 100 million copies of its Windows Vista operating system.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index advanced 5.35, or 0.4 percent, to 1,416.98 as of 9:36 a.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 45.11, or 0.4 percent, to 12,845.29. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 5.01, or 0.2 percent, to 2,509.66.