What’s the next strategy if you are Silicon Valley’s most infamous, yet most persistent, ‘also-ran’?  Just having moved its paid ads over to Bing, and with early reports that it will layoff roughly 5 percent of its workforce (Merry Christmas!) as early as December 14, it seems that Yahoo! is all set to undergo yet another restructuring.

Reuters reports that, Yahoo “plans to lay off more than 600 employees as early as Tuesday,” December 14. Most of these cuts will reportedly be in Yahoo’s product group. Reuters notes that, “(t)he layoffs come two years into Chief Executive Carol Bartz's tenure, as Yahoo works to grow its revenue amid tough competition from Google Inc and Facebook.”

It is easy to see in today's innovative market, why CRM has made such an impact on customer service satisfaction. CRM is the latest, technological system that is unprecedented in the management of customer data and it has made it easier than ever before to manage the volume of today’s market, with even greater success. No previous system has the power of CRM and no system can compare with the abilities of a CRM solution, affording more information with greater accuracy.

Concerted hacking efforts by so-called “cyberanarchists” (according to the New York Times) were launched against several big business web sites that provide the basic infrastructure for online marketing and sales. Co-ordinated “cyberattacks” were made on Mastercard, PayPal and Amazon.com, who cut off services to Wikileaks following the widespread dissemination of hither-to top secret U.S. military and diplomatic communications through Wikileaks, and the recent arrest in Britain of its founder, Julian Assange, to face extradition for “questioning” on sex charges in Sweden.

Obtaining an MBA degree has become a popular option for business professionals who have several years of work experience and are looking to take the initiative in moving their careers ahead. Online MBA programs offer students with a host of different types of MBA degrees ranging from a general MBA degree to specializations in any pertinent business sector such as accounting, finances or management. Identifying the best type of MBA degree for you is all about considering each choice relative to your career goals and desired job concentration.

And, so, the online media wars continue.  .  .  . Just as “Video Killed the Radio Star” in the ‘80s, so “the Internet Killed Print Media” in the 00’s. Or, so it seems. Yet media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, has unveiled his vision of an apps-only news source which he thinks will challenge this trend and cause readers to turn to their ‘readers’ for their daily dose of news, rather than to online news aggregators like Google News and Yahoo! News.

Managing a team of staff who work in a variety of locations can seem a daunting task but with the right management, remote teams can be as productive or even more so than teams working alongside each other.

The greatest challenge is believing in your staff and trusting them to deliver. It is essential to have a very open two way channeled approach to communication. This is easily achieved via conference calls. These can be between the manager and a particular team member or even involving the entire team at the same time. This has a multitude of benefits as discussed later on.

The service industry is a tricky landscape, due to the fact that, often times, no tangible property is transferred back and forth.  Sure, you may purchase a software program that comes on a disk, but in reality, you are merely purchasing the right to use that program, not the rights to the program itself.  The service industry is a world dominated by intellectual property, and protecting yours should be your utmost goal.

AOL Purchases TechCrunch

AOL is trying to regain some of its influence online with the purchase of a number of assets this week including Techcrunch.com. TechCrunch is one of the more popular blogs online covering technology news and company announcements. The company, headquartered in San Francisco, was purchased for $40 million and will continue to operate as a separate entity. The announcement was made at TechCrunch’s conference TechCrunch Disrupt.

Blockbuster Prepares for Bankruptcy

According to sources close to the company, Blockbuster is preparing to file for bankruptcy with plans to close hundreds of more stores as they battle against cheap online options (Netflix) and kiosks (Redbox). The company hopes to convert debt to equity and wipe out debt by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company currently has $900 million in debt and hopes to rid itself of most of the debt.

Adobe Stock Falls Despite Record Revenue

Adobe, the maker of popular computer software for web development and graphics design, announced their third quarter results after the close of the markets last night and reported record revenue. Sales came in at $990.3 million for the quarter. This was a 42% improvement in revenue compared to the same period last year.