Yahoo, Facebook Seek More Time for Settlement Talks

By TechCrunch: By Josh Constine

Yahoo just announced that chairman Fred Amoroso will step down in June. We've communicated with three Yahoo sources since the news broke. Given what they told us, we think this why Amoroso is out:

By TechCrunch: By Leonid Kravets

A couple weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that Yahoo is in talks with Apple. The purpose of the talks: to make more Yahoo-branded apps default apps on the iPhone.  Already, there's two Yahoo-branded apps on every iPhone – "Stocks," and "Weather."

Before Yahoo's board replaced him with star Google executive Marissa Mayer six months ago, interim CEO Ross Levinsohn's plan to save the company was to turn it into something like a cable TV provider.

Facebook has warned potential investors that a patent lawsuit against the company by Internet pioneer Yahoo! could deliver a significant blow to its business.The world's leading online social network amended initial public offering (IPO) paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to include the Yahoo! case among risks to the company's bottom line."This litigation is still in its early stages and the final outcome, including our liability, if any, with respect to these claims, is uncertain," Facebook said in the updated SEC filing.

This week, (Nasdaq:YHOO) launched a patent lawsuit against Facebook. It's unclear how it will impact the social giant?s upcoming IPO, but it certainly will be a big question on investors? minds. And there might be additional threats to other highly valued social companies, such as Zynga and LinkedIn. But even startup entrepreneurs should be wary. ...

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer believes her company needs more talented and enterpreneurial engineers and product managers. (She's right!)