Yahoo! Shakeup follows Peanut Butter blandness

Late last night, Stefanie Olsen at CNet posted a rumor about an executive powwow at Yahoo! and speculated that there could be “significant layoffs” in the future.

That rumor was borne out today with the announcement that Yahoo! would be “re-aligning” their organization in order to more effectively focus on their customers. What exactly does that mean? Well, in first place it means that at least two top executives are out of a job. COO Dan Rosensweig is out, as well as Lloyd Braun. Valleywag is speculating that Chief Communications Officer Chris Castro might have been shuffled out the door as well.

Going forward, Yahoo! will be organized into three operating groups: two customer focused: “Audience” and “Advertiser & Publisher” and a newly focused “Technology” group. Each will be headed up by an executive who will report directly to Terry Semel. CTO Farzad Nazem will continue as head of the Technology group. Susan Decker will lead the Advertiser& Publisher group. Additionally Sue Decker is being groomed for the CEO slot in the future. The Audience Group does not as yet have an announced leader.

Speculation about the future for Yahoo! is everywhere, from the comprehensive coverage (Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, Inside Google) to the chatty commentary (Jeremy Zawodny, Matt Cutts, Valleywag) to the official word from Yahoo (Yahoo’s press release, Terry Semel.)

If you’re dying for even more chatter about the shakeup, head over to Techmeme to get your fill.

Wow, I wish I was at SES right now. I’d love to hear the talk in the halls about this.

Susan Esparza is former managing editor at Bruce Clay Inc., and has written extensively for clients and internal publications. Along with Bruce Clay, she is co-author of the first edition of Search Engine Optimization All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies.

See Susan's author page for links to connect on social media.