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Monday, August 17, 2009

Yahoo Poised to Name New International Head–After Five-Month Look-See at the Crowned Web Heads of Europe

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Yahoo is closer to naming a new international head, according to sources, the last big slot left in the top management structure of CEO Carol Bartz.

While BoomTown is endeavoring to get the name of this international man of mystery, the suspect list is long, since Yahoo’s headhunter for the job–Heidrick & Struggles–has pretty much talked to the gamut of international Web muckety-mucks since the search started six months ago.

In a memo to Yahoo staff after her reorganization in February, Bartz said that “international growth is critical for Yahoo!, which has become too reliant on its U.S. business over the years.”

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Thursday, May 28, 2009

Yahoo Audience Head Jeff Dossett Departs Company

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Yahoo’s SVP of Northern American Audience, Jeff Dossett, is leaving the company.

Reasons for the departure are personal, said sources, who said that Dossett is most likely to do a start-up.

Dossett did not return emails asking for comment, but Yahoo confirmed his resignation to BoomTown.

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Bartz and Ballmer Meet One-on-One Again at D7

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Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had yet another one-on-one meeting yesterday evening at the D: All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, Calif., said several sources, in ongoing discussions about a search and advertising partnership.

In addition, top deal execs from both Yahoo and Microsoft continued their talks, including Yahoo U.S. head Hilary Schneider and top Microsoft digital exec Yusuf Mehdi.

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Monday, May 4, 2009

Yahoo and Microsoft Deal Progress “Meaningful”–Plus the Deal Team Rosters

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Recently, BoomTown reported that talks between Microsoft and Yahoo had gotten “hot and heavy.”

That mood seems to be continuing, as many sources close to the situation on both sides said that the pair are coming ever closer to a search and advertising partnership deal.

“It’s meaningful,” said one source. “The fact that there is even progress and engagement, after so many failed attempts between us, says a lot.”

Indeed, there seems to be a lot of engagement between the two sides of late, and some sources think a deal could even be struck within the next few weeks.

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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Liveblogging the Yahoo Earnings Call: It All Depends on Your Definition of What “Wow!” Is

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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.”

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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One: Yahoo Management and Staff Set on Shuffle Again

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Yes, more layoffs are indeed coming to Yahoo, sources confirmed to BoomTown, but perhaps even more than have been reported.

But that’s not all, as even more top-level managers are either leaving or being moved around the ever-changing organizational structure at Yahoo.

That includes a longtime top sales operations exec, Dan Foehner, who is about to start at Facebook next week, as well as others contemplating leaving, on their way out or being reshuffled.

In other words, business as usual at the tumultuous company, whose nickname should be “Reorg.”

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Thursday, April 9, 2009

If Yahoo’s Going Social, Is Demand Media Back on Its Dance List?

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Last year, Yahoo EVP Hilary Schneider and then-Media Group head Scott Moore had a summery seaside dinner with Demand Media co-founder and CEO Richard Rosenblatt in Santa Monica, Calif., right around the corner from the online publishing company’s HQ.

While many speculated that Yahoo could be doing some friendly kibitzing to get a sense of where the eclectic network of general- and special-interest sites was headed, for a possible acquisition, nothing came of it.

But now, a year later, with recent indications that a major strategy for new CEO Carol Bartz will finally follow through on making Yahoo’s massive but disparate service more social, especially in its content offerings, several sources close to the company tell me another look-see at Demand is likelier than ever.

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Thursday, February 26, 2009

One Last Yahoo Reorg Missive: Bartz Tells Employees What She Already Said. Again.

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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.

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New Yahoo Management Structure: The Entire Memo

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.

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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

More on Yahoo Reorg in Process: Ari and Hilary Rule, but Who Is Joel Jones?

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“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.

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Monday, February 23, 2009

Yahoo News Head Khemlani Departs for Hearst as VP Digital Media

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Neeraj Khemlani, Yahoo’s general manager and executive editor of news, is set to leave his job–right in the midst of a major restructuring of its media unit–to work at Hearst Corp.

Khemlani’s departure could be announced to his staff at Yahoo as early as today.

While Khemlani was in line to head one of the three main prongs of the new content organization, running a possible network programming arm, sources inside and outside Yahoo said he instead has opted to take a job as VP and Special Assistant to the CEO for Digital Media at Hearst.

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The Yahoo Management Structure: Who Is In and Who Is Out?

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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.

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Sunday, February 22, 2009

Yahoo Media Unit to Get a Reorg Too!

Besides the more massive management reorganization that new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz could announce this week, as BoomTown reported on Friday, the Internet company’s powerful media arm might also see a drastic shift in management structure even sooner.

According to several sources inside the company, U.S. Audience SVP Jeff Dossett has been working on the changes for a while, part of an overall change in how Yahoo makes and delivers content.

Under a plan being considered, the media unit will be split into three parts: vertical programming, network programming and search monetization.

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Friday, January 30, 2009

Exclusive: Former Yahoo Scott Moore Heads Back to Microsoft As U.S. Content Head

In an unusual homecoming and odd job switcheroo between two Internet execs, former Yahoo media head Scott Moore is returning to Microsoft to lead its content efforts, according to many sources both inside and outside the company.

Moore will become U.S. executive producer, responsible for leading the content and programming strategy for the MSN online service. He will return to Microsoft’s Seattle area HQ in mid-March and report to Greg Nelson, GM of the MSN Global Media Group.

Moore left Yahoo late last year due to unhappiness over the turmoil at the company and to pursue a start-up idea he had.

He was replaced at Yahoo–in a rushed appointment–by Jeff Dossett, who came, wait for it, from Microsoft, where he held the job Moore is now taking.

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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The Yahoo-AOL Jabberfest Continues Ad Infinitum (Plus Some Jerry Yang Chitter-Chatter on Video)

Last week–in a clear sign that BoomTown has spent way too much face time in front of the idiot box–I compared the endless bickering back-and-forth between Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to the annoying push-me-pull-you antics of Ross and Rachel on the television show, “Friends.”

But the continuing discussions–oh, yes, there have been more this week–between Yahoo and AOL execs over the merger of their struggling online companies have their own TV comparison: The never-ending roundelay on “The View.”

In other words: Blah, blah, blah. Chitter-chatter. Pointless arguing. Chin-scratching. More blah, blah. More chatter. Blah.

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About Kara

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.

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Ethics Statement

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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