CNET CEO and co-founder Shelby Bonnie, one of the Internet industry's true pioneers, was forced into resignation earlier this week for knowingly presiding over the backdating of options grants from 1996 to 2003. Bambi Francisco of MarketWatch pays tribute to a man who rode the massive swings of the dot-com boom and bust days. "I've met a lot of CEOs and founders in my day," she says. "Few would or could remain on the front lines for so long." Bonnie has been at CNET since its inception in 1993, and will remain on its board. In a press release, the …

Speaking at a conference in Cannes, France, Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons discussed the Google-YouTube deal, saying: "It's a stunning price--it's a stunning story. It's all the rage now that they were able to extract a knockout price for the asset. Whether that will be a value added-acquisition by Google remains to be seen." Of course, the obvious question is where the online video craze goes from here. "Is it going to take over edited or professional content?" Parsons asked. "No. I don't think it's going to overrun TV or movies." He added that the price Google paid for YouTube …

The overwhelming response to Google's $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube has been positive, but not everyone is convinced that the online video site and the world's most powerful search engine will make a happy pair. Mark Kingdon, CEO of interactive ad shop Organic, says Yahoo would have been a much more logical destination for the viral video upstart. While Google is a "link and list business," Yahoo is more of an expert at organizing content into channels--a big part of YouTube's strategy going forward, Kingdon said during his company's third-quarter earnings conference call. "I'm surprised they didn't kick it up …

American consumers with high-speed Internet connections are watching less television--as much as 25 percent less. Didn't we know this already? Maybe not 25 percent less, but new data from Nielsen//NetRatings shows just how much less television consumers of certain Web sites are watching. For example, while Yahoo users are watching less television, MySpace users are watching "much less"--20 percent less than the average consumer. These results are "phenomenal," according to Nielsen analyst Mainak Mazumdar, who cited cross-media data showing that visitors to Yahoo and MySpace are more likely to watch Bravo and Comedy Central than the average viewer. The report …

Believe it or not, traditional media companies are moving forward, and bravely. Instead of trying to sue anyone and everyone, some content makers are actually starting to make nice. Universal Music Group, Warner Music, Sony BMG and EMI Group have forged deals with content providers like Google, YouTube and SpiralFrog in which the online video site and the consumer all benefit. TV networks are starting to make nice, too. In a recent conference call, Anne Sweeney, president of Disney's ABC Television Group, implied that it might be more productive to try to understand companies that operate peer-to-peer networks or …

Mexico's government has rejected Yahoo's plans to use the archeological site at Teotihuacan as part of its "time capsule" project. The Yahoo project is aimed at gathering text, images, video and sounds submitted by users from all over the world through 20 of its multi-language sites. The Web giant wanted to take that material to Teotihuacan's Pyramid of the Sun and project the work off the pyramid and into space, with the (far-off) hope of communicating with extraterrestrials. Yahoo's marketing directors said the initiative was designed to encourage its users to become ambassadors for the brand. The information was to …

Media buyers have reacted positively to news that YouTube will be added to Google's empire. The likely outcome of the acquisition will be product enhancements to AdSense, Google's massive network of Web publishers. "I couldn't be happier with the move," said Greg Verdino, vice president-director of emerging channels at Digitas. "The AdSense model has been rock solid for Google, and now I see them extending that model into video." Sean Finnegan, U.S. director of OMD Digital, thinks Google is a safe place for YouTube to go, giving advertisers "a deeper comfort that people who understand our programming guidelines are …

Perhaps some of you woke this morning expecting to see that Yahoo, responding to all the criticism it endured after a major Google deal, had finally completed its acquisition of Facebook, the No. 2 social network on the Web. Not today--and maybe not any day, according to "people familiar with the matter." Discussions are continuing, although no deal is imminent, unless Yahoo ups its offer of nearly $1 billion or changes certain conditions in its negotiations. If Yahoo fails to secure a deal for Facebook, the overall mood surrounding the company's floundering stock is likely to flounder more. After …

Neteller PLC, the British payment service that handles transactions for online gambling companies and others, says it will continue to operate in the U.S., despite the likely passage of anti-gambling legislation. "We are staying in the U.S.," Bruce Elliott, Neteller's executive vice president, marketing and sales, told an online gambling conference in Barcelona. "I don't think we have a very big problem." Elliott's remarks came after Congress passed legislation forbidding Internet casino companies from processing financial transactions with U.S. credit cards. President Bush is expected to sign the bill into law tomorrow. Gambling on the Web has always been …

Every time Google makes a big move, the next day there's a story asking, "what's wrong with Yahoo?" Somehow, Google always manages to steal Yahoo's thunder. A few weeks ago, all the talk was about how a Facebook acquisition could lead Yahoo into new territory, making it a leader in social media, the hottest sector of the Web today. No deal happened, and there's been no word as to why. The New York Times reports that Yahoo also made a bid for YouTube at around the same time, getting as far as negotiating a price and terms before …