Yahoo’s new chief executive, Carol Bartz, has just suggested a management restructuring as early as Wednesday, according to some sources. A memo from Bartz clearly suggests reorganization, one that will probably surprise many top executives. Bartz is likely to undo or scale back prior reorganizations by former CEO Jerry Yang. Yahoo officials declined to comment the news, but a source at Yahoo said rumors of reorganization are swirling within the company. Yahoo is the leading provider of online display advertising, but the company has been under pressure for nearly a year, as it held fruitless merger or partnership talks with Microsoft, Google and AOL. During that time, Yahoo lost market share in search advertising, while display ad sales have been badly hit industry-wide by the recent recession. This reorganization is expected to include a structure where executives like chief operating officer, chief technology officer and a chief marketing officer will report all that happens at the company to Bartz. Furthermore, Bartz will most likely abandon the plan to split the world into four operating regions. Instead, one executive would head the United States and a second head up all international efforts. Carol Bartz is a former executive chairman at software company Autodesk, and he took on the Yahoo CEO job six weeks ago, by replacing Jerry Yang. Yang stepped down in November, after failing to complete partnerships with Microsoft and Google. Last month, Yahoo reported a net loss of $303 million for the fourth quarter of 2008, down from a profit of $206 million a year earlier. It remains to be seen if Bartz will manage to revive Yahoo.
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