Yahoo hires former Google exec as revenue chief
The online company has hired Michael Barrett, who came to Google after the search company acquired Admeld last year.
Yahoo has hired Michael Barrett as executive vice president and chief revenue officer.
Barrett will lead Yahoo's ad revenue and operations worldwide, the company announced today. In his new role, Barrett will report directly to Yahoo interim CEO Ross Levinsohn. He will start in his new position in July.
All Things Digital was first to report the news.
Barrett was the chief executive of online-advertising firm Admeld before joining Google last year after the search giant acquired his company for $400 million. Since then, Admeld has continued to operate as it did before. The company's Web site, in fact, still shows Barrett as CEO.
According to All Things Digital, Barrett's hiring means major changes are afoot at Yahoo. The publication's sources say that Yahoo is considering getting out of the ad tech business, and will focus entirely on digital ad sales -- something Barrett is quite comfortable with. The ultimate decision on what to do, however, has not been made, according to All Things Digital.
Regardless, it's clear that something needs to be done at Yahoo. During the first quarter of the year, the company posted revenue of $1.077 billion, representing just a 1 percent increase over the same period last year. That relatively flat revenue figure resulted from a 4 percent decrease in display advertising revenue and an 8 percent increase in search revenue.
Barrett has had a long career in the advertising business, holding sales positions at Fox Interactive Media, AOL, and Disney. He even worked at GeoCities/Yahoo.
This story has been updated throughout the morning.