2 US pension plans sue Yahoo for spurning Microsoft takeover

DOVER: Two US pension funds have sued Yahoo Inc. and its board of directors, saying they breached their duties to shareholders in trying to thwart a takeover by Microsoft Corp. The lawsuit was filed in Delaware Chancery Court on Thursday by lawyers representing Detroit's police and fire retirement system and general retirement system, as well as ``all other similarly situated public shareholders.'' According to the lawsuit, Yahoo's board is pursuing ``value-destructive'' third-party deals in an effort to fight off Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, which on Feb. 1 announced a takeover bid of $31 per share in cash and stock, a 62 percent premium over Yahoo's previous day's closing price. Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo, whose shares closed unchanged at $28.42 on Friday, rejected Microsoft's $44.6 billion (euro30.04 billion) takeover bid as inadequate, but indicated that it might be willing to negotiate if the price was right. Yahoo is believed to want at least $40 per share, or about $56 billion (euro37.72 billion). After rebuffing Microsoft, Yahoo reportedly began discussing a possible Internet partnership with media conglomerate News Corp., which owns the popular MySpace Web site, and exploring an advertising partnership with Google, its biggest rival. The company also adopted new severance packages that would protect employees in the event of a Microsoft takeover, a move the lawsuit labels as a blatant effort to drive up the cost of an acquisition. ``Yahoo's directors cannot 'just say no' indefinitely to legitimate acquisition offers,'' the lawsuit reads. ``Likewise, Yahoo's directors cannot pursue transactions that do not require shareholder approval for the primary purpose of making Yahoo unattractive to Microsoft.'' A Yahoo spokeswoman did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment. Microsoft has hired a proxy solicitation group to help oust the 10 members of Yahoo's board, all of whom are up for re-election this year. ``An imminent proxy fight necessitates judicial intervention since it poses a deadline for Yahoo's board to place shares in friendly hands,'' according to the plaintiffs, who allege that Yahoo board members have placed ``personal distaste for Microsoft'' ahead of shareholder welfare. ``Regardless of their emotional ties to Yahoo and their desire to retain their positions as directors at the company, the Yahoo directors owe fiduciary duties to Yahoo and its shareholders,'' the lawsuit states.

Microsoft says no major lay-offs in Yahoo merger

SEATTLE: Microsoft Corp suggested on Friday that it had no plans to make major lay-offs if it succeeded in buying Yahoo Inc, saying there were plenty of employee opportunities throughout the company. Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft's platforms and services division, said in an e-mail to employees in his unit that the company would dedicate "significant rewards and compensation" to retain Yahoo and Microsoft employees. "While some overlap is expected in any combination of this size, we should remember that Microsoft ... has hired over 20,000 people since 2005, and we would look to place talented employees throughout the company as a whole," Johnson wrote in the e-mail that was posted on Microsoft's Web site. "We have no shortage of business and technical opportunities, and we need great people to focus on them." The e-mail sought to ease some of the concerns expressed by Microsoft and Yahoo employees about a potential merger. Yahoo said earlier this week that it had put in place generous severance benefits that would be given to all employees who might be laid off if the company was sold. Analysts said it was common for a company in play to provide "golden parachutes" to take care of employees. The companies are at a stand-off in Microsoft's $41.2 billion unsolicited bid to acquire Yahoo. Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for $31 a share in cash and stock, which Yahoo's board rejected, saying it undervalued the company. Separately, two pension funds sued Yahoo Inc and its board for rejecting Microsoft's offer. The suit said Yahoo was pursuing other deals that were not as beneficial to its shareholders. Lawsuits by Yahoo shareholders have multiplied in the wake of Yahoo's Feb. 11 refusal to entertain the offer, which represented a 62 percent premium over Yahoo's share price at the time. Johnson, whose division would ultimately absorb most of Yahoo, said the company would be "pragmatic" in how to address Yahoo's computer systems since they are not Windows-based. In some acquisitions, Microsoft has prioritized continuity, according to Johnson, and the company has worked to make sure the acquired company's existing systems worked with Microsoft's own technology infrastructure. He also downplayed the cultural differences between the two companies, seen as a hurdle to a smooth integration, saying some aspects of the two cultures will merge quickly, while others will remain unique. Yahoo would bring a Web-centric view, media expertise and advertising talent to Microsoft, according to Johnson, who said Microsoft plans to maintain Yahoo's presence in Silicon Valley if a deal goes through.

Using personal blogs as communication tool

LONDON: Last month Waitrose managing director Mark Price, nicknamed the ‘chubby grocer’, launched a blog on the retailer’s website in which he shares his experiences on a healthier eating regime and tracks his efforts to lose weight - as well as arguing for the introduction of tea trolleys to airport immigration halls. Price’s actions are relatively unusual, as corporate blogging is still in its infancy in the UK. However, it is thought likely that it will become as popular as it is in the US, where practitioners include General Motors vice-chairman Bob Lutz. Several other brands, including Dell and Benetton, also operate blogs where employees and consumers can interact. The appeal is obvious - blogs are a way of achieving vast reach at a minimal cost. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates spoke about the benefits of communicating with customers via blogs at Microsoft’s CEO Summit in 2004. It had advantages over more traditional communication methods such as emails, he argued, which could be too imposing or exclude potential audiences. Microsoft encourages its staff to talk to consumers through blogging; it claims that more than 2000 employees use blogs to keep people up to date with their projects. ‘It is a great way to communicate with a wider audience,’ says Dave Gartenberg, HR director at Microsoft UK. ‘We are lucky that some of the most prominent bloggers in the world are based at Microsoft.’ Ian Pearman, managing director at Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, which handles Sainsbury’s advertising, believes many consumers will react well to chief executives taking full responsibility through blogging. ‘It implies the kind of care and provenance that might be expected of a smaller business rather than a big corporation,’ he says. However, this comes with substantial caveats. Unlike traditional advertising campaigns, blogging demands long-term investment by a company or individual. ‘Chief executives can’t start a conversation and then stop it on their own terms,’ stresses Pearman. ‘Once the floodgate is open, the responses will keep pouring in and every one will expect a response [from the blogger].’ This was demonstrated in 2006 when Charles Dunstone, co-founder and chief executive of Carphone Warehouse, started his corporate blog at the same time as the company launched its ‘free’ TalkTalk broadband offer. Dunstone stated that he would ‘update his blog regularly to keep [customers] up to date with what’s happening’, but as the firm struggled to cope with the demand for its latest offering, leaving thousands of customers angry and frustrated, Dunstone stopped blogging. Depending on the content, blogs can also invite ridicule - some consumers, for example, might not take kindly to reading how a chief executive spends his big salary on exotic holidays or hear about his daughter’s Pony Club exploits. Jane McNeil, managing director of digital agency Agency Republic, warns of the risks of using a fictional identity, known online as ‘sock-puppeting’. ‘The views of the blogger will be seen as the views of the company,’ she says. McNeil cites the example of John Mackey, chief executive of US grocer Whole Foods Market, who was exposed for posting negative comments about rival firm Wild Oats Markets on Yahoo! chat rooms for eight years, under the pseudonym ‘rahodeb’, an anagram of his wife’s name Deborah. One post stated that Wild Oats management ‘[doesn’t] know what it’s doing’ and he also complimented himself as ‘cute’. Whole Foods confirmed that Mackey had written the posts between 1999 and 2006, while Mackey himself claimed he had ‘posted on Yahoo! under a pseudonym because [he] had fun doing it’, adding that ‘many people post on bulletin boards using pseudonyms’. Similarly, Asda-owner Wal-Mart incurred the wrath of web users in 2006 when it was revealed that a blog called ‘Wal-Marting across America’, charting the journey of ‘average American couple’ Jim and Laura across the US in a mobile home, spending each night in a Wal-Mart parking lot, had been engineered and funded by the retailer’s PR company, Edelman. Jim and Laura were, it transpired, a Washington Post photographer and freelance writer respectively.

Kolkata IT cos wary of disruptions due to strikes

KOLKATA: A number of major information technology (IT) companies in the city like TCS, Cognizant, IBM and Wipro have expressed concern over frequent disruptions in work due to strikes called by political parties. A survey report on 'IT and ITeS in West Bengal' noted that frequent disruptions in work due to strikes would emerge as a major hindrance to the growth of the industry in the state, which is already lagging behind others like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC), which had collated data based on the survey of nearly 100 respondents working in the IT sector here, said in its report that the industry did not enjoy the status of 'public utility service' as granted by the West Bengal government to work on 24x7x365 basis. The respondents felt that the IT and ITeS remained a 'public utility service' only on paper, as it continued to be disturbed by strikes. According to the report, the respondents were of the view that if the state government did not address the issue immediately, then the its prospects of emerging as one of the top three states would remain a pipedream. A major point of concern expressed by the respondents was formation of trade unions in the IT and ITeS sector. According to the respondents, there was no need for the IT and ITeS employees to form trade union and this would definitely send wrong signals to prospective investors.

One in every 30 e-mails in India contains virus: Report

NEW DELHI: India, where internet penetration is increasing fast, is also the most vulnerable to spammers and virus attacks, a study has said. "Virus activity increased across a number of countries in January, including India, which takes the number one spot with 1 in 30.5 emails," a study conducted by a web security services firm MessageLabs said. Apart from virus attacks, spams are now proving to be the most disruptive element in the e-mail traffic. The study conducted in January this year found the global ratio of spam mail was 73.4 per cent, which means one in every 1.36 email was affected. Interestingly, virus attack on the western countries are far less than on India, the leading provider of integrated messaging and web security services said in the study. In New Zealand, web security levels were pretty good as one out of 768 mails had Virus, while for Australia, it was one for every 298.7 mails. In the US, one in every 191.5 email had a virus while the same in Canada was found in every 158.4 e-mails. Among other Asian countries, Japan was at the lower end of the table, where one in every 273.7 mails had virus in them. However, China was better placed than India as one virus attack was reported for every 92.7 mails there. Virus levels for nearly all industry sectors increased in January. In the finance sector, virus level was low in comparison with other segments where one in every 177.9 mails was affected while for the IT services sector, the figure was 143 and in retail 1 in every 125.6 emails received had a virus. The global ratio of email-borne viruses in e-mail traffic was one in 131.4 emails.

Pak, Egypt emerge as new IT destinations to compliment India

MUMBAI: India may be taking giant leaps in the IT/ITeS sector while countries like neighbouring Pakistan and Egypt are also taking tiny steps to corner a share of large global business. However, both feel they will compliment the Indian expertise with their individual niche and not compete as the pie was big enough for all. Pakistan's IT industry has grown to the size of $3 billion and is expected to grow to $10 billion by 2010-11. Similarly, Egypt, a very new entrant, is doing business of $450-480 million and will touch $1.1 billion by 2010.
These countries are in addition to a number of offshore BPO destinations like Philippines, Eastern Europe, Latin America and China which cater to the global opportunity. "The cost of doing business in Pakistan is 30 per cent lesser than in India," Jehan Ara, President, Pakistan Software Houses Association (Pasha) said. Pasha is the representative body of IT/ITes industry of Pakistan. Pakistan, as the multinationals are fast realising, is aptly positioned to facilitate Saudi Arabia, Baharain, Oman and other Mid-Eastern countries. Similarly, Egypt, which has centres of IBM and Orange, is a door to the Arab World, Europe and Africa, says Amin Khairaldin, Advisor, Information Technology Industry Development Agecy, Egypt. "We seek to compliment India not compete with it. Together we can win. The demand is so huge that one cannot fulfil it alone," Khairaldin said. A NASSCOM-Everest study on the India BPO industry has pegged the total addressable market at $220-280 billion. India, which at current growth levels can secure business worth $30 billion, can stretch target $50 billion by managing supply side constraints, competition from other shores and sustainability of cost advantage. "Pakistani IT companies like Systems Ltd and Netsol have established offices in Bangalore. We will seek to compliment the industry," Pasha President Jehan Ara said. In Egypt, after Satyam and Wipro set up their centres, another large Indian IT company was sending a due diligence team to Cairo. "The Indian company has in fact cancelled Latin America as a destination to chose Egypt," ITIDA Advisor Amin Khairaldin said. All this despite the fact that both countries have history of political instability. "There is no safe place today in the world. Despite all instability, there was no stoppage of work here," he added. Jehan Ara too shares similar views. "MNCs like Microsoft, Oracle have set up offices here. IBM is doubling its team in Pakistan and all this despite instability," she said. Trade Association for the UK Hi-Tech Industry Chairman Richard Sykes opines that the world today was a series of shores and countries like Egypt, Pakistan and even Bangladesh are doing good business. "India is a giant shore but smaller companies in countries like Bangladesh or Egypt were doing good business," he said.

China wants its own Bangalore, invites Indian IT firms

Mumbai: China has invited Indian IT and business process outsourcing companies to set up more units in its IT parks and build them up at par with those in cities like Bangalore, Chennai and Pune.
A delegation from Wuxi, an emerging economic zone in the Yangtze river delta, met representatives of software industries here and expressed a desire to convert their district into a "Bangalore of China".
Yang Weize, secretary of Wuxi Municipal Communist Party of China Committee, said: "If China is the factory of the world, India has become the 'office of the world'. This is what we want to do for ourselves. That is why we are here."
Weize pointed out that currently Wuxi has 50 Indian companies. "We are now very keen that more of them should explore the benefits and sops we are providing."
Janet Zhang, director of Wuxi City Investment Promotion Office, told IANS that in fiscal 2006-07 the total imports and exports by Indian companies in Wuxi was set to touch $1 billion -- a growth of 50 percent.

TCS: 500 resign on poor performance

BANGALORE: Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, India's largest software services exporter, said on Tuesday about 500 of its staff had resigned after their performance was rated poorly.

"Those who cannot meet the performance requirements of our company are asked to look for another job commensurate with their abilities," a spokesman for Mumbai-headquartered Tata Consultancy told Reuters. "This (financial) year so far about 500 people have resigned voluntarily." The company's financial year runs from April to March.

"It's not an exceptional thing, it happens every year and it's a part of our annual performance exercise. Last year also similar number of people left the company," the spokesman said. In the December quarter, Tata Consultancy, part of the Tata Group that has interests in cars, commodities and services, added 4,037 net staff taking its total headcount to 108,229, up from 83,500 a year ago.

India's export-driven software services companies have been winning large outsourcing contracts from western clients, but recession fears in the United States, a strong rupee, soaring wages and a skills shortage are major worries. At 0513 GMT, shares in Tata Consultancy was down 1.6 percent at 960 rupees in a Mumbai market that was up 0.3 percent.

Google logs on to Yahoo fray to thwart MSN deal

New York: Online search giant Google has come out openly against Microsoft's $45-billion takeover bid for Yahoo, terming the deal as a threat to openness of the Internet.
Google's Chief Legal Officer and Senior Vice-President (Corporate Development) David Drummond said in a statement that "openness of the Internet is what made Google — and Yahoo! — possible."
But, Microsoft's Yahoo bid raises 'troubling questions' in relation to the preservance of openness and innovation — two underlying principles of the Internet, Drummond said in a statement posted on the official blog of Google.
Meanwhile, Wall Street Journal reported that Google CEO Eric Schmidt has called on Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang to offer his company's help in an effort to thwart Microsoft's bid.
Drummond said Microsoft had often tried to establish proprietary monopolies and questioning whether it would seek to exert same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC.
Reacting to it, Microsoft's General Counsel Brad Smith said, "Microsoft is committed to openness, innovation, and the protection of privacy on the Internet. We believe that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! will advance these goals."
Microsoft-Yahoo combination would create a more competitive market by establishing a compelling number-two for Internet search and online advertising and alternate scenarios only lead to less competition, he added.
The Microsoft official said that Google, the dominant search engine and advertising company on the web, has amassed about 75 per cent of paid search revenues worldwide and its share continues to grow.
"According to published reports, Google currently has more than 65 per cent search query share in the US and more than 85 per cent in Europe. Microsoft and Yahoo! on the other hand have roughly 30 per cent combined in the US and approximately 10 per cent combined in Europe," Smith said.

Yahoo has 'poison pill' ready against Microsoft

New York: Yahoo Inc has some defense at its disposal should Microsoft Corp's unsolicited $44.6 billion bid turn hostile, as the Internet company adopted a poison pill in 2001.
Poison pills are defense mechanisms companies put in place to fend off unwanted takeovers, typically working by giving shareholders the ability to buy stock at a bargain price in the event a predator buys a stake above a certain level.
That increases the number of shares of the target, diluting the percentage stake the predator holds and making a bid prohibitively expensive.
In March 2001, Yahoo adopted a 'stockholder rights plan' under which if anyone buys 15 per cent or more of its stock — aside from an agreed bid — shareholders have the right to buy extra shares, according to a filing at the time.
"Because the rights may substantially dilute the stock ownership of a person or group attempting to take us over without the approval of our Board of Directors, our rights plan could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us (or a significant percentage of our outstanding capital stock) without first negotiating with our Board of Directors regarding that acquisition," according to a Yahoo filing from 2007.
Earlier on Friday, Microsoft said it had made a bid to acquire Yahoo for $31 a share, a 62 per cent premium above the closing price of Yahoo on Thursday.
Yahoo said it would evaluate the bid.
Should it come to it, Microsoft would have limited success using a hostile offer to get control, said John Laide, product manager of FactSet SharkRepellent, which provides research on corporate activism and proxy fights to financial and legal clients.
However, Laide said Microsoft may have chosen to time the offer now because it is ahead of Yahoo's expected annual meeting.
Yahoo does not allow shareholders to call special meetings, meaning that if Microsoft were to launch a proxy fight, it would have to do so at the annual meeting, Laide said.
In addition, as Yahoo does not have a classified board, Microsoft could get board control at one meeting if it were to launch a proxy fight for board seats, Laide said.
Classified boards also are a takeover defense mechanism, allowing board members to serve for different term lengths rather than being re-elected annually.
Laide added that Yahoo has advance notice requirements if anyone did decide to nominate an alternate slate of directors, which begins on February 13 and ends March 14.

Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo! for $44.6 billion

Redmond, Wash Microsoft Corp is making an unsolicited $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo Inc., an Internet icon and one the best known Web portals, in a move to boost its competitive edge against Google Inc. in the online services market.
The unexpected announcement on Friday comes as Yahoo and Microsoft have fallen behind Google in the race to capture online advertising dollars. The deal could also give lift to the entire technology market.
The announcement sent Yahoo's share price up 54 per cent in pre-market trading.
In a letter to Yahoo's board of directors, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said the company will bid $31 per share, representing a 62 percent premium to Yahoo's closing stock price Thursday.
Since reaching a 52-week high of $34.08 in October, Yahoo shares have fallen 46 per cent. Yahoo climbed $10.27 to $29.45 in pre-market trading.
Ballmer said in the letter that Yahoo had told the world's biggest software company a year ago that the Yahoo board felt it was not the right time to enter into discussions regarding a deal.
''According to that letter, the principal reason for this view was the Yahoo board's confidence in the ''potential upside'' if management successfully executed on a reformulated strategy based on certain operational initiatives, such as Project Panama, and a significant organisational realignment.''
''A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved,'' Ballmer added.
Under terms of the proposed deal, Yahoo shareholders could choose to receive cash or Microsoft common shares, with the total purchase consisting of 50 per cent each cash and stock.
Microsoft said it sees at least $1 billion cost savings generated by the merger, and intends to offer significant retention packages to Yahoo engineers, key leaders and employees. The software giant said it believes the takeover would receive regulatory clearance and close in the second half of 2008.
Ballmer said Microsoft expects Yahoo's board will review its proposal, but ''reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo's shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.''
The announcement follows Yahoo's announcement late Thursday that Terry Semel stepped down as chairman, severing his ties with Yahoo 7 1/2 months after he resigned as chief executive under shareholder pressure. He had been criticized for failing to cash in on the Web advertising surge as effectively as main rival Google Inc.
Yahoo co-founder and Chief Executive Jerry Yang said this week the company will cut 1,000 jobs, or 7 percent of its work force, in an effort to cut costs.
Meanwhile, Microsoft last week forecast a rosy 2008 - despite broader economic worries - after it blew by Wall Street's expectations for a second consecutive quarter.

Fortune ranks Google as best employer in US

New York: For the second year in a row, Internet search engine giant Google has been named as the best company to work for in America by Fortune magazine.
Google has topped the latest list of '100 Best American Companies to Work for' followed by online mortgage lender Quicken Loans and store chain Wegmans Food Markets in the second and third positions, respectively.
"Back in our No.1 spot, Google continued to mint millionaires as the stock cracked $700 . It gives stock options to 99 per cent of employees," the magazine said.
Interestingly, in last year's list of best companies to work for in America, Quicken Loans was ranked at the 17th position whereas Wegmans Food Markets was at the third place itself.
Other leading names in the list include Cisco Systems, Starbucks Coffee, Adobe Systems, Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Procter & Gamble, AstraZeneca and Nike.
Microsoft slipped to the 86th place in the latest list from 50th position last year.
According to the report, the job growth at Google is down to 60 per cent as compared to 67 per cent in 2007. Moreover, Quicken Loans had witnessed a steep jump in job growth to 68 per cent this year whereas it was just 19 per cent previous year.
"Ethically driven is what one employee calls the online mortgage lender. It avoided the subprime crisis by sticking with plain-vanilla loans," noted the magazine report.
The list was jointly prepared by Fortune and consulting firm Great Place to Work Institute after surveying 406 companies. About 1 lakh employees at these firms responded to queries related to their attitudes about the management's credibility and job satisfaction, among others.

Wipro rubbishes reports of IT industry slowdown

Davos: Worries over the impact of a US slowdown on India's software services sector are exaggerated and Wipro's clients are showing no signs of reducing outsourcing, it's top official said.
"I don't think it's a situation of gloom for the industry. I think it's a situation of cautiousness for the industry," Azim Premji, chairman of India's third-largest software services exporter said.
"Don't get carried away. Run a tight ship. Have realistic expectations," Premji said during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos.
Earlier this month, New York-listed Wipro reported a lower-than-expected 11 per cent rise in quarterly profit, it's slowest growth in four years and said higher billing rates should help offset rising costs from wage hikes and a firm local currency.
Bangalore-based Wipro counts Cisco, Nortel and Credit Suisse among its clients.
Premji said Wipro's customers in the banking and financial services industry, hit by the subprime worries and wobbly markets, were likely to drive global outsourcing even more aggressively in an uncertain economic environment.
"Trying do drive more offshore work on IT is one fairly effective methodology of cost takeouts without much risk because they are used to it, they are used to their partners, they are familiar with the system."
"We are sitting pretty. I think global delivery companies such as ours will be the last affected," Premji said, echoing similar comments made by other leading Indian software firms.
The banking and financial services industry accounts for about 25 per cent of Wipro's total IT revenue.
Wipro, a diversified firm with interests in computer hardware and consumer goods, is majority-owned by Premji.
Shares in Indian IT firms were among the worst performers in a booming local market last year, hurt by concerns over the impact of a slowdown in the US, rising local wages and an appreciating currency.
"I think there is undue pessimism vis-a-vis the IT sector and I think it'll correct itself sooner than later," Premji said.

Google's philanthropic games

CALIFORNIA: Google Inc's philanthropic arm is making more than $26 million in new grants and investments in organisations and companies devoted to causes that the Internet search leader believes will help make the world a better place.
The financial commitments announced are the largest made by Google.org since the Mountain View-based company launched its altruistic effort with $90 million in funding in 2005. Pasadena-based eSolar Inc, a startup specialising in solar thermal power, is getting the most money from Google.org so far -- $10 million investment. Google.org also is contributing toward fighting health and environmental threats, improving public services and supporting small businesses. The foundation also plans to back efforts to accelerate the use of plug-in hybrid vehicles, which can be recharged from a regular home socket. The philanthropic arm evolved out of a commitment made by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they took their company public in August 2004. The men, now both 34, committed to creating a foundation that “may eclipse Google itself in terms of overall world impact by ambitiously applying innovation and significant resources to the largest of the world's problems.” Google has pledged to donate 1 per cent of its prized stock and 1 per cent of its steadily rising profits to Google.org. The assets are currently worth about $2 billion. Other foundations are much larger, but Google.org has attracted tremendous attention because of its connection to one of the world's most powerful companies as well as an unusual structure allowing it to operate as a corporate division rather than a separate nonprofit entity. The hybrid approach lets Google.org make money off investments like the one it made in eSolar, as well as lobby politicians.