Blake Jorgensen, who left Yahoo as part of a management reorganization by CEO Carol Bartz, has taken a job as CFO at Levi Strauss & Co.
He’s the second Yahoo to move to the the jeanswear manufacturer recently. Former Yahoo PR head Jill Nash took over communications at Levi several months ago.
A major Yahoo investor yesterday told me that he liked what he saw so far from new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, but he was wary.
“I like the sizzle,” he said, referring to Bartz’s decisive take-no-prisoners style. “But I am still waiting to see if steak is there too.”
Well, Bartz sizzled at its first-quarter earnings conference call today, tossing off some ribald words as she also handed over some tough news to chew on, announcing Yahoo’s much-expected weak first-quarter results. The company also said it would cut five percent of its staff of 13,600, which is close to 700 employees.
BoomTown liveblogged the call with Bartz, who noted about Yahoo: “The most important takeaway was the importance of having a ‘Wow!’ experience.”
Goodness gracious, make it stop!
You must know by now how much BoomTown loves internal Yahoo memos. But this is getting ridiculous.
It’s been like a flash flood after a long drought at Sunnyvale HQ today, as Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz turns on the firehose of a whole lot of communicating.
“I know you guys have reorg fatigue,” wrote Bartz in the latest email to employees about the management reorganization finally announced this morning.
Also memo fatigue at All Things Digital HQ, if you can believe it.
Along with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz’s external email earlier today, the company also outlined the new management structure in another memo.
It’s pretty much what BoomTown has been reporting all week. Top-down simplification, which is another word for: Carol rules over Yahoo.
CTO Ari Balogh gets a lot of stuff as new head of products, and so does U.S. head Hilary Schneider, including mobile, as EVP of North American Region. Bot report to Bartz.
Here’s the entire memo of Yahoo’s new organization.
Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz declared reorg today on the company’s corporate blog, Yodel Anecdotal.
Here is her entire memo:
Getting our house in order
Posted February 26th, 2009 at 9:16 am by Carol Bartz, CEO
A month and a half in the saddle and today I have the perfect excuse to get blogging.
I’ve been on a whirlwind tour for [...]
About 10 days ago, BoomTown posted a piece titled, “With a King’s Ransom in Cash, Why Is There Still No Buying Spree in the Tech Space Yet?”
Noting the big cash hordes being held by a plethora of giant tech and Internet companies and their strong cash flows too, even in the midst of the economic meltdown–I wondered when the mergers and acquisitions would ever begin.
With no hooking up as yet–which feels about as annoying as the persistently unconsummated flirtation of Chuck and Blair on “Gossip Girl”–that just won’t do!
So, here are a few suggestions to get this party started.
“It’s being changed every minute,” joked one Yahoo source about the reorg now in process at Yahoo, which is being shepherded by new CEO Carol Bartz.
Actually, it’s kind of true, as execs at the troubled Web company are being moved around the board like chess pieces, while others players are added.
According to numerous sources, mostly in Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, Calif. HQ, things are still in flux and not completely settled as yet.
But one thing is clear: Layers are being collapsed quickly, as fewer people are in charge of more, with all roads leading to Bartz.
On Friday, BoomTown first reported that new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is likely to be announcing a sweeping new management structure soon, which can only mean the possibility that some existing top execs are likely to be broomed out, even as some new ones are ushered in.
“This is going to be a full-scale peanut butter recall,” joked one exec, referring to the infamous “Peanut Butter Manifesto,” which was sent around the company several years ago by former exec Brad Garlinghouse. It laid bare the problems at Yahoo, most especially a decided lack of decision-making and lugubrious levels of managers.
Here is the sticky skinny.
Oh, a nice tiny surprise from Yahoo, as it reported its fourth-quarter results, which came in at 17 cents a share in adjusted earnings, compared to the 12 to 13 cents Wall Street was expecting.
“Despite the challenging economic environment, Yahoo! delivered adjusted operating cash flow above the midpoint of guidance for the fourth quarter,” said new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz in the company’s official release.
But let’s experience Bartz Live and Unplugged at the fourth-quarter earnings call, including a Q&A in which–the company noted at the top of the call–former Yahoo CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang might make an unexpected cameo appearance.
(He didn’t.)
Weaker results? Check.
Guidance going forward weaker still? Check.
Layoffs? Check.
Economy sucks? Double check!
Nonetheless, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang said he “remained optimistic” about Yahoo and was going to “get fit” and power through its obvious troubles.
Get this guy over to the McCain campaign, pronto!
Here is the official press release from Yahoo (YHOO) on its third-quarter results:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Yahoo! Reports Third Quarter 2008 Financial Results Revenues–$1,786 Million
Operating Income–$70 Million
Operating Income Before Depreciation, Amortization, and Stock-Based Compensation Expense–$410 Million
For all the criticism I have lobbed at Yahoo’s leadership team over the last year, they do clean up well and look good on stage.
Not that anything they are saying has been even slightly revelatory (Starting point! Must-buy advertising! Maximize shareholder value!).
“I think we have a terrific asset, I think we have terrific people,” said Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang.
You get the idea here. Zzzzzzzzz.
Could the new and improved Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang actually manage to beat back the proxy fight being waged against him by activist investor Carl Icahn?
It increasingly looks that way, with only 12 days to go until Yahoo’s annual meeting on August 1.
But exactly which Yang will be running Yahoo, if he does win, is probably the most important question shareholders need to ask.
Would that be the seemingly energetic Yang of the past two weeks, invigorated by the battle with Icahn and his new best friend and Yahoo foe, Microsoft?
Or will it be the other Yang?
So, no surprise, according to multiple sources I talked to yesterday, the roadshow by top Yahoo execs–CEO and Co-Founder Jerry Yang, President Sue Decker and CFO Blake Jorgensen–to tout the new growth plan the company unveiled last week was not such a hit with shareholders.
While the group met with polite audiences, most investors I talked to were unenthusiastic about the plan and dubious that Yahoo’s blue-sky hopes would come through. “I think we wanted to give Jerry a hearing, but mostly to save face,” said one investor, in a sentiment that was typical.
What do you do when you want to inject a little inspiration into a company that needs a lot of it?
Do you hold an all-day meeting of top execs where you actually outline specific goals and exhibit better leadership?
Do you admit your corporate culture is a little weak and promise to focus on strengthening it?
Do you trot out all the senior execs and let them talk about their concrete plans (and, better still, actually prepare them to deliver their spiel with some level of quality)?
Do you do some post-lunch touchy-feely group exercises to get people talking?
Best of all, if you really want to send things over the top, do you bring out an icon so beloved as to give goosebumps to explain to the troops how he managed to turn his once-beleaguered and now-soaring company around?
Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
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