In today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology news:

  • NetApp’s CFO quits as tech company reorganizes management
  • Cisco reportedly is developing a hyperconvergence appliance
  • Apple CEO Tim Cook gets a big raise
  • Worries drive down Apple shares
  • A big investor wants changes at Yahoo

The details:

  • NetApp CFO quits

NetApp, which has a big campus in RTP, is looking for a chief financial officer and a reorganized management.

Nick Noviello, CFO at NetApp for almost two years, has left the company to join tech firm Blue Coat.

NetApp also has reorganized its management structure under CEO Georgie Kurian.

CRN has the details:

http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2440901/netapp-cfo-exits-as-firm-streamlines-top-management

  • ​Hyperconvergence at Cisco?

Cisco, which is a big neighbor of NetApp in RTP, reportedly is getting into the hyperconvergence business. There also has been talk that Cisco might acquire a hyperconvergence company (Nutanix).

“Rumors surfaced this week that Cisco is preparing to develop its own hyperconvergence appliance thanks to an OEM deal with hyperconvergence software developer Springpath,” Fierce Communications reports.

“If true, it could mean the end of rumors that Cisco will acquire Nutanix and also put a damper on an existing relationship with SimpliVity.”

Read more at:

http://www.fierceenterprisecommunications.com/story/reports-indicate-cisco-about-develop-hyperconvergence-appliance-springpath/2016-01-06

  • Apple CEO Tim Cook gets $1 million pay raise

Apple CEO Tim Cook got a raise of more than $1 million last year, though he didn’t make as much as his top lieutenants.

The tech company says in a filing that Cook’s total pay was nearly $10.3 million, including $2 million salary, an $8 million bonus and $209,000 for private security.Apple paid five senior vice presidents more than $25 million apiece, including stock grants worth $20 million.

Cook hasn’t received stock in recent years. He was given restricted grants worth $384 million in 2011, when he became CEO.

Apple earned a record $53 billion profit on sales of $233.7 billion in the fiscal year ending in September. Its stock rose 15 percent during that period, although shares have sagged recently amid worries about Apple’s ability to keep growing.

  • Apple stock slumps amid iPhone sales worries

Apple fans keep buying iPhones, but Wall Street keeps worrying the company won’t be able to match last year’s blistering sales pace.

Shares in the world’s most valuable company have fallen more than 15 percent over the last month, amid a drumbeat of news reports that some Asian parts suppliers are expecting Apple to trim orders for its signature smartphone this winter. Those fears were compounded Wednesday when the Wall Street Journal said one of Apple’s most important contractors is sending some workers home on “early holiday” before the Chinese New Year in February.

Even an upbeat report from Apple announcing that its online App Store set a sales record last week failed to boost the stock. Its shares fell just under 2 percent Wednesday and closed at $100.70.

Apple Inc. declined comment Wednesday. But top executives at the Cupertino, California, company said last fall they expected to sell more iPhones during the last three months of 2015 than they did a year earlier, when the company sold a record 74.5 million.

  • Starboard seeks change in Yahoo leadership, strategy

A big Yahoo investor is asking for a leadership change at the beleaguered company and pushing for the spinoff of its core Internet business.

“Despite over three years of effort and billions spent on acquisitions, the management team that was hired to turn around the Core Business has failed to produce acceptable results, in turn, causing massive declines in profitability and cash flow,” Starboard Value LP wrote in a letter released Wednesday. “It appears that investors have lost all confidence in management and the Board.”

If changes are not forthcoming in leadership, Starboard said, an election may be needed to replace some members of the board.

Starboard did not include any specific names in its letter. Mayer became CEO of YahooInc. in 2012 and Webb became chairman in 2013.

Starboard did not respond to a request from The Associated Press for comment.

In a statement, Yahoo reiterated Mayer’s previously stated intentions to unveil details of a reorganization later this month when the Sunnyvale, California, company announces its fourth-quarter results. Mayer has promised to close Yahoo’s least profitable services in a purge that analysts believe could result in hundreds of employee layoffs.