More top execs to depart Yahoo
The executive turmoil at the very top of Yahoo continues, with the company poised to announce the resignations of three top execs, including U.S. head Hilary Schneider.
The other execs also leaving, which Yahoo is planning on revealing Friday: U.S. Audience head David Ko and, as BoomTown previously reported, VP of Media Jimmy Pitaro.
Yahoo U.S. head
Hilary Schneider
Sources close to the situation said that Schneider, who presides over media and advertising sales at Yahoo, has wanted to leave the company for a while, but was convinced to stay on by CEO Carol Bartz.
Schneider will, in fact, stay at Yahoo while it searches for her replacement. Heidrick & Struggles had already been headhunting candidates for her job in recent weeks.
Why Ko, who works directly for Schneider, is leaving now is uncertain, although sources said a lot of product control over properties under him is being moved over to Chief Product Officer Blake Irving.
Irving was hired several months ago by Bartz, and he has brought in many former colleagues from Microsoft to top product jobs at the company.
This entire mess--and that's precisely what it is--calls into question the tenure of Bartz, a tough-talking, cost-cutting exec who was brought in to clean up Yahoo after the maelstrom around the failed takeover attempt by Microsoft several years ago.
She replaced co-founder Jerry Yang, and came in with guns blazing and styling herself as an agent of change.
Except not too much as changed, as the exodus of talent from Yahoo has increased and the stock price remains moribund.
In addition, Bartz's frequent shoot-from-the-hip remarks appear to have alienated a number of partners, most recently in Asia.
This week, according to sources, some board members met in Sunnyvale to try to figure out how to deal with the burgeoning management issue.
Some speculate that they will hire a second-in-command to Bartz who might be able to take over for her when her contract is up in 18 months.
Yahoo declined to comment.