eBayeBay is asking stockholders to stand by the company in its battle with activist investor Carl Icahn.
In a letter sent on Tuesday, eBay told its shareholders to "discard any proxy card sent to you by Mr. Icahn" and instead use the "white" proxy card to elect board members chosen by the company. eBay touted its own board nominations -- Fred Anderson, Edward Barnholt, Scott Cook, and John Donahoe -- as "business leaders in technology with track records of delivering substantial shareholder value."
Icahn and eBay have been duking it out in a war of words the past couple of months over the direction of the company. Icahn had been urging eBay to spin off PayPal as a separate entity as a way to increase shareholder value, a move that eBay has continually nixed. The activist investor has also been demanding that eBay add some of his own choices to the board of directors.
Icahn recently softened his stance slightly on a PayPal spinoff by suggesting that eBay sell off 20 percent of the online payment company through an IPO. But the questions about PayPal and the makeup of the board utlimately rest in the hands of the stockholders, prompting eBay's letter.
"The bottom line is that Mr. Icahn is wrong about the quality of our board and he's wrong about the best course today for PayPal," eBay said. "We oppose his unqualified board nominees, and we recommend that shareholders vote against his non-binding proposal to separate PayPal from eBay.
Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz.Andreessen Horowitz
Marc Andreessen on Tuesday lumped in Warren Buffett with other "old white men crapping on new technology they don't understand."
Yes, that was the headline gift from Andreessen, who was speaking during a Bitcoin conference in San Francisco. But Andreessen, whose venture capital company, Andreessen Horowitz, intends to invest hundreds of millions more dollars inBitcoin-related businesses -- that's in addition to its existing $50 million in Bitcoin-related startups - was there to press the point that he often makes on Twitter and in myriad public appearances: Bitcoin is to the early 2000s what the Internet was to the late 1990s.
"We consider ourselves mainstream investors," Andreessen said, adding that his firm invests only in companies that "want to be on the straight and narrow."
Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire-Hathaway, famously dismissed Bitcoin in a recent television interview, where he called it "a mirage."
That proved too much of a softball for Andreessen and his fellow Andreessen Horowitz general partner Balaji Srinivasan, who quipped "Bitcoin has outperformed Berkshire Hathaway by a lot."
The two venture capitalists, who led off the first day of the Coinsummit, were here as the stage-setters, and they lived up to expectations, describing a nascent landscape -- Andreessen termed it "a whole ecosystem" -- with hundreds of high-quality technologists working on various ways to bring Bitcoin into the mainstream. "It runs the full gamut of what you can imagine," he said.
They didn't need to sell hard to this audience. But even with the recent uptick in interest surrounding Bitcoin, there was also a concern that the lukewarm response of many banks and regulators poses a significant obstacle to more mainstream adoption.
"We need more banks," said Micky Malka, of Bibbit Capital. "Overall, we're superearly (in the process of adoption)."
"The lack of banks willing to take merchant accounts for Bitcoin companies is a real inhibitor for the ecosystem," added Jeremy Liew, a venture capitalist with Lightspeed Venture Partners. "I think it's something that we can't assume someone is going to take care of for us." He added that "you can't force a bank to work with you by pure force of logic...it takes time. It is relationships."
The roughly 500 people who clogged the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts were here to exchange ideas and learn from myriad Bitcoin-related company speakers sharing their stories.
But it was left to Andreessen - hard to believe that he's now an industry gray hair (figuratively, as he's a fellow cue-ball) - to offer the historical comparison.
The co-inventor of the Mosaic Web browser noted that in the 1989 to 1994 era, the Internet industry was comprised largely of fringe, sometimes "really odd" types. "It arrived as a fringe technology with fringe politics and arrived with fringe characters...who had these sort of crazy ideas...but it worked. And there was this process of maturation where it worked."
Samsung's North American headquarters in Ridgefield Park, NJ, has an executive briefing center to show potential customers what they can do with Samsung electronics.Shara Tibken/CNET
RIDGEFIELD PARK, NJ -- Samsung's pretty sure it knows just what business customers need, and it's happy to show them.
The Korean electronics giant last year opened an "Executive Briefing Center" on the sixth floor of its North American headquarters in Ridgefield Park, NJ. The facility is used to show potential customers the sort of Samsung technology they can use to update their businesses. That includes everything from monitors that connect with tablets and smartphones to special screens that overlay displays to make them touch-compatible.
Samsung's briefing center doesn't just show the different technologies, but actually has them displayed in the sort of environment where they'd be used -- schools, medical centers, financial offices, hotels, and retailers. Visitors, which number in the hundreds each month, can use the vignettes to brainstorm, but they can't buy such solutions straight off the shelf.
Check out CNET's slideshow for your own personal tour:
BUSINESSES OF THE FUTURE...WITH SAMSUNG DEVICES, OF COURSE...
The Google Glass team says it's teaming up with the world's biggest maker of stylish specs to improve the device's design and distribution capability Google is determined to make Glass cool.Google
There should be little reason left to doubt Google's intentions to finally bring Glass forth as a regular consumer product. On Monday, a post on the Glass Google+ page announced a partnership with the massive Luxottica Group (owner of Ray-Ban, Oakley, Vogue Eyewear, Persol, Oliver Peoples, Alain Mikli, and Arnetteto, among other brands) to add some big-time style, design, and distribution chops to Glass.
"Luxottica understands how to build, distribute, and sell great products that their clients and consumers love -- something we care deeply about at Glass, too," the post said. "They'll bring design and manufacturing expertise to the mix, and, together, we'll bring even more Glass style choices to our Explorers. In addition, Luxottica's retail and wholesale distribution channels will serve us well when we make Glass available to more people down the road."
Google says not to expect Glass on your favorite Oakleys right away, but that the announcement "marks the start of a new chapter in Glass's design."
We still have no idea when a consumer version might offer Glass to a normal person rather than an early adopter with $1,500 to blow on a beta product, but this announcement comes right on the heels of Google's very public attempt to dispel a number of conceptions about Glass that it referred to as "myths."
It seems the hard sell could be ramping up soon, or failing that, perhaps Google is doubling down on its propaganda campaign to convince the world that Glass is much more than just nerd goggles; it's the biggest high-fashion Bluetooth peripheral since, uh, well...since the last time Google showed us what Glass could look like on different frames (see the photo at the top of this post).
The Chelsea star has hit out at the Bayern Munich coach insisting he was "never a good player" during his playing days and that he never had the courage to say things to his face
Chelsea striker Samuel Eto'o has launched a scathing attack on Pep Guardiola, insisting that the Bayern Munich coach did not respect him during their time at Barcelona.
Cameroon international Eto'o played under the Spaniard during the 2008-09 season while the pair were with Liga giants Barca, helping the Catalans win the treble during a magnificent season for the club.
But the 33-year-old insists the Bayern boss showed him a "total lack of respect" and that Guardiola did not have the courage to speak to him personally.
"Guardiola has never been a great player, he was just a good player. I told him. He didn't prove anything when he arrived and he said certain things," Eto'o blasted to beIN Sports.
"What hurt me is that they invent things that the press relayed. They wanted to send me to Uzbekistan. I stayed at my place and I told him that he will apologise for that in the future.
"He gave the No.9 to Henry [sic]. Henry was happy. And it was a total lack of respect. I had done a lot for the club.
"Guardiola has never had the courage to say things in front of me. He passed by the players. Xavi told me they wanted me to stay but I had to talk to Pep. I say never, if you do not respect me, I do not respect you."
Eto'o came up against Guardiola back in April 2010, when Jose Mourinho's Inter knocked Barca out of the Champions League at the semi-final stage, and he insists that the handshake between the pair was just for the television cameras.
"He shook hands with me when I was at Inter and I played against Barca, but this was just for the cameras and TV. Behind the scenes before the match, he did not greet me."
Google is the force behind a delay in the first tablet to instantly switch between Windows 8.1 and Android 4.X using Intel technology, a fresh report from Asia says. A CNET source backs up this claim.
A report Friday from Digitimes fingers Google as holding up the Asus Transformer Book Duet TD300, a novel laptop-tablet hybrid that can instantly switch between Android and Windows 8.1.
This follows earlier reports from CNET and Digitimes.
Here's what Digitimes said on Friday, in part:
Currently, only Intel's...chip can support dual operating systems, giving consumers an option to run either Android or Windows...From Intel's standpoint, tablets that have both Windows and Android dual OS is positive for its business model, and vendors can also increase brand value through dual-system products.
Microsoft is looking to expand the penetration rate of Windows in mobile devices, as it currently only has a [small] market penetration rate, so pairing up with Google should prove to be beneficial.
On Friday, a source familiar with the Asus Duet told CNET that Google is indeed the one that has not favored the idea. Microsoft, on the other hand, has not, to date, been actively opposed to the idea, the source said.
Asus in January said that it would bring out the device -- and possibly two devices -- in the second quarter.
The Duet created a buzz at CES in January, with both Asus and Intel promoting the device as way to bridge the gap between mobile (Android) and desktop (Windows).
Asus, Google, and Microsoft have all declined to comment.
Listen to the Trumpster or your product will be in the dumpster.The ACU/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET
Success in business is largely about taking credit.
Just ask the co-founders of Twitter. Or, more accurately, those who say they're the co-founders of Twitter.
It is said, indeed, that Steve Jobs used to take credit for too much at Apple. But now that he's gone, a new creditor has stepped into the limelight he so appears to enjoy.
Donald Trump, he whose name is on hotels and the "Celebrity Apprentice," seems to be taking credit for Apple's latest iPhone.
True, no one's actually seen Apple's latest iPhone. But Trump revealed on Monday that he knows what's coming. And what's coming has been thanks to the deep and influential pressure he has massaged and kneaded into Apple CEO Tim Cook.
In a tweet that was a forthright as it was human, Trump wrote: "I wonder if Apple is upset with me for hounding them to produce a large screen iPhone. I hear they will be doing it soon -- long overdue."
I may have a response to his wonderment.
Apple is as upset with Trump for his hounding as it's upset with Simon Cowell for no longer being on "American Idol." He's made Cook as cross as has the man who invented the cronut.
Indeed, I suspect that Cook has felt as hounded by Trump as he's felt hounded by the Lumberjack Marching Band at Stephen F. Austin State University.
True, Trump has used his megaphonic platform to call for a larger iPhone. In October of last year, heused Twitter to ululate: "As an addition, Apple must go to a larger screen now -- asap! They're losing their standing in the market!"
It's clear since then that Apple has, indeed, lost much of its standing in the market. Apple stores are closing all around the world and people are keeping their iPhones in their purses and pockets, for fear of being seen with them.
The fact that Trump has revealed that Apple is releasing a large screen iPhone "soon" surely means the company will be doing it "soon."
Next, Donald Trump takes credit for global warming.
