Aside from upcoming layoffs, it seemed as if Yahoo had stanched the flow of major execs from the company.

Not so, it seems, as several sources with knowledge of the situation confirm that the two top execs of the troubled Internet company’s media unit will be announcing their departures later this week.

SVP Scott Moore (pictured here), who runs Yahoo’s media group out of its offices in Santa Monica, Calif., and also Alan Warms, who came to Yahoo from its BuzzTracker acquisition last year and is head of Yahoo News, Tech and Education, will both be leaving.

It is not clear what their future plans are.

Moore declined to comment when reached by phone, and Warms did not return an email requesting comment. Yahoo also did not yet respond to a request for comment.

In any case, the departures are troublesome as Yahoo (YHOO) tries to right itself, especially since its content operations are among its bright spots. Yahoo’s various sites are some of the largest on the Web, such as its news, finance and sports online franchises.

Overall, the media properties hit more than 70 million unique visitors monthly.

Losing top execs is also a problem as Yahoo also attempts to complete a merger with Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL. Talks between the companies have been ongoing for months.

With high-ranking Yahoo execs like Moore gone, it will likely fall to AOL execs, such as its content head Bill Wilson, who will be more likely to head integration efforts, if a deal is ever struck.

And while no replacement for Moore has been selected, insiders note that Yahoo Sports head James Pitaro, who has reportedly gotten a number of outside offers, would be a likely internal candidate for the job.

Then again, Yahoo’s management might reorganize yet again, creating another new set-up for its content operations or add new execs.

[Update: Later today, Yahoo named former Microsoft digital exec Jeff Dossett, who was the lead for audience, content and programming strategy and execution in the U.S., as its new SVP for Audience. I had reported last month that Dossett was being considered for a big job at Yahoo, although Microsoft denied it at the time.]

Rumors of Moore’s departure have been swirling for months, especially recently outside the company. BoomTown previously reported he was looking at starting a new venture.

I did a video interview in July (see below) with Moore about his plans for the Media Group, where he has worked since he came to Yahoo in mid-2005 from a series of major posts at Microsoft (MSFT).

At Microsoft, he ran its various content operations for many years. Moore came to Yahoo to work for Lloyd Braun, the Hollywood exec who left Yahoo under yet another swirl of controversy.

His portfolio grew when Braun’s other No. 2–Vince Broady–was re-orged out of his job last December, giving Moore purview over the whole Media Group.

In Yahoo’s latest reorganization, Moore has been reporting to U.S. head Hilary Schneider, in a move to better align its media and advertising sales.

Moore and his staff have tried a range of large and small experiments in original content, some of which have worked and some of which have not.

Interestingly, Yahoo has not abandoned its original content effort at all, doing newsy programming like political debates and even an online interview with President George Bush.

But the company seemed to be settling into a pattern best exemplified by its recently launched Tech Ticker, which is a combination of Yahoo’s own inexpensively produced but well done content and videos and that of outside contributors (AllThingsD.com content is featured there, for example).

More to come, but here is the interview with Moore from this summer:

Yesterday, we broke the first news of the acquisition of Zimbra by Yahoo, after we had the first scoop last week of Yahoo’s purchase of BuzzTracker.

Those Yahoo dealmakers are certainly busy these days and we will continue to watch them oh-so-carefully.

Until then, here’s more info on Zimbrafest:

First, the $350 million deal between Yahoo and the open-source email and calendaring provider has been a long time coming, much earlier than just the summer time frame Yahoo’s Brad Garlinghouse has said in a number of interviews I have read on the Web.

While the Yahoo senior vice president also has said he was blown away by the company when it first came onto the scene several years ago, according to sources close to the deal team at Yahoo, Zimbra has been in its sights since well before former CEO Terry Semel left the company. Apparently, Yahoo’s always careful (some say glacial) decision-making caused the slower pace.

Nonetheless, the high price (well above the valuation of Zimbra in its last round of funding) was certainly a bold move for Yahoo, especially coming after the $300 million deal to buy behavorial ad network BlueLithium earlier this month.

Both deals are signs that Yahoo understands it has to double down in areas it dominates clearly, like in display advertising and, of course, mail. Yahoo’s consumer mail product is a powerful one and its recent iteration has gotten a lot of kudos (like those from Walt Mossberg here).

The deal takes Yahoo’s offerings up a notch in the innovation arena, where Zimbra has been doing a lot of cool user interface and other stuff, such as its nifty “Zimlet” widgets.

In addition, it also drops Yahoo right into the commercial space, where Google has been plowing, given Zimbra’s own inroads in the university, business and ISP markets.

I am sure there will be a lot to complain about going forward (the will-Yahoo-ruin-the-sassy-little-Zimbra seems to be the refrain in some posts on the Web). But let’s just say for now that this hefty buy might make a nice fit at Yahoo.

To explain why, here’s a lovely video we shot of Garlinghouse talking about the deal, while in the atrium of San Francisco’s Palace Hotel at the TechCrunch40 conference. He discusses the deal, as well as what he thinks is over- and under-hyped.

And because we hate to see him grimace when we do, we did not mention his (in)famous “Peanut Butter Manifesto” in the video, even though we were totally thinking about it. (Sorry, Brad!):

Backed by Benchmark Partners, Redpoint Ventures and Accel Partners, San Mateo, Calif.-based Zimbra’s clients include Comcast, many ISPs and a number of colleges. The Wall Street Journal’s Robert A. Guth wrote about the company last year.

In a post by Om Malik on his GigaOm blog, he noted: “The Zimbra-built email client marries the email and calendaring applications with visual voicemail, and eventually will tie into other Comcast triple-play services.”

Yahoo’s been on a bit of an acquistion roll of late, grabbing behavioral ad network BlueLithium for $300 million earlier this month and news aggregator BuzzTracker last week for $5 million.

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang continues on his 100-day march–and now seems to be making a number of interesting moves.

The acquisition was within Yahoo Senior Vice President Brad “Peanut Butter Manifesto” Garlinghouse’s unit.

Yahoo is briefing reporters today on the deal, but left BoomTown off the list. Big mistake, as it just makes us cranky and bored!

That included our exclusive report that Facebook was raising a massive round of funding at an even more massive valuation.

The news, which comes as no surprise (make hay while the sun shines is my motto, too!), apparently brought a boatload of all new offers to the company execs at the hot social-networking site.

So much so that CFO Gideon Yu–whom I have nicknamed “Death Cat” for his uncanny ability to land a big job at the hottest company of the moment, much as that nursing-home feline can sense death–has been fielding requests to shower founder Mark Zuckerberg with cash from everyone and his uncle and from across the globe.

I got a lot of them, too, that I did not pass on, but sorry, DC!

Also very amusing was the comment by Gabe Rivera of Techmeme about the Yahoo acquisition of BuzzTracker, which I also broke last week, on a posting by HipMojo’s Ashkan Karbasfrooshan on the deal. Techmeme was one of the rumored sites Yahoo considered, some speculated (not me!), before Yahoo decided they had too-pricey valuations.

I repeat Rivera’s comment in its entirety below, as it is very funny:

Ash, please, enough speculation! I suppose at this point I can share some of the details.

“I didn’t ask for ‘too lofty a valuation.’ I informed Yahoo that I would agree to sell given (1) $4 million up front (2) $2 million earn-out over no more than two years (3) a lifetime supply of the delicious Y! peanut butter Brad G. wrote about and (4) a purple and yellow unicorn.

“Tom Cruise, Yahoo’s lead in the negotiations, made it clear some of my requirements were not acceptable. Discussions ended amicably.

“Warmest congratulations to both BuzzTracker and Yahoo, of course!”

Also, we liked that the very excellent David Shabelman of the Deal blamed the whole anticipation at what would happen at Yahoo on BoomTown, because we have initiated our 100-day countdown, based on CEO Jerry Yang’s comments to investors this summer.

Wrote Shabelman:

Yes, Yang is responsible for getting hopes up for some kind of substantial announcement, when he said in July he would spend the next 100 days coming up with a fresh strategic plan for the company. But what he probably wasn’t counting on was Kara Swisher writing about what she thought Yahoo should do ad nauseam in her BoomTown blog, creating outsized expectations.”

Ad nauseam!? David, as you must know, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapons are fear! And surprise! And ruthless efficiency! But no red uniform. (See below.)

But wait until you see what we have on tap for Day 75! And, we already have called in Hollywood stylists for Day 99.

Now, Yahoo, how do you plead?

OK. That explains BuzzTracker’s decision to sell. Now how do we explain Yahoo’s decision to buy? After all, BuzzTracker isn’t exactly leading the market for blog aggregators. In fact, it’s essentially a poor man’s TechMeme and an even poorer man’s Megite. Why buy an also-ran? Apparently, the price was right. “Yahoo had looked at other better-known competitors in the space,” sources tell AllThingsD.com’s Kara Swisher. “But those trendier (and more popular) start-ups apparently had too lofty valuations.”

OK. That explains BuzzTracker’s decision to sell. Now how do we explain Yahoo’s decision to buy? After all, BuzzTracker isn’t exactly leading the market for blog aggregators. In fact, it’s essentially a poor man’s TechMeme and an even poorer man’s Megite. Why buy an also-ran? Apparently, the price was right. “Yahoo had looked at other better-known competitors in the space,” sources tell AllThingsD.com’s Kara Swisher. “But those trendier (and more popular) start-ups apparently had too lofty valuations.”

Today, the Internet giant will announce the purchase of a clever Web site called BuzzTracker, which uses a combination of editorial selection and complex algorithms to aggregate content from all over the Web, allowing users to delve deeply into specific topics.

For those techies, it is not unlike the very fine TechMeme, which essentially has its digital thumb on the pulse of tech news and is a big traffic driver in the sector.

While Yahoo did not disclose the price it paid for BuzzTracker, sources close to the company said it bought the site–which is wholly owned by Chicago-based Participate Media–for about $5 million.

Earlier this week, Yahoo’s European head Toby Coppel struck an interesting ad and search deal with social-networking site Bebo. And last week, Yahoo bought behavorial ad-serving network BlueLithium for $300 million.

So it looks likes the lights might be on over there at Yahoo, which has been struggling to reinvigorate itself of late and by necessity under Yang’s leadership.

Back to BuzzTracker: Using its own technology, BuzzTracker creates “custom content feeds” automatically that aggregate news, blogs, reviews, discussions, video and audio. But to add a level of quality, it handpicks the 90,000 online content sources it uses.

Its motto is: “All the News the Buzz Approves.”

As BuzzTracker explains on its site: “Our goal has been to launch a news site that leverages the power of the ‘head of the long tail’ of the blogosphere to automatically generate news pages for a multitude of topics, both broad and narrow.”

To determine relevance of an item, for example, it looks at a range of elements, such as what the most blogged-about story for a particular topic is.

Yahoo had looked at other better-known competitors in the space, said sources, such as the San Francisco-based Sphere (which we use on this site for such content aggregation).

But those trendier (and more popular) start-ups apparently had too lofty valuations.

In an interview, Yahoo Media Group exec Scott Moore said he had connected with Participate’s founder and CEO Alan Warms, in fact, at our D5 conference in late May. (Another coincidence: I covered one of the early start-ups at which Warms was a senior exec called Freeloader, based in D.C., for the Washington Post.)

Moore said he had been looking around for such automated-news and content-discovery functionality, in order to augment the efforts of Yahoo’s 60-person news team.

“We want to connect our users to as much information as possible, anything from Britney Spears to the Santa Monica City Council meeting notes,” he said. “We love BuzzTracker’s usefulness, because if you’re interested enough, you might want related content we might not be publishing and hosting.”

The purchase is clearly part of Yahoo’s renewed efforts to link to more third-party content, rather than pointing at its own owned-and-operated properties.

As part of the deal, Warms will become vice president and general manager of Yahoo News, which Moore said currently has an audience of 36 million unique visitors a month.

Participate has said on its Web site that it will soon include user-review and discussion sites to layer over the aggregation at BuzzTracker, much like what happens on the popular Digg service.

According to sources at Yahoo, the company has already built a Digg competitor, but has not launched it yet. It is not clear if that effort would be integrated into BuzzTracker or not.