Exclusive: Major Meltdown at Yahoo as More Top Execs to Depart, Including U.S. Head Hilary Schneider

September 29, 2010 at 4:21 pm PT

The executive turmoil at the very top of Yahoo continues, with the company poised to announce the resignations of three top execs, including U.S. head Hilary Schneider (pictured here), according to sources close to the situation.

The other execs also leaving, which Yahoo (YHOO) is planning on revealing Friday: U.S. Audience head David Ko and, as BoomTown previously reported, VP of Media Jimmy Pitaro.

While some at Yahoo are trying to spin it as an ouster, sources close to the situation said that Schneider–who presides over media and advertising sales at Yahoo–has wanted to leave the company for a while, but was convinced to stay on by CEO Carol Bartz.

Schneider will, in fact, stay at Yahoo while it searches for her replacement. Heidrick & Struggles had already been headhunting candidates for her job in recent weeks.

Why Ko, who works directly for Schneider, is leaving now is uncertain, although sources said a lot of product control over properties under him is being moved over to Chief Product Officer Blake Irving.

Irving was hired several months ago by Bartz, and he has brought in many former colleagues from Microsoft (MSFT) to top product jobs at the company. And he’s appeared to have won the latest corporate power play too.

This entire mess–and that’s precisely what it is–calls into question the tenure of Bartz, a tough-talking, cost-cutting exec who was brought in to clean up Yahoo after the maelstrom around the failed takeover attempt by Microsoft several years ago.

She replaced co-founder Jerry Yang and came in with guns blazing and styling herself as an agent of change.

Except not too much as changed–except for finally striking a search technology deal with Microsoft–as the exodus of talent from Yahoo increases, advertising revenue growth is anemic, innovation is stalled, metrics are weak and the stock remains moribund.

In addition, Bartz’s frequent shoot-from-the-hip remarks appear to have alienated a number of partners, most recently in Asia.

This week, according to sources, some board members had an emergency meeting at Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, Calif., HQ to try to figure out how to deal with the burgeoning management issue.

Some speculate that they will hire a second-in-command to Bartz, who might be able to take over for her when her contract is up in 18 months.

Yahoo declined to comment.

Tagged with: advertising, arrivals departures feature, Asia, audience, Blake Irving, board, BoomTown, California, candidate, Carol Bartz, contract, corporate, David Ko, depart, digital, growth, headhunting, Heidrick & Struggles, Hilary Schneider, Industry Moves, innovation, Internet, Jerry Yang, Jimmy Pitaro, job, Kara Swisher, management, meltdown, metric, ouster, partner, power play, product, properties, remark, resignation, sales, search, spin, stock, Sunnyvale, takeover, talent, tenure, Yahoo

comments so far. Add yours.

http://advertboy.wordpress.com/ advertboy

yeah they should leave, they ran the company down to where it is now. The blame lies solely on the managers and there decisions!! Good riddence and glad for the MS infusion, they’ll get back on track now!
http://www.facebook.com/DerekAndersen Derek Andersen

Let me comment for Yahoo. “Who’s leaving?”
http://twitter.com/blondboydad james pruett

Yahoo was a great company. At least they aren’t dirtbags like Oracle.
Anonymous

These are good execs who are leaving now, and not just execs, but the people who actually get things done are out the door, too. Bartz is all bark, no bite, a two bit minor league player in way over her head. There’s going to be nothing left but a big mess by the time she’s done.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MUMKJJZCDMKTPM7PPZCAUXVHCE Tam Dmdmd

yahoo should blow all bullshit for allthingsd
obviously the name of the website came from kara
and her first learning about tech stocks in the last 5 years
kara is a newbee who knows nothing
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MUMKJJZCDMKTPM7PPZCAUXVHCE Tam Dmdmd

and tell me what Hilary Schneider accomplished in her life?
please.
carol bartz is getting rid of the “execs” that should not be execs.

go carol
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MUMKJJZCDMKTPM7PPZCAUXVHCE Tam Dmdmd

what kind of bullshit is this kara?
“Except not too much as changed” — how do u know?
a huge search deal with BING that is expected to raise yahoo’s search revenue is not BIG? come on kara. jerk!
http://BuzzVoice.com/ JohnAtkinson

Bartz will be gone in 6 months, Yang will run Yahoo again – and Microsoft will finally buy them.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MUMKJJZCDMKTPM7PPZCAUXVHCE Tam Dmdmd

kara’s doesn’t even report the positive the reporter on NBC stated. come on kara. get a clue. bias against YAHOO !

are u jealous of carol? i think you are.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MUMKJJZCDMKTPM7PPZCAUXVHCE Tam Dmdmd

cnbc.com/id/15840232?play=1&video=1603285794&__source=yahoo|headline|quote|video|&par=yahoo

listen to the positive in the video and buy yahoo’s stock. its a STRONG BUY !
Anonymous

I’dkljfas
Anonymous

OH wow, that looks like some pretty cool stuff dude.
Anonymous

Bartz never was right for the job, she lacked real Internet experience. As for Hilary, I met her years ago when she led Knight Ridder Digital and she is smart but not really the right fit for Yahoo either. Yahoo needs original thinkers not newspaper and chip company veterans.
http://twitter.com/mrj0 Mike Johnson

Maybe she could quit and plan a run for Governor of California!
Anonymous

Bartz should stand up and fire 90% of the execs at Yahoo before exiting herself. None of them are getting the job done
Anonymous

it’s not a meltdown – drama queen Kara… it’s a simple power/control struggle and rightly so – Hilary and her team lost out to the new kids on the block form msft. You didn’t really think Carol would run out some of the good talent like Wiener; and then hire a new CPO, Blake and give him partial control of Yahoo’s products… Blake wins, Hilary loses – Hilary and her lieutenants hit the road… it’s a common as apple pie in corp america…
http://henrykuo.com/ henrykuo

Yahoo’s not going anywhere anytime soon. But neither will it be growing or innovating soon either. I think an epicly bold thing they could do right now would be to just change their name entirely. The term “Yahoo” has grown so tremendously stale, and to many, just makes a person wince with low expectations whenever they hear or see it. Moreover, their logo is just plain goofy and difficult to integrate into their sub-brands, making it hard for their sub-brands to truly shine with their own voice.

Case in point, I’m a big fan of their Fantasy Football service. I prefer the simplicity and ease-of-use of their UI over other FF sites. The only thing I hate is their mundane and generic branding, and to me, that big honking Yahoo logo terribly limits the site from truly catering to the fantasy footballer in me. With their ginormouse multitude of sub-brands, they’d do well to find a name that can boldly stand on its own, yet recede behind the sub-brand to free those sub-brands to truly cater to each individual audience.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_W7MJBV5U5SIGAL74JFXSCKNZUI Billy Sedeta

Yahoo had the most users of any company on the internet last month. More than FACEBOOK (shitty name ehh..). More than GOOGLE (stupid business name too). Yahoo has over 600,000,000 members. It will nearly do in NET INCOME what Facebook does in sales. Not to mention it owns the greatest properties in the world in the fastest and largest country in the world: CHINA ! Yahoo owns the Ebay, Paypal, B2B, and soon the Groupon in CHINA thru its beautiful and genius buy of ALIBABA for $1 billion. Get with it. YAHOO IS STILL THE HUGEST STAR AROUND. Buy some shares while they are cheap !!!!!!
http://henrykuo.com/ henrykuo

Easy there Billy. I wasn’t putting them down or underestimating their strength at all. But you can’t argue that growth and innovation are lacking in Yahoo, and I was just proposing a creative idea that could potentially reinvigorate their brand among people that snub their nose at the mere sound of the term “Yahoo.”
Anonymous

3 people leaving is a meltdown? Isn’t that a bit dramatic?

1 had already had plans to leave – no meltdown there.

2 others are moving on out of how many other people in the upper ranks?

Hardly a “meltdown”.

Whatever happened to responsible reporting?
http://allthingsd.com/boomtown Kara Swisher

You’ll need to refrain from name calling or I will have to remove what is otherwise a good insight.
http://allthingsd.com/boomtown Kara Swisher

We have enough tech execs running for office in California now!
http://allthingsd.com/boomtown Kara Swisher

Carol was from Autodesk, not a chip company.
http://allthingsd.com/boomtown Kara Swisher

Um, you might not be following this saga, but it is three more in a LONG line of key execs over the last few months going.

And cut the tone or we’ll have to remove you.

We don’t mind disagreement, but it needs to be civil.
Anonymous

What was uncivil about my question?

Your headline was dramatic: MAJOR MELTDOWN.

I don’t publish your articles or make your headlines, YOU DO. There was nothing wrong with my tone, I think you need to put up responsible headlines that reflect reality, not reporting like you’re a gossip rag–or wait, maybe this is what your website really is?

Just calling it as I sees it.
http://allthingsd.com/boomtown Kara Swisher

These are three TOP execs at yahoo, in a long line of many key execs departure. The Yahoo board has hired a crisis management firm. The board has met in an emergency meeting Employees are freaking out.

And if you make one more remark calling this a gossip rag or questioning responsible reporting, you are gone.

We have reported on Yahoo with dead accuracy over the last few years, so you are dead wrong.
http://allthingsd.com/boomtown Kara Swisher

By the way being anonymous is a nice way of hiding when you want to act uncivilly
http://nigeltufnel.myopenid.com/ Nigel Tufnel

That’s a really interesting idea henrykuo and the more I think about it, the more I think you’re right. There’s a few things they kind of leave alone, like Flickr. And Flickr is thriving. They have some really good properties like Sports and Finance, but you’re totally right, the branding is pretty generic and it does hold back what could be bolder design. Unifying branding usually sounds like a good idea to corporate suits, but it can make things stodgy and generic. And I agree, the Yahoo logo sucks…it was nice and goofy back in the day, but it’s tired and needs a makeover.
http://allthingsd.com/boomtown Kara Swisher

Of course it is not. But this does not have to turn into AOL.
http://allthingsd.com/boomtown Kara Swisher

I think Yahoo is a huge asset.
http://allthingsd.com/boomtown Kara Swisher

BTW, Pitaro was responsible for all that fantasy sports stuff.
http://twitter.com/bobstone33 Rob

I have never seen a reporter comment so heavily within their own post. Interesting.
Eric Westby

It’s fantastic, isn’t it? This is how comments should be run. Turns it from an elementary schoolyard into a genuine dialog with the content creator. Huge, huge kudos to Ms. Swisher and AllThingsD.
Eric Westby

Nothing wrong with your tone? It was snide, superior, angry, and unprofessional. I mean come on: claiming that the site lacks “responsible reporting” just because you question the author’s reading of an event?

I for one welcome the enforcement of civility. Would that others followed Ms. Swisher’s lead.

If you don’t like it, there are about 100 trillion other sites on the Internet that might be more to your liking.
Anonymous

Neither did I. The guy was just commenting and there was nothing wrong with his tone. Her tone was worse. How can a journalist threaten her users like that: “And if you make one more remark calling this a gossip rag or questioning responsible reporting, you are gone”. What’s That!!
http://pithagora.com fjpoblam

I’d enjoy seeing YHOO rise from the ashes. GOOG needs competition. But I don’t see it happening anytime soon. Sounds as if Bartz has turned it into a Home Depot: “You can burn it. I can help.”
Anonymous

You’re significantly over estimating Pitaro’s influence on the end product… these guys are smart, particularly when it comes to their own PR and exposure… which works well in LA… but in terms of true tech product vision, drive, smarts… it’s not as much as the title implies. Is what is so confusing at Yahoo for many years… Media/Biz leaders that don’t have design, engineering, or product talent reporting to them – so what exactly did they influence?
http://twitter.com/GabeElliott Gabe Elliott

Dearest Kara,

That’s one point of view. Let me share another one that I’ve been privileged to be a part of.

Yesterday, as I took a brief moment to stand up and stretch at my desk and take a break from my Yahoo/Bing transition calls, I looked out across the floor and saw a rare sight. People working together. Sales people helping other sales people. Managers joining the rank and file, getting their hands dirty to make ‘all’ of our valued customers get serviced. Trainers walking (and sometimes running) the floor to answer any and every question that came up. I don’t think I’ve heard the words “how can I help” so much at any given time or place. You’d think in this hectic time that it would accompany complaints and frowns, but I’ve heard little to none of that. I challenge anyone to find this kind of teamwork anywhere!

If I’m being honest and transparent, it actually stirred my soul a little. Rarely do you see that kind of comradery in a workplace across ranks and roles and I would venture to say that kind of DNA starts from above. I believe that to determine the character of a leader, you must look at his/her followers/employees.

Judging by what I’ve seen this last few days, I’m proud to say YAHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
# Michael1000

Bartz was completely the wrong person for the job. They should have kept Yang on board as CEO and paid Karl Icahn to go away.
Anonymous

You will have to refrain from over moderating or I will have to remove what is otherwise a good reader base.
Anonymous

Obvious troll is obvious. Also over moderation is obvious. Welcome to the Internet – people disagree and you learn to live with it.

Don’t like it? 1990 wants you back.
http://www.facebook.com/dhonig David Honig

It really just doesnt matter who leads Yahoo and AOL. Social ( Facebook ) Destroyed any hope for them to really scale again. If FB decides to create a network of sites powered by their data, game over. Google buys Twitter, how can you really compete in a scalable way. Its about People now, not content. advertising is content now. Look at many Brands FB Pages, its fresh content which is the new look of advertising.
Agree or disagree, its just how it is. They all had good runs in their time. Now they are just dog’s with flea’s

@davehonig
http://twitter.com/SearchQuant Chris Zaharias

Yahoo has users, data on those users, great content, and all three of those assets are undervalued IMO. Time and tech will result in higher monetization, and we’ll look back on this angst-filled period as when Yahoo got tough.
Anonymous

As a former Y!, I can confirm that, with the exception of Ko, these are not the people getting things done. The true indicator of Y!’s failure to initiate real change is always best illustrated in who is not leaving. When Carol joined and promoted, rather than exit, Hilary, real reform was immediately out of reach. With Hilary’s departure, her ineffective and overly bureaucratic, politically motivated team remains in tact, and the cycle continues. There are excellent execs leaving Y!, but they aren’t listed here (David Ku for example).
http://advertboy.wordpress.com/ advertboy

Totally agree. Yahoo has flickr, in the age of mobile devices and everyone taking snaps of everything, flickr should be leading the pack and billions of images r theres to control if they execute right. Right now its all FB’s but Flickr can play the privacy hand and win. Honestly yahoo needs to put flickr first and win all that unique sticky content!! IMAGES PEOPLE is gold!
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/UN2IOV42YKYBHHACKOZNWUFMJQ whitneymuse

I sold what shares of YHOO in my portfolio; had those forever, but it is still the portal I go to everyday. That doesn’t change, but if they only could do what the engineers at Google did; look at the list of names on the right….blood in the streets.
https://me.yahoo.com/a/Jbl0k8wgppw4gVNYHlY89c1ez09KXJmjhIs-#c586f fmr yahoo grunt

One commenter said it all: power struggle, Semel/Yang execs depart as Carol/MSFT execs come in