Facebook Inc.

Yahoo Inc. will lean more heavily on Facebook's popularity as it tries to give people more reasons to stay on its Web site.

The expanded partnership announced Wednesday will enable Yahoo users with Facebook accounts to blend material from the two Web sites without having to leave one destination for the other.

For example, Yahoo users will be able to read the latest updates from their Facebook friends while they're still perusing Yahoo's site. On the flip side, personal material from Yahoo's site -- such as e-mail, movie reviews, and photos -- can be more easily shared on Facebook.

Facebook has created a dual-class stock structure designed to give founder Mark Zuckerberg and other existing shareholders control over the company.

The move could be seen as laying the groundwork for an initial public offering, though the social network said Tuesday it had no plans to go public "at this time."

Yahoo Inc. believes a lot of its good work has been overlooked by investors and the media so it's spending more than $100 million to get the word out to consumers directly.

The money is going toward the Internet company's most expensive marketing campaign since Stanford University graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo started Yahoo's Web site 15 years ago. Yahoo provided a peek at the 15-month blitz Tuesday in New York.

Yahoo Inc. has hired a cost-cutting specialist as its new chief financial officer, signaling the Internet company's determination to weed out the bureaucracy that has been dragging down its profits for the past three years.

The Sunnyvale-based company said Thursday that it had lured Tim Morse away from Altera Corp., a computer chip maker based in nearby San Jose. He became Altera's CFO in 2007 after a 15-year career at General Electric Co., where he held various jobs.

Twitter Inc. has spawned a new way to communicate by limiting messages to 140 keystrokes. So here's a way to describe the Internet's latest craze within Twitter's space restrictions:

It's a potluck of pithy self-expression simmering with whimsy, narcissism, voyeurism, hucksterism, tedium and sometimes useful information.

One vital ingredient has been missing from the mix so far -- revenue. That raises questions about whether the nearly 3-year-old service can make the leap from intriguing fad to sustainable business.

Matt Cohler, a pivotal player in Facebook Inc.'s rapid growth, is departing the popular online hangout to find other promising Internet startups for a prominent venture capital firm.

Cohler will remain Facebook's vice president of product management through the summer and then become a general partner at Benchmark Capital, according to a Thursday announcement.

Even after joining Benchmark, Cohler will remain a "special adviser" to Facebook's 24-year-old founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg.

Four venture capital firms are betting Internet startup LinkedIn Corp. is worth $1 billion, highlighting the lofty hopes riding on online services that connect people with their friends, family and business associates.

The 10-figure valuation is implied by a $53 million investment being announced Wednesday from Bain Capital Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners.

The investors received a combined 5 percent stake in Mountain View-based LinkedIn, whose 5-year-old Web site helps people use the Web to advance their professional careers.