Company CEO Scott Thompson today laid out the latest leadership reorganization for Yahoo, putting attention squarely on monetizable “content, community and communication.” It’s his first move to bring the poorly defined company into focus, and comes shortly after massive layoffs.
Most of the changes involve Yahoo’s consumer business group, which is structured into three primary branches.
The first of these is Consumer, which now operates under the leadership of Ross Levinsohn, formerly executive vice president of Yahoo Americas. Consumer brings together Yahoo’s collection of news sites and branded home pages, which often don’t get the respect their audience numbers deserve, along with search and email functions. The group will have more control over its own product development as well, including its own designers and engineers, rather than work under the company’s centralized product development system.
Shashi Seth, former senior vice president Search & Marketplaces, now leads the Connections branch, which takes Yahoo’s popular Mail, Messenger and Flickr products and ties them together with search and related activities.
Last but not least is Commerce, which includes Yahoo’s real estate, automotive, travel, jobs and similar sites. Thompson did not name a leader for this section, but AllThingsD expects it to be Sam Shrauger. The two worked together at PayPal, and Shrauger just resigned from the eBay company.
“We must focus all we do on the users who trust us to give them personalized content and communications, and the advertisers who want to connect with our users. To be very clear, our highest priority is winning in our core business and that will earn us the right to pursue new growth opportunities,” Thompson wrote in an internal memo, which was sent to employees Tuesday and obtained by the New York Times and AllThingsD.
Thompson also confirmed that former Yahoo chief product officer Blake Irving is leaving the company but that he will remain long enough to ensure a smooth transition.
Related links:
AllThingsD – It’s Official: Yahoo Reorgs Itself Just Like We Said (Memo Time!)
NY Times’ Bits – Yahoo C.E.O. Hints at a Strategy
PaidContent – Yahoo CEO follows sharp cuts with blurry re-org
Mercury News – Yahoo CEO outlines reorganization into three main divisions
Photo by Flickr user Vicchi, used under Creative Commons license
