GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving, attending a large scale meeting of current and future domain registries this week, said by phone that no one knows exactly when the first batch of new names will be available but that the “over/under” consensus among the sellers is three months from now.

Under the process, the new names — which include suffixes like “.party,” “.dog” and “.mormon” — are expected to be rolled out in batches of 20 at a time. The impending sales will deliver millions of dollars to the domain name industry which makes major money off registration fees and in the secondary market for internet names.

The industry has been touting the addition of the approximately 2000 new suffixes as a “land rush” and a “gold rush.” Critics, however, have warned the process will mean a surge in cyber-squatting and trademark infringement. Companies, which have likened it to a shakedown, are already exasperated at having to pay for new names like “.xxx” they don’t need or want but feel obliged to obtain lest someone abuse them. This could occur, for example, if someone who is not Disney bought the name “www.disney.dog”.

The domain name sales have also been characterized as a brazen act of self-dealing by ICANN, an unaccountable agency that overseas the naming process for the internet.

GoDaddy’s Irving defends the process, saying “free market economics allow people to buy the names they want.” He added that the potential for abuse is lower since so-called domain parking (sitting on a name but using it just for ads) is not as big of a business as it once was.

The first of the new names to go on sale are likely to be non-Roman scripts like Chinese or Russian. These were given high priority by ICANN and the order of others was determined by lottery; other names tapped to go early are “.wedding” and “.buy.” (You can see the priority list here).

GoDaddy, anticipating a sizable amount of new business, said it is making its website easier to navigate in response. The company this week also dropped its own application to manage “.casa” and “.home” in order not to be perceived as competing with the names it sells on behalf of others.

(Image by  d3images via Shutterstock)

The announcement also marks an official end to Blake Irving’s run as chief product officer.

From the memo, posted by Kara, preceding an all-hands meeting:

Effective May 1, Yahoo! will operate in three groups — Consumer, Regions and Technology — all supported by our established Corporate teams. Each of the three groups will be charged with delivering the best customer experiences and have very clear accountability for getting results.

Our new Consumer group will be all about creating great, engaging user experiences. Our geographic Regions will serve our advertisers and agencies and be accountable for all Yahoo! revenue. Our Technology teams will provide the advanced infrastructure, technology and science to enable our Consumer group and the Regions to deliver our best products and experiences into market, at scale, and fast.

Here’s how it shakes out for now:

Consumers:

– Media is being split from sales. Ross Levinsohn will run the media properties globally, including the Homepage, News, Finance, Sports, and Entertainment but the revenue will be divvied up by region, with exiting EMEA head Rich Riley getting the Americas job and control over sales.

– Commerce, expected to be a major part of the PayPal alum’s plans and claims of a growth strategy, gets its own group. No business head yet but it will focus on connecting the data dots and getting the most money out of them via advertising or transactions in Autos, Shopping, Travel, Jobs, Personals and Real Estate.

– Communications (the group just blown up at AOL will be headed by Shashi Seth, and includes search, communications and social — Mail, Messenger, Flickr, Answers, etc. (yes, search is now a subset of a subset at Yahoo.) The charge here is to “fundamentally” reimagine how all of these connect to each other and the user.

Regions: This is all about ad revenue. Sales will be split by region, as is currently the case, with Riley heading the Americas from New York, Rose Tsou keeping APAC and regional sales head Christophe Parcot as interim lead for EMEA while they search for Riley’s successor.

Tech: Mark Morrissey will lead Core Platforms, with an emphasis on using the platforms and network “to enable great customer products and leverage Yahoo!’s vast data stores to enable deep personalization and optimized monetization.” David Dibble continues with Central Technology (data centers, cloud, etc.)

Between the 2,000-plus job cuts, the cuts and hires yet to come, and a reorganization that cuts across every part of the company even though some of it is staying intact, it’s hard to see Yahoo doing anything but managing change for months at least and we are probably quarters away from seeing anything but the impact of the costs. Yahoo already has said it will take a charge of $100-million plus for this quarter.

Maybe Tim Armstrong can get a fee for brokering a patent deal.

According to a source close to Yahoo, the company will be using the annual Advertising Week event, taking place October 3-7 in New York, for another update on the project. That could include the actual launch: a Yahoo spokesperson only confirmed to paidContent that it is on track to go live “this autumn.”

Yahoo is giving an Advertising Week press conference this morning Monday. [Update: That was to announce the latest ABC News-Yahoo News partnership.]

But although former-CEO Carol Bartz demonstrated Livestand during a keynote at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona back in February (one week after the company started to brief journalists about the product), don’t take that as a sign that Yahoo plans for a global launch from day-one. When asked for details about Livestand, the spokesperson referred only to a “U.S. launch” of the product.

In an interview in Media Week in September, Blake Irving, chief product officer, noted that Livestand might not reach other markets until some time in 2012.

Livestand, which is being created to work specifically on tablets, is part of Yahoo’s strategy for leveraging the growing audience of consumers that are turning to tablets. It has a window of opportunity at the moment: Unlike other tablet-friendly aggregated-reading products like Flipboard, Pulse or Zite, it appears that Yahoo will be taking the web route with its product and publishing it as an HTML5 app. The other products, in contrast, are distributed as apps through app stores (in the case of Flipboard and Zite, only on iPad; Pulse publishes for Android devices, too).

Like other digital newsstand providers, Yahoo’s big hope is that it will be able to use the format to sell more advertising around the offering. It hopes to entice publishers to the platform by proposing an easier route to the tablet market without the need to think of different platforms, app stores and respective commission rates; and users a more convenient, one-stop shop for getting all the publications they like to read. (See our digital newsstand comparison table for more details.)

Even without a permanent CEO in place at the moment since Bartz was fired in September — which she coincidentally broadcast to employees via an iPad tablet — the company looks like it will be staying on that course for the time being.

But as we pointed out when Bartz first left the company, Yahoo’s record in mobile has not been stellar. The company has been slipping behind in terms of rankings for mobile advertising revenue; and it has lost a string of mobile executives to other companies like Zynga and Groupon, which could not have had a positive effect on how it has focused and invested in the space.

But don’t count Yahoo out. Last week, the company unveiled a host of new mobile-friendly features for its photo-sharing site, Flickr, including (finally) and Android app. It already had an app for iPhones.

It also has a track record for developing for HTML5 already. For example, in August 2010 the company launched an iPad-friendly HTML5 client for its popular Yahoo Mail service.

It’s simple: instead of careening from CEO to CEO like a certain other SV company, Yahoo’s board has hired Allen & Co. “to develop ideas that we will pursue proactively” and field “inquiries from multiple parties that have already expressed interest in a number of potential options.” In some cultures, this is called sucking and blowing at the same time. Put another way, it’s a process in search of a strategy — one that Chairman Roy Bostock and cofounders Jerry Yang and David Filo admit will take months, not weeks. At the same time, they insist the search for a new CEO is underway. CEO of what? What’s left?

Meanwhile, interim CEO Tim Morse has to convince the staff it’s the big purple engine that can even though no one has a clue where the train is headed.

Probably the most striking aspect of Morse’s e-mail is it never mentions the executive leadership council formed to help him run Yahoo while the board goes through the corporate version of a midlife crisis: EVPs Michael Callahan, Blake Irving and Ross Levinsohn; and SVPs Rich Riley and Rose Tsou. Instead, he talks of the “CEO Staff” — the people who report to Morse, which includes that group and several others.

As for content, “speed, accountability, purpose” sounds more like an employee manual or the core of a case study than an energetic rallying cry.

Both memos are below.

————————————————————————————————
Dear Yahoos:

In our recent all hands meeting, we talked about the Board’s strategic review to help return the Company to a path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation. While our teams are working to evaluate the many opportunities by which Yahoo! can continue building on our success, all kinds of people have been – and will continue – speculating in the media about where that work is headed, so we thought it best to provide you with some additional context directly from those of us who are closest to it. We don’t have specific news to share with you today, but we are committed to communicating with you directly from time to time – especially given the level of external swirl – so that you know where we are in the process. You can expect periodic updates from us and we encourage you to communicate with us as well.

At the heart of what we are doing is our belief that Yahoo!’s core strengths are not only relevant to where users are going today, but can serve as a foundation for the next phase of our company’s growth. Consider our strengths: we have 680 million users worldwide. We have nine of the #1 properties in the U.S., and we are a leader in display advertising. Our brand is iconic – we are not the only ones who bleed purple. By whatever measure you want to use – engagement, quality of products and services, our value to our advertisers – we all feel that we have what it takes to succeed. Also, our Asia assets remain one of our top priorities and we continue to work well with the teams there. As you may have seen, Alibaba Group has just announced a liquidity event for its employees that reflects a continued appreciation in its value, and therefore of the value of our stake.

What Yahoo! needs to do better – and we’ve talked about this – is accelerate innovation, reignite inspiration, and give our users what they want now – great content that is engaging and easy-to-use on any device and provides an experience in which they can participate and contribute. Perhaps most importantly, we need to anticipate what they will want next. That is the path to enhancing the value of Yahoo! for all of its stakeholders, including its users, customers, shareholders, partners and Yahoos everywhere. Our strategic review is designed to help us map out the best way to achieve that.

At this point, we cannot offer many specifics about the Board’s review; we’ve just gotten started. You should know that the entire Board and management team are fully aligned and unanimous in their views regarding the scope of this work. Allen & Company was a logical choice to help us in this review, because they have been one of our advisers for some time, and this is familiar territory for them. Achieving success in our sector is intrinsic to what they do for a living, and they will be constructive partners.

Our advisers are working with us to develop ideas that we will pursue proactively. At the same time, they are fielding inquiries from multiple parties that have already expressed interest in a number of potential options. We will take the time we need to select and structure the best approach for the company, its shareholders and employees.

In addition, as we announced previously, the Board has commenced a search for a permanent Chief Executive Officer. That process also continues.

When we have updates that we can share we will do so. There will be plenty of rumors and speculation as different parties try to advance their agendas in the media – but it is important that we not be distracted by the rumors and speculation.

You are instrumental to the success of our business – we can’t do it without you. While we will move with a sense of urgency, this process will take time. Months, not weeks. We know that’s a lot of potential distraction, but we believe it will be worth the wait. We are forging a path to a next phase of growth for Yahoo! that feels like our best days: fun, full of possibility, and always in search of how to deliver the new thing people want from us. Together, we can write the next great chapter in the Yahoo! story and secure our place as one of those rarities: an internet company that endures.

Jerry Roy David

—————————————————-
From: Tim Morse
Subject: The road ahead

Yahoos,

I’m sure by now you’ve all seen the note from Jerry, David and Roy. I want you to know that while the Board works through all of our options, CEO Staff and I have been charged to move the company forward.

That means we will not be sitting still over the next few months. We are actively making decisions and taking action.

In fact, for three days this week, CEO staff and I met to do just that. Our planning for 2012 is well underway, and we continue to execute on our current plans – such as our Social Chrome announcement this week. (I want to make sure to give a big shout out to the team behind it; it’s getting some great press.)

You see, the Board is confident we can execute our current game plan in the short term. We’ve done some truly great work on updating the foundation of Yahoo! (like LEGO), and we’ve got some good things in the immediate pipeline. So, the Board’s focus is where it should be – on our long-term outlook, and how we best position ourselves to be successful in 3-5 years.

We need a flexible, visionary plan. That’s why the Board is actively looking at all the options available to put Yahoo! on a strong trajectory.

That being said, while the Board makes this decision, it does not mean we are in limbo. We have to keep Yahoo! moving ahead. And to do that, there are three things I need Yahoos everywhere to focus on:

1. Speed: Emphasize quick execution and decision-making

2. Accountability: Do what you say you’re going to do – and take ownership for time to market, monetization, user engagement, quality, or whatever metric defines success for your team

3. Purpose: Rally behind our mission and purpose: creating deeply personal digital experiences.

In the meantime, we will keep you updated as much as we can. And we will earn your trust – we know we have to.

Have a good weekend.

Tim

Members of the council include Morse, Levinsohn, Michael Callahan, EVP, General Counsel and Secretary; Blake Irving, EVP and Chief Product Officer; Rich Riley, SVP & MD, EMEA Region; and Rose Tsou, SVP, APAC Region. Yahoo co-founders David Filo and Jerry Yang remain as Chief Yahoos and will “provide counsel” to the council and Morse. The full press release is below:

Yahoo! Inc., the premier digital media company, today announced a leadership reorganization under which the Board of Directors has appointed Timothy Morse interim Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately, replacing Carol Bartz, who has been removed by the Board from her role as Chief Executive Officer.

The Board has also named key senior Yahoo! executives to a newly formed Executive Leadership Council tasked with supporting Morse in managing the Company’s day-to-day operations until a permanent chief executive is appointed, as well as supporting a comprehensive strategic review that the Board has initiated to position the Company for future growth.

Roy Bostock, Chairman of the Yahoo! Board, said, “The Board sees enormous growth opportunities on which Yahoo! can capitalize, and our primary objective is to leverage the Company’s leadership and current business assets and platforms to execute against these opportunities. We have talented teams and tremendous resources behind them and intend to return the Company to a path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation. We are committed to exploring and evaluating possibilities and opportunities that will put Yahoo! on a trajectory for growth and innovation and deliver value to shareholders.”

Bostock continued, “On behalf of the entire Board, I want to thank Carol for her service to Yahoo! during a critical time of transition in the Company’s history, and against a very challenging macro-economic backdrop. I would also like to express the Board’s appreciation to Tim and thank him for accepting this important role. We have great confidence in his abilities and in those of the other executives who have been named to the Executive Leadership Council.”

In addition to Morse, who will also continue in his role as Chief Financial Officer of Yahoo!, the Executive Leadership Council will consist of Michael Callahan, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary; Blake Irving, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer; Ross Levinsohn, Executive Vice President, Americas; Rich Riley, Senior Vice President & MD, EMEA Region; and Rose Tsou, Senior Vice President, APAC Region. The Co-founders of Yahoo!, David Filo and Jerry Yang, will each continue as Chief Yahoo and will provide counsel to Tim and the Executive Leadership Council.

“It is an honor to be selected for this role and lead the Company with this world-class team of executives. I look forward to working with the Executive Leadership Council and the talented employees of Yahoo!, and to partnering with the Board to invest in the organization and continue to drive its ongoing growth plans,” said Tim Morse, Interim Chief Executive Officer.

The Board is commencing a search for a permanent Chief Executive Officer and expects to engage the services of a nationally recognized executive search firm to help it identify candidates for the position as expeditiously as possible.

In a release, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz cites Irving’s “large scale internet expertise from a mature company” as driving his hiring and says his focus will include “speeding key inputs and decision making into product strategy and direction.” Irving delivers his own accolades to Yahoo in a blog post here. Related to the hiring, Yahoo says Chief Scientist Prabhakar Raghavan will now report directly to Bartz.

The speed at which Yahoo has filled Balogh’s position provides a contrast to how it has handled some of its other senior executive vacancies. Sales chief Joanne Bradford left in mid-March but the company has said it expects the search for her replacement to take a “couple of months,” while it called off this fall a more than seven-month long search for someone to lead its international operations, saying it was unable to find “anyone who was up to our needs.”