Three top executives at Yahoo are planning to exit the the search engine company.
Yahoo shares fell more than 3 percent as reports of fresh worries about top executives leaving the Web company.
By John Lester
Jun 21, 2008 02:17 AM GMT
Shares of Yahoo Inc fell more than 3 percent on Friday as reports of a brain drain raised fresh worries about the future of the Web company after it chose to partner with Google Inc instead of Microsoft Corp. Reports indicate that three executives are leaving Yahoo, including Brad Garlinghouse, known for a 2006 "Peanut Butter Manifesto" memo that called for a radical overhaul of the company. Yahoo President Sue Decker is considering a reorganization that would centralize Yahoo mail, search and homepage divisions into a global product organization. "With human capital historically having been one of Yahoo's greatest assets, we see these developments as a material negative," Standard & Poor's information technology analyst Scott Kessler wrote in a research note. "We think a restructuring is (in) the offing and that morale is likely relatively low," he wrote. Shares of Yahoo were down 2.7 percent at $22.11 in midmorning trading on the Nasdaq, having lost about 15 percent since the company announced the Google search advertising deal, and said buyout talks with Microsoft have failed.
Yahoo declined to comment on the reports of executive departures, and it was not clear whether a reorganization would be in response to them or the other way around.Garlinghouse oversaw e-mail, instant messaging and other services. In his famous memo, he said Yahoo was spreading itself too thinly over various opportunities, like a layer of peanut butter. "I hate peanut butter," he wrote. Vish Makhijani, general manager of Yahoo's Web search business, and Qi Lu, the top engineer for Yahoo's Panama search marketing platform, are also leaving the Web search company.
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