Business Blog: Hoover’s Business Insight Zone

A month ago I gave my view on what might/could/should come next for Yahoo as its co-founder and now-CEO Jerry Yang tries to get it back on track. Today’s news brings a flurry of stories assessing the executive moves that Yahoo! has just announced.

Hey Kids! Let’s Put On a Yahoo Reorg!
by Kara Swisher at AllThingsD

… as reported by Valleywag, Greg Coleman is out as its head of global sales and his duties shift over to Hilary Schneider, a fast-rising former Knight Ridder exec who is a favorite of Yahoo President Sue Decker.

[Schneider will] ride herd over all ad sales and also relationships with publishers. [...]

Also, because [Schneider] is not as experienced in the ad sales arena as one might want from, well, the head of ad sales at a company whose principal business model is advertising, Yahoo might also be hiring another still unnamed top exec who will report to Decker and will focus on innovative ad solutions and products.

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Decker rings the changes at Yahoo!
by Rhys Blakely at Times Online

Susan Decker, the president of Yahoo!, has stamped her authority on the struggling internet group, creating a new division that will generate the lion’s share of revenue and will be headed by a close ally.

The new Global Partner Division will include Yahoo!’s sales operations and will oversee all advertising business – including search, display, mobile and video. It will also take “responsibility for all of our ‘partners’ – advertisers, agencies, resellers, publishers, ad networks, developers, or others,” Ms Decker wrote in a memo to staff.

The short version: Decker, who was already the #2 in the company when Yang took over from Terry Semel as CEO earlier this summer, is holding the reins of the company (under Yang’s watchful eye, one would assume), and it will fall to Decker to get Yahoo back to where Yang and Yahoo’s investors want it to be.