Sunnyvale, California — As Yahoo relentlessly strives to re-establish itself again, the person in charge of the technological side of the company has stepped down after just over 2 years. Yahoo Inc.’s CTO and EVP Products “Ari Balogh,” who joined Yahoo in early 2008 is stepping down, the company said on Thursday.
Yahoo is searching for a new CTO and chief product officer, and is trying hard to portray Balogh’s departure as a “personal decision,” but others seem to be reasoning that Ari is just another wise sailor fleeing a sinking ship.
Irrespective of the truth, Ari’s departure could in reality be a major positive development for the company. His last day with Yahoo will be June 3, Yahoo said in an emailed statement. A replacement is expected to be named in the coming weeks, the company said.
“It is probably bad timing, since we are in the midst of recharging Yahoo,” said Balogh. “But this had to do with personal priorities.”
Balogh, who joined Yahoo in February 2008 and was managing the new direction for the company to better incorporate all of its products and services to one another, said in a statement provided by Yahoo that he is leaving because of a difficult situation that his family is going through and which he describes has driven him to make some life changes.
“This job was my dream job, which makes this decision very hard,” Balogh said.
Balogh, who is in-charge for Yahoo’s global consumer and advertising products, leaves Yahoo amid a continuing effort to revive growth and redefine the company under the leadership of CEO Carol Bartz.
Yahoo has become somewhat entangled in the mainstream especially after its former CEO Jerry Yang rejected to accept a buyout offer from Microsoft. Some Yahoo stockholders were furious and reporters flabbergasted at Yang’s persistence regardless of the more-than-favorable offer.
Yahoo still remains the most popular online destinations in the United States, but has been obscured by Google Inc in the search market and faces increasing competition from social networking sites like Facebook.
Here is Yahoo’s official statement on the departure, for the record:
“Ari Balogh, EVP, Products and CTO, has decided to leave Yahoo! for personal reasons. Ari plans to remain with the company until June 3 and will be working with the team to enable a smooth transition. We expect to name his replacement in the coming weeks. We thank him for his many contributions and wish him well.”
And here is a statement from Balogh:
“While Yahoo! has become a family to me in many ways over the last two years, I have a situation with my own family that is difficult and has driven me to make some changes in my life. This job was my dream job, which makes this decision very hard. I have been working with Carol on a succession plan that we will roll out over the coming weeks. Yahoo! has many opportunities to touch so many people’s lives and the company is well positioned to take advantage of every one of them. I am confident that the incredible people at Yahoo! will deliver against our vision to be the center of people’s online lives.”
Balogh’s parting is one of many among top Yahoo execs recently, under the leadership of CEO Carol Bartz. Advertising sales head Joanne Bradford departed the company to join Demand Media, and in March EVP Ash Patel, one of the first Yahoo employees, announced that he was stepping down as well.
With Ari’s departure, Bartz now has an opportunity to appoint a real agent of change into Yahoo, someone who can visualize the company’s product (Technology AND Content) not for what it has been for the past 15 years, but for what it must become to survive.
However, the leading candidate for Balogh’s replacement at Yahoo, said several sources, is former Microsoft exec Blake Irving.
Balogh would not comment on that, but noted Yahoo was looking at several candidates.
Earlier this year, Yahoo reached a deal with Microsoft, and combined its search efforts with Microsoft Corp as part of a 10-year deal to cut costs and allow Yahoo to refine its focus. They are still working on optimizing each other’s algorithms to work in harmony and provide a better competing service to Google.