Biz people

Yang: Yahoo not under siege

Yahoo Inc CEO Jerry Yang (right) rejected the image of his company as "under siege" on Wednesday, telling conference goers that executives are rallying to streamline Yahoo's offerings and make it more relevant to consumers and to advertisers.

Yahoo faces the threat of mutiny from shareholders unhappy with the way its board handled a takeover offer from Microsoft Corp that was ultimately withdrawn this month.

Speaking at The Wall Street Journal's "D: All Things Digital" conference in Carlsbad, California, Yang stood by his handling of the deal and painted a bright future for the Internet pioneer he co-founded.

"The perception of us being a company under siege is just not accurate," said Yang, who deflected repeated questions about what lies ahead for the company, where he returned as CEO last year.

Bond returns to Oz rich list

Alan Bond, the high-flying global entrepreneur of the 1980s who infamously crashed in the '90s, has returned to a list of Australia's richest people after an 18-year absence.

BRW magazine's annual list of Australia's 200 richest individuals this week ranked Bond at 157th place with an estimated fortune of A$265 million ($255 million) through interests including an African diamond mine and Madagascan oil fields.

Sean Aylmer, the magazine's editor-in-chief, said yesterday that the estimate of the 70-year-old British-born Australian's wealth was conservative.

"All things involving Bond and money are opaque, so we were very wary of overstating Bond's wealth," Aylmer said.

"If anything, we've been very conservative in coming up with the 265 number," he said.

At the peak of his power and influence in the 1980s, Bond's publicly listed flagship Bond Corp was a global conglomerate straddling brewing, media, telecommunications, tertiary education, property and gold mining.

Dell's cost cuts pay dividends

Michael Dell's pledge to trim $3 billion in labor and manufacturing costs may be winning back shareholders after his personal-computer company's stock posted its worst performance in seven years last quarter.

Nine of Dell Inc's 10 largest investors added to their holdings in the first quarter, including Southeastern Asset Management Inc and State Street Corp, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Shares of the second-biggest maker of PCs dropped 19 percent in the period, the most since 2001.

Michael Dell announced a three-year program in April to cut more than 8,800 jobs, rely more on cheaper manufacturers in Asia, and stop making fully customized PCs to reduce expenses.

Last year, he began to sell PCs through retail stores in a bid to win customers from Hewlett-Packard Co, the top seller for seven straight quarters.

"If they are even modestly successful, the stock price will rise," said Tony Ursillo, an analyst at Loomis, Sayles & Co in Boston, which manages about $120 billion.

"We are willing to bet on Dell seeing some degree of success."

Ursillo said his firm bought Dell stock in April, without specifying how much. Loomis sold about 148,000 shares in the first quarter, reducing its stake to zero, according to the data compiled by Bloomberg.

Dell, 43, said in April that he plans to go beyond the 8,800 job cuts he pledged last year and slash compensation and benefit costs to wring out more profit.

Last week, he enlisted former General Electric Co executive Brian Gladden as the company's new finance chief.

(China Daily 05/30/2008 page16)