Briefs

New tech start-ups can rise from the economy's ashes

By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY, Feb 17, 2009.

SAN FRANCISCO - It's boom - and bust - for Silicon Valley companies these days. Literally.

Facing their worst economic climate since the dot-com bust in the early 2000s, high-tech companies are treating 2009 with dread - but also with a tinge of optimism if they act smartly.

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"Smaller companies are not as conservative as bigger ones," says Usama Fayyad, Yahoo's former data officer, who left the Internet icon in early September before the market crashed.

"They're aggressively hiring good, available talent and investing in new technology," Fayyad says. "Larger companies are overly sensitized to market numbers and share prices."

Since mid-October, Fayyad has purchased a couple of small companies in the search-engine marketing and optimization markets, and a data-mining firm.

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