AP
News from Yahoo: The company will reorganize into three groups (Audience, Advertiser & Publisher, and Technology), the company announced Tuesday. CFO Susan Decker will lead A&P (and remain CFO until a replacement is found) and CTO Farzad Nazem will lead Technology. The company is still seeking an Audience Group head. BusinessWeek notes that the layoffs recommended by Senior VP Brad Garlinghouse in his Peanut Butter Manifesto are not part of the announced reorg.
COO Dan Rosensweig will resign in March, and Yahoo Media Group head Lloyd Braun has resigned. Variety notes that Braun's resignation wasn't part of the reorg announcement and infers that he didn't like his new role, as he was probably passed over for head of the Audience Group (which, as stated above, is currently a vacant slot).
Braun actually lasted longer at Yahoo than the media expected. Silicon Valley blog Valleywag (which I edited at the time) predicted his exit in early February, and weeks after, ZDNet said Braun's ideas (for example, a news show anchored by puppets) caused "awkward moments" for his colleagues. An industry insider later told Valleywag that Vince Broady, hired by Braun from CNET to head Yahoo Studios, was more likely to upstage Braun than to boost him. Still, his role in launching Yahoo Food and The 9, a daily web fad guide, seemed to indicate a comeback. Then again, this is the man ABC fired for greenlighting "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives."
What's next? Well, CEO Terry Semel has suffered rumors of his own departure; Deadline Hollywood's Nikki Finke calls him "soon-to-be-retired" and Valleywag publisher Nick Denton even drafted Semel's corporate obit blaming Semel for creating the Media Group, hiring Hollywood execs like Braun, and letting the company stall on buyout talks with Facebook and YouTube. The Wall Street Journal named Decker as a possible successor to Semel, and it's hard to imagine a role that would better prepare her than her new one. Braun, meanwhile, told the L.A. Times he wants a job "that combines old media and new media." In other words, less Internet, more Hollywood.
Update: Why the unusual Tuesday afternoon announcement? Silicon Valley journalist Tom Foremski says Yahoo planned to announce today, but the Wall Street Journal, scared when Yahoo failed to deliver an interview with Terry Semel Tuesday, threatened to run the article that day, forcing the company to announce early.
Braun leaves post at Yahoo [Variety]
Yahoo's Shakeup [BusinessWeek]
— Nick Douglas
