corporate

Jim Breyer, a partner at venture capitalist firm Accel Partners, was named to Dell's board of directors Monday.

Breyer, 47, will join the board immediately and will be up for official election at the company's annual meeting in July. He will fill one of two slots left vacant by the impending departures of A.G. Lafley and Michael Miles, two directors who announced earlier this year they would not seek re-election.

Considering who he is replacing, Breyer's appointment is useful in looking at where Dell is heading. Breyer's solid credentials as a Silicon Valley money man, … Read more

There is an old saying in the security world stating that people are the weakest link in the security chain. Here is a bit of data that reinforces this ancient security adage.

ESG Research recently conducted a project focused on confidential data security that will be published soon. However, here are some interesting advance results that support this venerable security dictum. ESG asked 308 North American and European security professionals from large organizations (i.e. 1,000 employees or more) a number of questions about data security risks, policies, and technology safeguards. When asked to define the most important measures … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--In the dot-com world, Tony Hsieh's story is pretty much canon.

We know he got his entrepreneurial start running a pizza delivery business in college, and eventually went on to co-found LinkExchange and sell it to Microsoft for $265 million.

Then, after founding a venture firm that invested in shoe retail start-up Zappos.com, he took over the helm of the company and has been there ever since. Now nearly 10 years old, Zappos has become renowned among the digerati for its heavy investment in top-notch customer service, quirky company culture, and use of Twitter to promote corporate … Read more

Bankers are finding it hard to get a little love these days. Their spouses offer a cold shoulder. Their relatives, a cold consomme. Their golden retrievers, cold comfort.

As they spend their lonely nights sipping their VSOP and trying to make an online appointment at the Emperor's Club, perhaps they might slide over to Facebook just for moment.

Facebook, like the odd banker or two, makes a mess of things sometimes. But there is a certain sweetness in the way in which the company's upper echelons sometimes remember who their customers are. And, perhaps even more importantly, how … Read more

As the global economy continues its slide, U.S. politicians have staked out their positions at the stimulus trough, stopping only long enough to blame the other party for the world's problems. Now, more than ever, we need to focus on sound policy, not savvy politics. President Obama ran on the promise of bipartisanship but has come up against the stiff reality of a deep Republican-Democrat divide.

Given such serious divisions, how can we focus our government on policies, not politics? Mozilla, the creator of the Firefox browser, offers some clues.

Yes, that's right. Mozilla. For those who … Read more

Trendwatching gets it right (again): "Giving is the new taking, and sharing is the new giving." That's the key assertion in this month's trend briefing, which describes the characteristics of Generation G (for generosity) and offers eight ways for brands to join: from Tryvertising to Brand Butlers to Random Acts of Kindness (RAK).… Read more

Michael Miles and Alan (A.G.) Lafley are stepping down from Dell's board of directors in July when their terms end, Dell announced Thursday.

Miles, a special limited partner of private equity firm Forstmann Little & Co., has been a member of the PC maker's board for 14 years. He was formerly CEO of Philip Morris.

Lafley has been a board member for just under three years. He steps down to spend more time at his day job as chairman and CEO of Procter & Gamble, according to Dell.

Miles is the chairman of the board's Government … Read more

Update 10:58 a.m. PST: Added latest stock price and detail from a Wall Street Journal article.

Yahoo's new chief executive, Carol Bartz, has told employees her first inclination is to hold onto Yahoo's search business, but said she needs to delve further into the subject, according to a Reuters report citing an anonymous source.

Yahoo shares dropped as much as 9.6 percent to $11.22 a share in morning trading Thursday.

Bartz, who addressed employees during a companywide meeting Wednesday, reportedly indicated she has already had an informal conversation with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer since … Read more

Yahoo investors weighed in with cautious optimism Wednesday following the appointment of former Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz as the embattled company's chief executive.

Yahoo, which formally announced Bartz as its new chief executive after the markets closed Tuesday, climbed as high as 3.2 percent during morning trading Wednesday to $12.49 a share, while the broader markets were down.

While noting that Bartz, for the most part, lacks name recognition beyond Silicon Valley and has little experience with media companies and the Internet, investors pointed to her reputation as a strong operator as boding well for Yahoo's … Read more