Jorgensen, 59, will leave after a transition period, Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo said today. NetApp Inc. executive Elisa Steele will head Yahoos marketing and technology chief Ari Balogh will oversee a combined technology and products group.

Jorgensen, 59, is the most senior executive to depart since Bartz took over from co-founder Jerry Yang last month. Yahoo is overhauling its management structure to speed decision-making as Google pulls further ahead in the online advertising market. That may be a challenge, given Googles lead and the growing popularity of sites such as Facebook Inc., said James Friedland, an analyst at Cowen & Co. in New York.

“Yahoo definitely could use a culture shift in terms of developing products more aggressively and more efficiently,” Friedland said. “I just dont think it can change the greater trends. We dont think the changes will have a material impact on Yahoos material long-term fundamentals.”

Yahoo, owner of the second-ranked U.S. Internet search engine, also created two operating regions. The North America unit will be led by executive vice president Hilary Schneider. A leader for the international business will be named soon, Yahoo said.

Yahoo rose 61 cents, or 4.9 percent, to $13.09 at 2:42 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The stock lost 48 percent last year.

First Reorganization

Only yesterday, Jorgensen told investors at a conference in San Francisco that the company is open to working with Microsoft Corp. Microsoft has proposed combining the companies search engines in a bid to compete with market leader Google Inc.

The reorganization is Bartzs first major effort to bolster Yahoos position in the online advertising market. Google handles 63 percent of search queries in the U.S., according to ComScore Inc. of Reston, Virginia. That gives it more opportunities to sell ads. Even combined, Yahoo and Microsofts online advertising businesses generated less than half of Googles revenue in the fourth quarter.

Yahoo rejected Microsofts offers to purchase its search engine last year. Yahoo also spurned a bid to buy the whole company for as much as $47.5 billion. After Bartz took over, she said she didnt plan to sell the company and didnt want it to be “pulled apart and left for the chickens.”

Customer Advocacy

Yahoo will create a customer advocacy group, Bartz said today on the companys blog, adding that she gets lots of angry calls from customers. She said she will also overhaul Yahoos brand to make it “kick ass.”

Yahoos mobile group will now be led by David Ko, the company said.

Jorgensen joined Yahoo in June 2007 after co-founding Thomas Weisel Partners and serving as that firms chief operating officer of investment banking. Before that, he was a managing director at Montgomery Securities.

Jorgensen also spoke yesterday about Bartz, saying she had brought more discipline to the company.

Yahoo Way

“Shes very interested in simplifying the company and focusing Yahoo on some of its core strengths,” he said. “She is intolerant of anyone that is late to a meeting, and that is very different than the Yahoo way.”

Yahoo said this month that Chief Communications Officer Jill Nash is leaving after a two-year stint with the company. President Susan Decker, a candidate to become CEO, announced plans to step down when Bartz took the job in January.

Bartz has commissioned searches for several high-level executives amid the management shuffle, a person familiar with the matter said this week.

Source