Yahoo
The reorganization would be Bartzs first significant shakeup to bolster Yahoos position in the online advertising market after she took over as CEO from co-founder Jerry Yang last month.
Yahoo is seeking new ways to revive growth under Bartz, the former CEO of Autodesk Inc. Yahoo faces a slowdown in the online advertising market at the same time as Google steps up competition in areas such as graphical-display ads. Microsoft Corp. is also going after Yahoos employees, hiring at least three Internet-search executives since November.
Bartz, 60, assumed the CEO job after Yang spurned a $47.5 billion takeover offer from Microsoft last year. Yahoo posted a loss for the fourth quarter of $303.4 million, and profit fell in 10 of the 11 quarters before that.
Yahoo may announce the reorganization as early as this week, most likely on Feb. 25, the AllThingsDigital blog reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Bartz may be seeking a new chief marketing officer, the blog said.
Yahoo spokesman Brad Williams declined to comment on what he called “rumors and speculation.”
Previous Shakeups
Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, California, rose 16 cents to $12.14 on Feb. 20 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares are little changed this year.
A reorganization by Bartz would come after a shuffle orchestrated by Yang last June. At the time, Yang created three teams that reported to president Susan Decker. Those moves centralized consumer-product development and created a companywide strategy group. The company announced plans in October to cut at least 10 percent of its workforce.
After taking over as CEO, Yang told investors he would spend 100 days reviewing the companys business units and crafting a plan to “dramatically improve” performance.
Yahoo said this month that Chief Communications Officer Jill Nash would leave after a two-year stint with the company. Yahoo said Decker was stepping down when Bartz was named CEO in January.
Microsoft, the worlds largest software maker, has hired several Yahoo search executives after takeover negotiations fell through last year. Microsoft named Yahoos Qi Lu as president of its online services group in December and hired Sean Suchter from Yahoo the previous month. This month, Microsoft hired Larry Heck, who oversaw a Yahoo lab that developed search and advertising algorithms.
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