More High Profile Yahoo Executives Departs
“More high-profile exodus from beleaguered Yahoo continues.”
Yahoo’s EVP Network Division Jeff Weiner, who has been the subject of extreme speculation since the weekend, has submitted his resignation, our sources within the company say. But the big question is — who will replace him?
Apart from the “imminent” departure of Weiner, the other two executives to leave are Usama Fayyad, chief data officer and executive vice president of research and strategic data solutions, in addition to Weiner and Fayyad, the third Yahoo veteran is Jeremy Zawodny announced on his blog that he is also leaving.
According to a person with knowledge of the situation, a steady exodus of executives is continuing that began more than two years ago.
Weiner joined Yahoo in 2001 during the reign of former Chief Executive Terry Semel, who left last year and was replaced by co-founder Jerry Yang. The two had worked together at Warner Bros. and co-founded Windsor Digital, an investment firm focused on digital media. Weiner was responsible of handling Yahoo portal and its myriad services, including search, mail, My Yahoo, Groups, Flickr, Answers and media properties like news, finance, sports and entertainment.
“Basically Weiner oversaw everything that consumers touched except for mobile services.”
At Yahoo, he was not only a senior manager but one of those leaders who embody the soul of the company. He is considered by many employees to be, after Jerry Yang, the spiritual leader of the company and the guy who is actually holding things together.
His departure leaves a gaping hole in the senior management of the company already struggling to maintain its focus during a distracting battle for control with Carl Icahn.
Weiner is soon expected to return from a four-week paternity leave on Monday and leave Yahoo shortly thereafter. He has taken up a dual appointment at two venture capital firms, Accel Partners and Greylock Ventures, as an entrepreneur in residence, the person with knowledge of the situation said.
In the meantime, Usama Fayyad informed his staff yesterday that he would be leaving and his departure is expected to be officially announced later today. Fayyad was the data guru at Yahoo, the person in charge of mining the terabytes of data collected by the company to enhance things like the targeting of ads and content to Yahoo users. He was also in charge of Yahoo’s well-respected research organization.
Fayyad, akin to Jeff Weiner before him, served as part of Yahoo’s 15-member management team. His precise job title was “Chief Data Officer and Executive Vice President, Research & Strategic Data Solutions,” and his previous employers include DMX Group, Microsoft, and NASA.
Zawodny seems to be part of a real flood of individuals on the way out; joined Yahoo in 1999 and helped start Yahoo’s developer network and was a prominent backer of open source software inside the company.
Nevertheless as part of a goodbye blog post, Zawodny wrote, “The reality is that there is nothing pushing me out the door at Yahoo. The reason I’m leaving is that something very compelling has come along to lure me away. Despite what the current press sentiment might be, Jerry and David have built a remarkable company.”
He further continued, “As for the future of Yahoo, everyone working at Yahoo today knows in their gut what Yahoo should be and needs to be. My advice is to work on making that happen. Do not let anyone else (inside or outside the company) try to tell you what Yahoo is. Trust your gut.”
A source familiar with the matter hints at finding a replacement inside the organizational structure at Yahoo rather than a direct replacement for Weiner, whom many say would be hard to replace in good times and nearly impossible in the times Yahoo currently faces.
However, Fayyad, Weiner, and Zawodny would leave Yahoo around the same time. And, for one of them to go to a direct competitor must really hurt.
A Yahoo spokesman said the company does not comment on rumors and speculation.