Notable Yahoo Execs Hitting the Road

In the wake of Microsoft's aborted takeover attempt, a series of notable Yahoo executives are departing...and the company is considering a reorganization.

In the wake of Microsoft’s aborted $47.5 billion attempt to take over Internet giant Yahoo, a series of notable Yahoo executives have announced they’re leaving the company—and, in some cases, have no idea what they’ll do next. The departures hit as Yahoo’s leadership tried to convince investors and partners that the company’s future earnings potentially is at least equal to the money the company turned down from Microsoft…and girds up to fight a proxy battle with billionaire Carl Icahn for control of the company.

Among the leaders departing Yahoo are the creators of Yahoo’s popular Flickr photo sharing service, Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake. Also departing is del.icio.us founder Joshua Schacter, who’s only reported plans are to be “gloriously unemployed.” Flickr and del.icio.us were both acquired by Yahoo under terms that kept their management on board for a specific length of time; in both cases, there had already been speculation about how long these leaders would stick around once their contractual obligations expired.

However, Yahoo is also hemorrhaging other long-time leaders, with The New York Times reporting Qi Lu, Brad Garlinghouse, and Vish Makhijani are all leaving the company: Lu and Makhijini are involved in two areas of the company that were most interesting to Microsoft—search and online advertising—while Garlinghouse oversees Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger. Garlinghouse is famously the author of the 2006 “Peanut Butter” memo in which he warned the company was spreading itself too thin over multiple businesses.

According to the blog TechCrunch, Yahoo has eleven execs set departure dates in June and July of 2008; five had previously departed in May.

Sources close to Yahoo and within the company itself indicate that some of the executive turmoil is related to a reorganization plan spearheaded that Yahoo President Susan Decker, aimed at streamlining the company, improving communications and responsiveness. Yahoo has not commented publicly on the departures, noting in a statement only that it has a “deep and talented” management team and remains a “unique, exciting, and important place to work.”