ICQ was a cross-platform instant messaging (IM) and VoIP client. The name ICQ derives from the English phrase "I Seek You". Originally developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis in 1996, the client was bought by AOL in 1998, and then by Mail.Ru Group in 2010.
Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of synchronous computer-mediated communication involving the immediate (real-time) transmission of messages between two or more parties over the Internet or another computer network. Originally involving simple text message exchanges, modern IM applications and services tend to also feature the exchange of multimedia, emojis, file transfer, VoIP, and video chat capabilities.
Yahoo is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Management and 10% by Verizon Communications.
Yahoo! Messenger was an advertisement-supported instant messaging client and associated protocol provided by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger was provided free of charge and could be downloaded and used with a generic "Yahoo ID" which also allowed access to other Yahoo! services, such as Yahoo! Mail. The service also offered VoIP, file transfers, webcam hosting, a text messaging service, and chat rooms in various categories.
The original incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. was an American multinational technology company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Yahoo was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994 and was incorporated on March 2, 1995. Yahoo was one of the pioneers of the early internet era in the 1990s. Marissa Mayer, a former Google executive, served as CEO and President of Yahoo from 2012 until June 2017.
Walter S. Mossberg is an American retired technology journalist and moderator.
Kara Anne Swisher is an American journalist. She has covered the business of the internet since 1994. As of 2023, Swisher was a contributing editor at New York Magazine, the host of the podcast On with Kara Swisher, and the co-host of the podcast Pivot.
Rachel Marjorie Joan Whetstone is a British public relations executive. Whetstone was in charge of communications and public policy at Google for nearly a decade, and served as senior vice president of communications and public policy for Uber until April 2017. She then joined Facebook as vice president of communications of its WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger products. Since August 2018, Whetstone has been the chief communications officer (CCO) of Netflix.
Yahoo! was founded in January 1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo, who were electrical engineering graduates at Stanford University when they created a website named "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web". The Guide was a directory of other websites, organized in a hierarchy, as opposed to a searchable index of pages. In April 1994, Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web was renamed "Yahoo!". The word "YAHOO" is a backronym for "Yet Another Hierarchically Organized Oracle" or "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle." The yahoo.com domain was created on January 18, 1995.
The following is a timeline of events of Yahoo!, an American web services provider founded in 1994.
Xobni was a San Francisco-based company that made software applications and services including products for Microsoft Outlook and mobile devices. It was founded in March 2006 by Adam Smith and Matt Brezina from Adam's dorm room in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as part of the Y Combinator summer founder's program. In late 2006, it relocated to San Francisco to be closer to Silicon Valley. It was acquired by Yahoo! in July 2013 for more than $60 million and shut down one year later.
Scott Thompson is an American businessman, and currently CEO of Tuition.io. Previously, he was chief executive officer of ShopRunner.
Eric Hippeau is a partner at Lerer Hippeau Ventures in New York City.
AllThingsD.com was a US online publication that specialized in technology and startup company news, analysis and coverage. It was founded in 2007 by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, as an extension of the annual meetings D: All Things Digital Conference.
The Yahoo! Consumer group is a group included in Yahoo!’s reorganization under CEO Scott Thompson. It includes three units: Media, Connections, and Commerce.
Jeffrey Weiner is an American businessman. He was the chief executive officer (CEO) of LinkedIn, a business-related social networking website. He started with LinkedIn on December 15, 2008, as Interim President. Weiner played an instrumental role in LinkedIn's acquisition by Microsoft for $26 billion in June 2016. Currently, he is the Executive chairman of Linkedin as of 2022. He is also the founding Partner of Next play venture capital.
Alfred J. Amoroso is an American board member and former chairman of Yahoo!. He led the special committee set up at Yahoo! to investigate the CEO misstated college degree. He was formerly president and CEO and a director of Rovi Corporation, later renamed TiVo upon the acquisition of TiVo by Rovi Corporation. Amoroso stepped down as CEO of Rovi in 2011 and was succeeded by Thomas Carson.
Spencer Stuart is an American global executive search and leadership consulting firm based in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 1956, operates 70 offices in 33 countries and is privately owned, making SSI the largest privately held search firm in the world. The firm generates over 1 billion dollars in revenue annually, passing this threshold for the first time in 2021. In 2009, the Wall Street Journal described the firm as the U.S. government's main resource for finding replacement executives for companies bailed out during the Great Recession.
Recode was a technology news website that focused on the business of Silicon Valley. Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher founded it in January 2014, after they left Dow Jones and the similar website they had previously co-founded, All Things Digital. Vox Media acquired Recode in May 2015 and, in May 2019, the Recode website was integrated into Vox. On March 6, 2023, Vox media announced that in order to make the various Vox sub brands less confusing to its readers, it was retiring Recode brand but would continue its mission to explain complex issues around technology to its readers under the unified Vox brand.
Altaba Inc. was a non-diversified, closed-end management investment company based in New York City that was formed from the remains of the first incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. after Verizon had acquired old Yahoo's Internet business. Verizon completed its acquisition on June 13, 2017, and put the assets under a new subsidiary named Yahoo! Holdings within its newly created division, Oath. After the transaction, Yahoo! Inc. had no operating business but retained its cash holdings, partnership investments and bond portfolio, as well as certain patents that Verizon did not purchase. It reorganized as an investment fund and changed its name to Altaba Inc. on June 16. The only Yahoo! - branded interest held by Altaba was its stake in the joint venture Yahoo! Japan, which it sold to the SoftBank Group in late 2018.
