With Republican U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett in the audience, Yahoo Inc. CEO Jerry Yang touted the role of government investment in research and its regulatory power in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.
"Probably the most important thing is that markets and regulations flourish," Yang told the Utah Technology Council Hall of Fame dinner in Salt Lake City's Grand America Hotel. "In so many ways, we in the Internet business always wanted to stay away from the regulators and I think it's clear that regulations and the regulators have a clear role in creating an environment that allows innovation to happen, which is leave it alone and once it gets too big you better do something about it."
Yang also touted the role of venture capital in supporting development of new technologies and companies but said government, too, played a crucial role in funding research.
"The government has been the biggest supporter of our research and development in our institutions," said Yang, who was introduced by Hatch, Utah's senior senator. "That's long-term planning."
Yang was the keynote speaker at the event that featured the induction of two members into the Utah Technology Council Hall of Fame. They were medical researcher Theodore H. Stanley, of Salt Lake City, and Ogden son H. Raymond Bingham, a California businessman.
Stanley founded or co-founded eight life science companies, including Zars and Anesta, and three research and educational foundations. Bingham has spent more than 30 years in high-tech, chemical engineering and private-equity investing. From 1993 to 2005, he was in senior management at Cadence Design Systems, an electronics design automation company.
Yang did not mention his defeat earlier this year of the bid by Microsoft to buy Yahoo, nor the announcement this week that his Internet search engine company was laying off 10 percent of its workforce to counter a slowdown in advertising.
Instead, Yang said the massive deployment of computing power on the Internet that's now available to startup companies and its interaction with mobile devices such as cell phones are changing how the Internet is used
"We are seeing more smart phones becoming computers. These devices are also going to tap into this great computing environment in the sky and create a tremendous amount of innovation."
People will start adding information to the Internet from their phones and receiving more that is specific to the location they are at any one time, he said.
"I think that's where the Internet goes next," said Yang.
tharvey@sltrib.com
