Facebook’s top lawyer Ted Ullyot is leaving the social networking giant, apparently to take some time off.

Facebook disclosed the departure today. Ullyot, 45, will be officially gone in July; the search for his replacement will include internal and external candidates.

As general counsel, Ullyot has presided over a myriad of new, unusual and sometimes controversial legal issues, including managing high-stakes and complex litigation that ranged from Facebook’s battle with the Winklevoss twins, to a patent fight with Yahoo to investor disgruntlement around its initial public offering.

And, of course, over privacy issues. In many ways, given the Silicon Valley company’s pioneering role in social networking, Ullyot has had to work in a relatively undiscovered landscape, which has also attracted a great deal of scrutiny from consumers, regulators and investors.

He started in the fall of 2008, and has managed all the legal aspects of the company and built up the team from 10 when Facebook was a startup to more than 70 as a public company. In that time, Facebook has grown from 500 people to 5,000 and from 100 million to over one billion active users.

It has certainly been a ride for him, from beating back the Winklevii over their allegations related to the founding of Facebook to settling the patent dispute with Yahoo to handling the Federal Trade Commission investigation and more.

It is not clear what he will do next, but sources said he does not have another job lined up as of yet.

According to sources close to the situation, well-known tech exec Jon Rubinstein will be joining the board of Qualcomm, the San Diego-based chipmaker that has gotten a big boost of late for its role in the explosion of mobile devices.

Rubinstein is an interesting and logical choice for Qualcomm, having been a high-profile player for a long time in the mobile space, beginning with his work on the iPod while at Apple. After he left his last job at Hewlett-Packard last year, though, he has been very low-key.

(Update: Qualcomm confirmed the appointment in a press release.)

For Qualcomm, the selection of Rubinstein to join the board is something to watch, as he is the second exec from Silicon Valley to be tapped by the company recently. In March, Qualcomm hired tech investor Laurie Yoler as SVP of business development, making her “responsible for augmenting existing business relationships in Silicon Valley, as well as developing new strategic business opportunities for Qualcomm in the region.”

Rubinstein has even more experience here and is also familiar with a range of mobile efforts over the years, some of which were successful and others not so much, from his work at Apple, Palm and then HP. He is also a board member of Amazon.

Aside from CEO and Chairman Paul Jacobs, Rubinstein — who has degrees in electrical engineering and computer science — will be the most technically experienced director on the 11-person board.

Qualcomm declined to comment.

Here’s a nice primer on Rubinstein by Arik Hesseldahl, in a report on his leaving HP early last year:

Best known for his work on Apple’s iconic iPod music player, Rubinstein left Apple in 2006 and joined Roger McNamee as a partner in the private equity firm Elevation Partners, following its 2007 investments in Palm.

In 2009 he replaced longtime Palm executive Ed Colligan as its CEO, and oversaw a dramatic restructuring of the company’s products, including a significant rebuild of its smartphone operating system. Gone was the legacy PalmOS that had been used in so many popular devices like the Treo that for a time competed seriously against Research In Motion’s BlackBerry.

PalmOS was replaced by WebOS, which first appeared on the Pre smartphone, then later on the Pixi and Veer devices. After HP acquired Palm, WebOS was also used on the abandoned TouchPad tablet, and is now an open-source operating system overseen by HP.

Rubinstein’s departure is no big surprise. Sources said he hadn’t been seen at HP’s offices following the decision by former CEO Léo Apotheker to get out of the business of making WebOS-based hardware. His future plans have been the subject of speculation for some time.

After HP decided to exit the WebOS hardware business, Rubinstein was assigned to a vaguely described “product innovation role” within HP’s Personal Systems Group during a management shakeup last July. It was an unusual move and one made with little explanation at the time. But sources say it was a preface to Rubinstein’s departure, one intended to lessen its PR impact when he finally left. “That ‘innovation’ gig he was given in July was his first step toward the exit,” said one source, a former Palm exec with close ties to Rubinstein.

Zynga just filed a new 8-K regulatory document outlining revised compensation arrangements with its top tier of execs that ups the salary and bonuses, as well as restricted stock units, but ties them more closely to performance and the turnaround of the struggling social gaming company.

That is, except CEO and founder Mark Pincus, whose annual salary has been reduced to $1 and who will not receive any bonus or equity in 2013 — which is not an uncommon move for tech company leaders.

Said Zynga in its filing:

“The Company’s 2013 executive compensation program is designed to focus on two primary objectives: first, retaining and motivating our talented, entrepreneurial executive leadership team; and second, aligning our executive pay structure with company performance-based incentives. We believe that by focusing on both retention and performance, the compensation packages align with our strategy to build long-term value for our stockholders.”

The Section 16 execs impacted include: COO David Ko; general counsel Reggie Davis; Steve Chiang, president of games; Barry Cottle, chief revenue officer; CTO Cadir Lee; and CFO Mark Vranesh.

Interestingly, most of their salaries — which are about double their previous compensation — are now $500,000 for all, except Vranesh and Davis, who will earn $425,000.

Possible bonuses of zero to 200 percent of their cash salary, as well as the same level of stock grants from 970,500 to 1.8 million shares each, are tied to the performance of Zynga games, expanding the network and certain adjusted EBITDA levels. The RSUs vest over four years and nothing will be paid until February of 2014, after performance targets are met.

Zynga, whose stock has largely languished since its IPO in late 2011, has also suffered from a spate of executive turnovers, which has seemed never-ending and has added to Wall Street’s concern. Most recently, CTO Debra Chrapaty resigned to take a CEO job elsewhere; and, this week, the head of Zynga’s New York office and former CEO of OMGPOP, Dan Porter, left after that $180 million acquisition failed to garner the pop it promised.

Due to the many departures, Pincus rejiggered his exec lineup in November, giving the latest team members larger roles and focusing the San Francisco-based group on major areas of opportunity, such as real-money gaming and mobile.

Here’s the whole filing:

Form 8-K

Zynga CIO Debra Chrapaty, who has also done high-ranking stints at other big companies such as Cisco and Microsoft, has been named CEO of enterprise cloud storage company Nirvanix.

She replaces Dru Borden, who will remain at the San Diego-based company as SVP of planning and development and who will also remain a director. Chrapaty will also remain executive chairwoman of the board of Nirvanix, which has investments from Khosla Ventures and Intel Capital.

Chrapaty has most recently been CIO of Zynga, but was also SVP of Cisco’s collaboration software unit and was a corporate VP at Microsoft. She was also president and COO of E*Trade Technologies.

In an email to me, Chrapaty wrote: “I had a great run at Zynga, wish the company and the team the best. But this is a really unique opportunity to leverage a company that is at the center of unstoppable trends (to cloud which hasn’t really affected Fortune 1000 storage yet) and a company that already has some great existing people and customers and investors you have known for decades.”

Zynga has seen a number of high-level departures and top management reorgs in recent months, as it seeks to turn around its recent rocky performance.

Zynga said that Chrapaty, who was hired from Cisco in 2011, will be replaced by Zynga exec Dorion Carroll.

“We thank Debra for her leadership and contributions to Zynga over the past years and wish her luck in her future endeavors,” said Zynga COO David Ko in a statement. “As one of our Zynga Fellows, Dorion has provided direction, leadership and management across numerous technology and products teams at Zynga over the past three years as well as being one of our most senior technology leaders.”

If truth be told, Jerry Yang never really disappeared from the Silicon Valley scene, even though he did leave Yahoo rather suddenly just over a year ago — resigning from the board and all other positions at the iconic company he co-founded with David Filo in 1995, and then going very quiet.

When I met him last week at the airy and newish office space of Ame Cloud Ventures, off Camino Real, he politely declined to talk about that Yahoo tenure and departure, although Yahoo and he are inextricably linked in the history of tech.

That’s because the former Chief Yahoo has moved onto the next stage of his career, which perhaps could be called Jerry 2.0 — a term he’d hate (and give me a hard time for using).

Still, in many ways, Yang has launched a new digital life by focusing on what made him interested in tech in the first place: Entrepreneurs.

“I feel like the thing I missed the most is what really early entrepreneurs were doing,” he said of his latest efforts, which have been well known among techies, even if Yang has never been one to toot his own horn much in general. “I’m not sure at all that I’m any good at this mentoring/investing business — that’s why I’m using my own money, and that’s why it’s not a career.”

Yet. Yang is calling his nascent investment business — he’s more than an angel, but not quite a VC — a “work in progress” that might morph into something more.

“There are no LPs — just me, myself and I,” said Yang. “I invest in things for the long term and have a long horizon and the flexibility.”

That said, via Ame — which means rain (雨) in Japanese and happens to be the acronym of the names of his wife and kids — Yang has already invested in about two dozen startups in which he has typically puts in $100,000 to $500,000.

Explaining the name, Yang said: “Without rain, there is no life.”

And it’s clear that Yang has been very busy dousing the startup sector with a wide range of interesting investments, including:

• dotCloud, an application platform for developers
• AeroFS, a private file syncing and sharing service
• Impermium, an Internet security offering
• Jetpac, a travel app for the Apple iPad
• Lex Machina, IP litigation data and analytics
• Tomfoolery, which is aimed at improving mobile enterprise apps

Yang said what informs his investment choices centers on the activity around mobility, sensors, cloud and big data that is enabling the next generation of computing.

“The main investing premise is the idea that devices are more and more network connected,” said Yang, who noted that data that is being collected is now at another order of magnitude than ever before. “The cloud has become the next-generation supercomputer, and the smartphone has provided the revolution to spur its use.”

To select from the companies he sees, Yang has only one young associate, Nick Adams, who codes, helps on deal mechanics, interacts with entrepreneurs and also has had extensive experience in Asia.

That has been important, since Adams also leads business development for China’s Cloud Valley, which is run by Edward Tian, one of Yang’s strategic partners there. It was with Cloud Valley that Evernote, the hot productivity app in which Yang is also an investor, partnered to create a business there.

Still, Yang is not completely alone. He has weekly meetings with another former Yahoo, Ash Patel — who started the $10 million micro-venture fund Morado Ventures, which means “purple” in Spanish, and has a lot of ex-Yahoos as investors — as well as individual angel and former Yahoo CTO Farzad Nazem.

The trio trade ideas and deal flow, sometimes making bets together and sometimes not. Most of all, they leverage their time in the tech sector, both good and bad.

“I might not have better ideas, but I think my experience is unique and helpful [to entrepreneurs] and there is a value to my network,” said Yang. “I think what I have to contribute, besides money and a network, is that I am very candid about the experience I have had.”

That is indeed the case, because it is clear that Yang has a lot of wisdom to impart from his long and eventful history at Yahoo, as well as his stature as one of the Internet’s most important pioneers.

And, having covered the often circumspect Yang for much of that time, I would have to say that these days he looks about as energized, excited and enthusiastic as I have ever seen him.

“I’m truly humbled by the talent that’s out there, and at the same time recognize it’s a very crowded space,” said Yang. “It is not a career yet, but I’m having a lot of fun, and we’ll see.”

According to numerous sources, Vivek Sharma, who is GM of the powerful Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger products, has left the company.

It’s not clear where Sharma — who has been at the Silicon Valley Internet giant since 2009 and has worked in a number of areas, including commerce and search — is going or what the reasons are for his departure from Yahoo.

Some sources said he clashed with CEO Marissa Mayer, who has been involved in the recent overhaul of one of Yahoo’s key consumer products, due in part to recent issues related to email vulnerability and other issues. But others said he simply wanted to move on and has a new job lined up already.

There are several other top Yahoo execs who are likely to go in the coming weeks, especially given many bonuses are awarded this month. Mayer has also been looking over her top management and wider workforce and culling it, sometimes in ways that attract national controversy and even a lawsuit.

Keeping talent and finding new blood has been an issue for the fledgling CEO. As I have previously reported, as well as others in more detail this week, she is approving all new hires herself and has put in place more stringent hiring standards at Yahoo.

Sources said she has been trying to convince a top product exec at Google to essentially replace Shashi Seth — with whom she parted ways in January — who would oversee Mail, Answers, Messenger, the homepage and possibly the media group.

In addition, her COO Henrique De Castro has a search out for a new head of the key Americas unit to man its important sales division and more in the U.S. market.

In other words, a lot of empty desks that need filling.

I have an email in for comment into Yahoo, but you know how that goes (FYI: It doesn’t).

In a major exec departure, Square COO Keith Rabois will be leaving the San Francisco payments company.

Square gave no other information about the sudden management change, but sources said disagreements between Rabois and CEO and founder Jack Dorsey were part of the reason for his exit.

It’s not clear if there were more serious issues between them, or whether the parting was related to a specific business problem. But the departure of the No. 2 exec is significant, so definitely more to come on what happened.

In a statement about the move, Rabois only said:

It is amazing what Square has accomplished since August of 2010. When I joined, there were 17 engineers all reporting flatly to Jack. The local coffee shop served as our interview room. Leading our amazing crew has been the most rewarding professional journey of my life. I am forever grateful to Jack, for his confidence in me and to each and every member of the team for allowing me to learn from them.

But every day matters. And it is better at this point for me to be doing something different every day.

As a result, I’ve decided to resign from Square. I am very excited about what lies ahead for the company. Square could not be better poised for greatness.

I will have more to share about my next opportunity soon.

Said Square’s Dorsey:

Today I accepted Keith’s resignation from Square. When he joined, we had fewer than 30 employees and under 1000 active merchants. Today, over 3 million individuals and businesses are able to accept credit cards with Square, processing over $10 billion annually. We couldn’t have done it without him and we wish him well in his next opportunity.

Square CFO Sarah Friar will become acting COO, Square said. It’s an unusual move to put an exec without a lot of deep operational experience in the second-most-important slot at Square, though the former Goldman Sachs analyst and Salesforce.com finance exec is clearly familiar with the heart of the company’s business.

The change in top management comes at a time of fast growth for the three-year-old Square, which completed a $200 million funding round in the fall that valued the company at $3.2 billion. At the time, the company said it had more than 400 employees and would grow by 100 more by year’s end.

Square is best known for allowing a range of small businesses, such as taxicab drivers, to accept credit and debit cards using their mobile phones. But it has also branched out into other mobile payments areas.

Besides his stint at Square, Rabois is a well-known angel investor in Silicon Valley, and serves on several boards, including Yelp’s. He has worked at many startups, too, including PayPal (acquired by eBay) and Slide (acquired by Google).

According to multiple sources close to the situation, Yahoo Connections SVP Shashi Seth is leaving the company. CEO Marissa Mayer sent an email to staff earlier today saying the last day for one of the top execs of the company would be tomorrow.

[UPDATE: A Yahoo spokesperson confirmed the departure of Seth, as well as that of Chief Information Security Justin Somaini, which I reported yesterday.]

As I reported last night, rumors of the former Google and AOL executive’s departure have been running through Yahoo for months and now it appears to be true.

Sources said Mayer is in the midst of culling top execs, even as some are contemplating departure due to unhappiness under her new regime.

Seth has been in charge of a swath of key products at Yahoo including Yahoo Mail, the Flickr photo-sharing service and many others. Mayer is an experienced product exec from her tenure at Google and has been involving herself deeply in that arena.

Seth also posted a goodbye on the LinkedIn social network, writing:

“After three years I have come to the incredibly hard decision to move on from Yahoo. I truly enjoyed working with an amazing team, that was passionate, hard working, and truly brilliant. I will miss working with them!”

Shakil Khan — the well-known head of special projects for the popular Spotify music service, who took the same kind of job at Path last year — is departing the personal social networking site.

He will remain a special adviser, and is also an investor in the San Francisco-based startup.

The globe-trotting Khan (pictured here), who arrived at the startup only last March, had worked with Path on a number of efforts, especially in expanding its international presence. Path recently hired Shindo Kimihiko to turbocharge the company’s efforts in the fast-growing Asian markets.

A Path spokeswoman confirmed the departure after I inquired, and the London-based Khan also emailed me this statement:

When I joined Path, the company was just 20 people, only available in a handful of languages and the resources were mainly U.S.-focused. During my time there, we launched in 17 languages, established great teams in marketing, localization, growth and international and doubled the number of staff. As more than 50 percent of Path’s usage is now international, I’d say that my original objective of helping Path to think in more international terms and capitalize on global opportunities is done :) Moving to the next stage of Path’s growth, I remain as a Special Advisor to the company, as well as continuing to spend time with my other investment companies, including Spotify, SecondMarket, Summly, Blackjet and a couple of exciting startups at incubation stage.

Path recently announced that the service — which has raised $55 million in funding — had five million users.

Yahoo’s Chief Information Security Officer Justin Somaini (pictured here) has left the company, according to sources.

It’s not clear why the top security risk exec has departed the Silicon Valley Internet giant. But, said sources, it could be partially related to the recent hacking issues around the newly refreshed Yahoo Mail, including its vulnerabilities to cross-site scripting, or XSS, attacks. This has been blamed for a surge in spam emanating from compromised email accounts, a problem that some security experts outside the company said Yahoo has been slow to fix.

Along with a number of execs, including Connections SVP Shashi Seth, addressing such issues were within Somaini’s purview. It’s not clear if Seth — who has also been the subject of persistent departures rumors internally over the last few months — will also be getting some of the blame for the embarrassing security problem in a key Yahoo product.

But sources noted that Somaini’s leaving is also part of a wider look at a range of higher-level execs at Yahoo — top staff status is based on Levels, such as L3, L4, L5 — that is now taking place across the company by CEO Marissa Mayer.

Sources noted that Mayer is moving to replace a number of them as she seeks to remake the top ranks of the company, even as some are contemplating departure in the March time frame when their various and sundry stock options and other payouts are realized.

That said, sources said Somaini has been looking to leave too, unhappy with the new regime, as are some others at his level.

His quest for a new job should not be too hard, since Somaini has a strong resume, coming to Yahoo in April of 2011 from Symantec, where he was also CISO. Before that, he worked as a director of information security at VeriSign. He has a very lively cybersecurity blog, too, which you can look at here.

I reached out to Yahoo for comment, but have not heard back as yet.

Michael Katz, one of Yahoo’s high-ranking online advertising execs, is leaving the company, according to a memo he sent out to staff on Friday.

Considered a savvy online ad player and a well-regarded entrepreneur, Katz came to the Silicon Valley Internet giant a year ago when it bought Interclick, the ad-targeting company he co-founded and headed, for $270 million.

Yahoo later used Interclick’s technology in its audience-buying platform called Genome. In a reorganization announced in January, Katz was placed in charge of sales operations and data and performance optimization for Genome.

The data unit is at the center of efforts by Yahoo’s new CEO Marissa Mayer to turbocharge its ad business.

But the Katz missive, which is below in its entirety, clearly signaled that his departure was not an amicable one, which sources underscored was part of a larger rejiggering of the ad sales staff under new COO Henrique De Castro.

“As some of you are starting to learn, my last day with the company will be today,” wrote Katz on Friday. “Leaving Y! is not the hard part — how it happened and leaving all of you is what makes this difficult.”

How it happened, said several sources, was that Katz was suddenly told by HR head Jackie Reses last week that there was not a place for him, only days before a large 12-month retention bonus was to be paid out to him for the Interclick acquisition.

While it is an unusual thing to part on willfully difficult terms with an entrepreneur, as it sends a bad signal to others considering joining the company, Yahoo’s new leadership has been playing hardball with a lot of top execs it is parting ways with, and is also limiting departure packages.

Former marketing head Mollie Spillman, for example, was suddenly let go after she was replaced by former Lockerz CEO Kathy Savitt. And, though he had wanted to leave, former CFO Tim Morse was also told of his replacement in a swift exec house-cleaning move, as was former HR head David Windley.

Of course, such moves are not unusual when a new set of leaders enters the corporate picture. That’s why many at Yahoo expect even more changes to come soon in the ad unit, with most assuming that Mayer and De Castro will bring in new staff they had previously worked with at Google.

Currently, top Yahoo ad execs include Peter Foster, GM of audience advertising at Yahoo; and Mark Ellis, VP of North American sales and global partnerships.

It will be interesting to see what happens to them and others as part of a large ad reorg at Yahoo now taking place, which will definitely include a variety of departures and arrivals. One recent notable Yahoo ad exec departure, for example, was Debbie Menin, who headed entertainment and travel sales strategy, and is now a top sales exec at hot video entertainment network Machinima.

More will come in the new year, given that De Castro has recently briefed employees on a plan to move its sales organization to a “category” model. Simply put, that means its sales reps will sell all of Yahoo’s ad products, as well as its search offerings, in a vertical process organized around advertiser segments.

That massive shift is not Katz’s to worry about anymore, it seems. Here’s his entire email to staff, which is a pretty eloquent one, as goodbye letters go:

Friends and Colleagues,

6 years ago if someone would have told me that the hardest part about building a business would be to one day say goodbye, I would not have believed them. As some of you are starting to learn, my last day with the company will be today. Leaving Y! is not the hard part — how it happened and leaving all of you is what makes this difficult. I will miss the daily interactions and will take with me the many memories. This has honestly been so much fun.

I have learned a lot along the way:

Sometimes winning looks like losing. If you don’t fail, you can’t progress and the stakes only get bigger as you go further down your path.

Be genuinely happy for those that are successful at reaching their goals. If you spend anytime wishing it were you, it will never be.

Stay humble, and never declare victory.

Approximately correct is better than definitely wrong. Do not let perfection be the enemy of excellence.

We are all human — we may make mistakes, we must forgive, forget, and move on together.

Treating people right is not an option.

Treat adults like adults and they will behave like adults. Rules are for children.

People and culture are everything. It’s about so much more than free food and parties, it cannot be forced and without it a business cannot succeed.

I consider myself so very lucky to have known a handful of loyal friends that took a chance, quit their jobs and risked a lot to build this business with me. Their loyalty and hard work helped interclick get off the ground and for that I will forever be grateful. The team they helped to build has truly made this the greatest place to work. Each and every one of you made interclick the very best company to work for.

I would like to leave you all with a reminder of what together we built:

– A company that started with $27,000 and sold for $270,000,000

– A company that redefined the way that marketers think about audience targeting and data

– A company that went public in 2009 on NASDAQ defying all odds

– A company that spit in the face of adversity early in 2011 and came out victorious

– A company whose people are the future of this organization.

So be proud of what together we achieved, look back and know you were part of something big. Then look ahead and know that this is just the beginning, we will all one day build again. For those of you that continue your career at Y!, I ask that you don’t lose sight of greatness. Remember what you are capable of and continue to make me proud.

Thank you for your loyalty, passion, dedication, and collaboration. The finish line is only the beginning of a new race.

-MK

Here’s the official news from my earlier report about new Yahoo board member Max Levchin and the departure of two directors, Weather Channel’s CEO and Chairman David Kenny and Brad Smith, CEO of Intuit.

Levchin is the fourth director to be appointed as part of an mutually agreed-upon agreement between Yahoo and Third Point’s Dan Loeb, as part of a settlement of its proxy fight earlier this year.

He’s a well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneur, with stints at PayPal and Slide, a Facebook social apps maker that was sold to Google and later closed down.

Some sources close to the situation maintain that other current board members are also mulling eventual departure and that there will be more director additions, but that is not expected to happen for the next months.

Here’s the official press release:

YHOO_News_2012_12_13_General

In what will be a major shift in how the Silicon Valley Internet giant sells online advertising, Yahoo’s new COO Henrique De Castro has briefed employees on a plan to move its sales organization to a “category” model, according to numerous sources close to the situation.

Simply put, that means its sales reps will sell all of Yahoo’s ad products, as well as its search offerings, in a vertical process organized around advertiser segments, such as automotive, entertainment and packaged goods.

This is how Google, where both De Castro and CEO Marissa Mayer recently worked, conducts its ad sales efforts. (After copying free food and smartphones, staff evaluation efforts and more, What Would Google Do seems to be strategery at Yahoo these days.)

In contrast, Yahoo has long sold its advertising in a regional and tiered organization against premium and performance inventory in display and search.

The move from regional to vertical is a “seismic shift,” said one source quite accurately. That’s because Yahoo’s go-to-market efforts have been designed to avoid vertical conflict and its sales staff have built up advertiser relations across many areas. In a vertical organization, those reps will be forced to give up these long-term relationships with marketers, some of which have been built over years.

There are, of course, many different ways to organize sales — and each has its fans and detractors. But one thing is clear: Making such a major change has potentially large ramifications on Yahoo’s financial performance, at least in the short term, since advertising makes up the bulk of its revenue.

The change might also result in some attrition among the sales staff, said sources, although many at Yahoo are expecting that De Castro will bring in his own execs from outside to help with the transition. (One interesting name I heard floated was former Googler Penry Price, who was close to De Castro when they both worked there. He is currently president of Media6Degrees, an ad targeting start-up.)

De Castro (pictured here) will need all the help he can get as he overhauls Yahoo’s sales efforts. Well-regarded Chief Revenue Officer Michael Barrett left Yahoo in mid-October after De Castro got the COO job.

His departure has left a large gap in sales leadership and in maintaining strong relationships with big advertisers and agencies. De Castro himself is not as well known in the ad marketplace, despite many years at Google in sales (more on that to come).

Currently, the key ad execs at Yahoo under De Castro are Peter Foster, who heads audience advertising, and Mark Ellis, VP of North American sales and global partnerships.

De Castro outlined the new ad org plan to staff immediately after a multi-day offsite with top sales leaders last week, at which Yahoo’s acquisition options in the ad tech market were also discussed.

Sources said De Castro noted that the changes could take place as early as January 1.

De Castro is also planning to have Yahoo’s annual global sales meeting for the end of January in Las Vegas. Last March, the gathering — then set for about 1,300 advertising staffers in Florida — was cancelled due to a restructuring under ousted CEO Scott Thompson.

In addition, sources said, Yahoo is planning on having a much more prominent presence at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show — also taking place in Las Vegas in January — in order to solidify its relationships with advertisers.

Its big weapon at the giant annual confab will apparently be Mayer, who has not yet interfaced significantly with the company’s big ad clients since taking the top job in July. At CES, sources said, Yahoo is hoping the “Marissa Halo” — i.e. excitement around the telegenic exec — will help boost its business.

Sometimes — even in the most complex of organizations, which software behemoth Microsoft most certainly is — it does come down to a simple choice.

And in the case of the seemingly sudden departure of Windows head Steve Sinofsky yesterday, several high-level sources at the company said that it came down to former CEO and co-founder Bill Gates’s backing of current CEO Steve Ballmer in the controversial decision to part ways with the powerful exec.

The goal? To better allow various units to work together more closely going forward.

While Gates — who is now chairman of Microsoft’s board — has had a longtime and very close relationship with Sinofsky, he supported the move by Ballmer to promote more integration of Microsoft’s other divisions and also involve other top executives more significantly than ever before in the planning and development of the next version of Windows.

This more collegial cross-division effort was different from the closely held, command-and-control and even secretive method for which Sinofsky had been well-known throughout the company. In fact, numerous sources said, it was anathema to him.

“There was Steve’s way or no other way,” said one exec, in a common sentiment about Sinofsky’s iron-handed rule of the flagship Windows business. “Now, in the new world we’re competing in, it’s about creating strong areas of integration among all our products.”

In this regard, Sinofsky was not known as someone who played well with others. While considered highly effective and “deeply brilliant” by most for being able to lasso Microsoft’s most important unit, he also had a longstanding reputation for being very difficult to work with.

And that includes working with Ballmer, who sources said Sinofsky had clashed with, and who also had been wary of Sinofsky, especially since he had been one of the internal candidates mentioned as a possible CEO successor.

Sources at Microsoft did not waste a moment to point out that the situation was akin to the tension between ousted software exec Scott Forstall at Apple and its new CEO Tim Cook.

A favorite of the late CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs, who protected the prickly Forstall from criticism, his continued challenges after Cook took the reins at Apple ended with a similarly sudden departure.

Except in Sinofsky’s case it was not as sudden as it seemed. AllThingsD had gotten wind of preparation for his departure over the last several weeks, from a number of sources inside and outside Microsoft, even as Sinofsky readied the significant launches of both Windows 8 and Surface.

In fact, I had queried Microsoft about Sinofsky’s possible plans to leave over the weekend, but company spokesman Frank Shaw had declined to comment.

But even for those who are cheering the move internally, the departure of Sinofsky now leaves a decided leadership void in the upper ranks of the company.

Sinofsky demonstrated the ability to both tame the massive beast that is Windows and to push the operating system in new directions, all while hitting deadlines. Even with his challenging personality, those are significant feats.

Still, that accomplishment was often overshadowed by Sinofsky’s willingness to mix it up with other execs.

“He had no factions, except those who worked for him,” said one source. “He picked a lot of fights.”

That included tussles with former chief software architect Ray Ozzie — who left Microsoft in 2010, in part after battling against Sinofsky over how the cloud-based world was shaping up, and how Microsoft should respond.

Likewise, former Entertainment and Devices unit leaders Robbie Bach and J Allard also found themselves on the losing end of a corporate battle with Sinofsky, as Microsoft axed their planned Courier tablet and agreed to give tablet responsibilities to the Windows team. Both left the company in 2010.

Sinofsky also clashed with former Microsoft Business division head Stephen Elop, who left the company in 2010 to run Nokia, now an important partner in the smartphone business.

Having sided with Sinofsky in all those fights, though, Ballmer belatedly decided that he wasn’t the right choice to bring the company together in the future. Sources said Ballmer raised those concerns with Gates, who agreed.

Sinofsky’s departure is not without risk, because it’s not clear who at the company now has both the business and technical savvy to predict where the industry is going, and to point the company in that direction.

And it’s also uncertain if it is possible for Microsoft to now pull as a team at all, given the company’s longtime and decidedly pronounced proclivity for siloed fiefdoms like Sinofsky had built at Windows — an empire that will now, presumably, be disassembled for a new and more cohesive structure.

“The idea is for collaboration across boundaries that have been in place for too long,” said another source. “It’s easier said than done, of course.”

Of course, but sources said that among the key execs to look at in this regard are Online Services head Qi Lu and Servers & Tools President Satya Nadella.

Both have deep technological talents, as well as being well-liked at Microsoft.

More on what the Sinofsky departure means for them next.

Some news cannot wait, of course, and sources at Apple said the company had planned to release news of the sudden exit of Scott Forstall, one of its major execs, this afternoon.

Maybe so, but it’s also unusual timing. Due to Hurricane Sandy — which was poised to hit landfall in central New Jersey just as Apple made its announcement about the iOS mobile software chief’s leaving, along with that of Apple Store retail head John Browett — Wall Street reaction to what appears to be a major management move by CEO Tim Cook will not take place until at least Wednesday.

That’s because the massive storm has led to the closure of the stock markets today and tomorrow, leaving investors to mull on the major reorganization without a lot of ability to react.

Apple shares closed at $604 on Friday, up about 49 percent over the past year. Its stock had declined slightly recently, after last week’s quarterly earnings did not meet the enormous profit expectations of Wall Street. Still, Apple had — for anyone else — a blockbuster fourth quarter.

The tech leader reported $8.67 per share of profit on sales of $35.97 billion.

How the departure of Forstall and, to a much lesser extent, Browett (who has been a largely unpopular exec since he was hired a year ago), will be greeted by shareholders when markets open should be interesting.

On one hand, Forstall has been a major exec at the company for a very long time, in charge of key areas of success for Apple, including the software for its hugely popular iPhone and iPad. Forstall has even been called CEO-in-waiting in some media accounts.

That said, many sources report that he has wrangled with other top execs, including Cook, and he has been known as someone with a doesn’t-play-well-with-others personality. One source told me today that Forstall had made numerous “open challenges” to the Apple leader over the last year.

While that’s not necessarily a negative at Apple — the late CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs was also someone who did not suffer fools or even simple mistakes among trusted staff — the recent troubles as it replaced Google’s mapping software with its own had clearly tarnished Forstall’s image.

In addition, while Apple does great at hardware, as well hardware/software integration, it has often fallen down in other key software efforts, such as MobileMe, iTunes and more.

This is not all Forstall’s fault, of course, but his sudden departure — which will take place officially next year — means that Cook is consolidating control over the top management.

Thus, the did-he-jump-or-was-he-pushed meme will doubtlessly increase over the next few days. Pushed seems to be the consensus so far.

But here’s a little insight into Apple’s often opaque culture to better discern management Kremlinology there: iTunes is still advertising competitors’ maps instead of its own failed product, and Forstall got no stage time at Apple iPad mini event last week.

Clearly, the removal of Browett, who had made a series of moves that were negatively greeted by Apple’s retail unit, will make Cook look decisive, especially since he had hired him. But whether that extends to how the influential Forstall was dispatched — and it looks like he was — will be another story to grok for Wall Street.

Big management shifts at Apple are now taking place.

Scott Forstall, the man in charge of its iOS mobile software efforts and a major and longtime executive at the tech giant, is leaving next year and will remain an adviser to CEO Tim Cook until then.

In addition, new retail head John Browett is headed out the door.

As part of the move, Apple noted that four key execs — Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi — would “add responsibilities to their roles.”

Ive gets “Human Interface”; Cue will take over Maps and Siri voice recognition responsibilities; Mansfield will run a new unit called Technologies, “which combines all of Apple’s wireless teams across the company in one organization”; and Federighi gets the big job of iOS and OS X.

More to come on what happened, but Forstall’s departure is very big news and a drastic move for such an important player in the tech space.

He had big fans and also many detractors for his sharp-edged personality, as well as what some described as exhibiting “growing open challenges” to Cook himself. Forstall had previously been called “CEO-in-waiting” in one media account in Fortune.

In addition, numerous sources noted persistent tension between Forstall and several other key execs, especially the powerful design chief Ive.

Veiled internal politics at Apple aside, Forstall has been a key part of Apple’s success over the last decade, especially in the development iPad and the iPhone.

Recently, there has been some level of ire at Apple over the troubled rollout of its own mapping software and the replacement of Google’s popular service, which was Forstall’s responsibility. (No, this move does not mean everyone gets Google mapping back, as one person asked me.)

Browett’s leaving is a little less of a surprise. Since he got the job, he has alienated many within the highly successful retail organization at Apple, many sources said.

His departure comes less than one year after the former Dixons CEO was hired by Apple to succeed Ron Johnson, who left for J.C. Penney in November 2011. Recently he’s been criticized by some Apple Store employees for unfriendly policy changes aimed at increasing Apple’s retail profit margins.

More to come, obvi, but here is the official press release from Apple, which it put out with the most understated title of all time:

Apple Announces Changes to Increase Collaboration Across Hardware, Software & Services

Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi Add Responsibilities to Their Roles

CUPERTINO, California — October 29, 2012 — Apple® today announced executive management changes that will encourage even more collaboration between the Company’s world-class hardware, software and services teams. As part of these changes, Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi will add more responsibilities to their roles. Apple also announced that Scott Forstall will be leaving Apple next year and will serve as an advisor to CEO Tim Cook in the interim.

“We are in one of the most prolific periods of innovation and new products in Apple’s history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The amazing products that we’ve introduced in September and October, iPhone 5, iOS 6, iPad mini, iPad, iMac, MacBook Pro, iPod touch, iPod nano and many of our applications, could only have been created at Apple and are the direct result of our relentless focus on tightly integrating world-class hardware, software and services.”

Jony Ive will provide leadership and direction for Human Interface (HI) across the company in addition to his role as the leader of Industrial Design. His incredible design aesthetic has been the driving force behind the look and feel of Apple’s products for more than a decade.

Eddy Cue will take on the additional responsibility of Siri® and Maps, placing all of our online services in one group. This organization has overseen major successes such as the iTunes Store®, the App Store℠, the iBookstore℠ and iCloud®. This group has an excellent track record of building and strengthening Apple’s online services to meet and exceed the high expectations of our customers.

Craig Federighi will lead both iOS and OS X®. Apple has the most advanced mobile and desktop operating systems, and this move brings together the OS teams to make it even easier to deliver the best technology and user experience innovations to both platforms.

Bob Mansfield will lead a new group, Technologies, which combines all of Apple’s wireless teams across the company in one organization, fostering innovation in this area at an even higher level. This organization will also include the semiconductor teams, who have ambitious plans for the future.

Additionally, John Browett is leaving Apple. A search for a new head of Retail is underway and in the interim, the Retail team will report directly to Tim Cook. Apple’s Retail organization has an incredibly strong network of leaders at the store and regional level who will continue the excellent work that has been done over the past decade to revolutionize retailing with unique, innovative services for customers.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

Another big media departure from Yahoo: David Rice, VP of media properties, has left the Silicon Valley Internet giant to take over as SVP and GM of CBS Interactive Games, according to sources close to the situation.

Rice left Yahoo Monday and starts at CBS on Monday, sources said.

Earlier this week, the head of Yahoo’s Omg! and Yahoo TV, Liz Coughlin, left to run business operations at next-gen digital content site Young Hollywood.

The media properties at Yahoo have always been its most successful and powerful units, including powerhouse sites such as Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports.

Which is why Rice is a great get for CBS. Hired in 2010 as part of the crew brought in by former Chief Product Officer Blake Irving, the former Microsoft exec was the key media product manager in charge of strategy and execution of Yahoo’s home page, news, sports, finance, entertainment, lifestyle, games and more.

CBS Interactive Games is a big digital division at the company, with more than $50 million in annual revenue, 32 million unique monthly visitors and one billion page views a month, according to comScore. GameSpot is its flagship site, along with GameFAQs, Metacritic, ComicVine and a variety of video streaming and eSports offerings.

Rice will be in charge of all operations at CBS Interactive Games — at Yahoo, he had only media product duties, although the many properties are all huge.

In a related move this past week, new CEO Marissa Mayer hired former Google sales exec Henrique De Castro to become COO at Yahoo. Mayer also told staff that all media units would report to him.

Yahoo said today in a regulatory filing that it had hired one of Google’s top sales execs, Henrique De Castro, as its COO.

Earlier today, I had reported that CEO Marissa Mayer had been close to nabbing the advertising exec, who has most recently been Google’s president of partners business solutions.

De Castro is getting a pile of money for taking the job, including a $600,000 yearly base salary and an annual bonus that could double that figure. In addition, the Silicon Valley Internet giant will give him $36 million in stock grants, including a one-time retention equity award of $18 million and $18 million in the form of performance-based stock options.

He is also getting $1 million in “make-whole” cash for forgoing compensation from Google and $20 million in stock to replace his shares at the search giant that will vest over four years.

That is a very big check, although Mayer garnered an even bigger one when she joined the company in July.

Yahoo’s regulatory statement on the De Castro hiring is embedded below in its entirety, so you can read about his new riches for yourself (unless Yahoo’s persnickety legal head tries to block it).

Said a Google spokesperson about the departure: “We’re grateful to Henrique for all of his contributions at Google and wish him all the best in his new role at Yahoo!”

Both Mayer and also former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson have made previous overtures to nab De Castro, who has held a number of high-level jobs for Google across the globe, including at DoubleClick, in display ads and with major partners.

While he had previously rebuffed those efforts, this time De Castro bit.

There were signs he might this past week, after De Castro canceled a major offsite for his employees, and several attendees who know him well said he was not present at the company’s first night of its annual Zeitgeist event for advertising and publishing clients. The suave De Castro is usually a more noticeable fixture at such gatherings.

This is Mayer’s first big hire at Yahoo, having added only lower-level or less well-known execs to her stable of talent since she was appointed.

She touted the hire in a tweet, although the news was long out the door, while also noting on Twitter it was her first full day at the office since having her first baby two weeks ago.

My first full day back in the office, and I’m excited to kick it off by announcing my new COO, Henrique de Castro: businesswire.com/news/home/2012…

— marissamayer (@marissamayer) October 15, 2012

The hiring does create a potential issue in the sales arena, especially with current head of revenue Michael Barrett. De Castro and Barrett worked together at Google and multiple sources said the pair did not get along there.

It might not matter. While Barrett has publicly said he planned to stay at Yahoo under Mayer — he was hired by interim CEO Ross Levinson this summer before she arrived — many sources said he does not want to be at the company for the long term.

De Castro has a lot of work to do for the big payout he is getting and it will be a big challenge for him to turn around the troubled organization.

Along with declining growth, search market share, engagement and more, Yahoo also has had a management turnover issue of epic proportions.

De Castro will presumably be in charge of making it all better at Yahoo when he arrives sometime before the beginning of the year and is likely to focus on operations while Mayer zeroes in on products.

One area of trouble: While she has lavished attention on cultural issues and on the company’s tech troops, sources said most of the advertising and media leadership at Yahoo have had little interaction with Mayer since she arrived this summer.

Advertising, of course, is Yahoo’s biggest money maker.

The Portugal-born De Castro has a lot of experience here and is decidedly more of a charmer than Mayer.

More importantly, he is a very high-profile hire, as well as a colorful one. He speaks a menu of languages, dresses with a lot of style and is a worldwide traveler. I know him a little bit and find him to be smooth and confident, even if a little cagey.

Before Google, De Castro worked at Dell and also McKinsey.

All this makes him a perfect choice for Mayer, who is also a former Googler, since she has been considering purchasing a range of companies in the advertising tech space. The most likely candidate of late is PubMatic, which has been in early talks with Yahoo about being acquired.

The Silicon Valley start-up would be a solid add to Yahoo’s ad platform offerings, especially if it wants to stay competitive with Google. PubMatic helps publishers effectively manage their display ad inventory, and competes with Google’s AdMeld.

(Ironically, Barrett ran that start-up, which he sold to Google for $400 million about a year ago.)

Here is the De Castro hiring document from Yahoo:

YHOO-20121015-8K-20121015

And here is the official press release from Yahoo:

Henrique de Castro Named Chief Operating Officer of Yahoo!

October 15, 2012

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) announced today that Henrique de Castro has been hired as chief operating officer (COO). Reporting directly to Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, de Castro will be responsible for strategic and operational management of Yahoo!’s sales, operations, media and business development worldwide.

“Henrique is an incredibly accomplished and rigorous business leader, and I’m personally excited to have him join Yahoo!’s strong leadership team,” said Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!. “His operational experience in Internet advertising and his proven success in structuring and scaling global organizations make him the perfect fit for Yahoo! as we propel the business to its next phase of growth.”

“The combination of Yahoo!’s unique properties with high quality content, its renewed focus on outstanding user experience and its massive reach bring tremendous value to users, advertisers and partners,” said de Castro. “This is a pivotal point in Yahoo!’s history, and I believe strongly in the opportunity ahead. I can’t wait to join Marissa and the team and get started.”

De Castro brings more than 20 years experience leading operations, strategy, partner management and revenue generation for some of the world’s leading brands. Most recently, he was vice president of Google’s worldwide Partner Business Solutions group, where he was responsible for advertising platforms and services for Google’s publisher and commerce partners. Prior to that, he led Google’s media, mobile and platforms organization, where he helped to grow the business significantly. Prior to Google, de Castro spent two years at Dell Corporation, where he managed sales and business development operations across Western Europe. He has consulted for McKinsey & Company, where he advised numerous clients across many different industries. His career also includes senior positions in private equity and advertising businesses.

De Castro will join the company on or before January 22, 2013, or as soon as he has satisfied his obligations to his current employer.

Yahoo’s David Hantman, who has been its deputy general counsel and VP of global public policy, is taking a similar job at the online rentals start-up Airbnb, according to an internal email memo he sent today.

The job move is interesting, given the many regulatory issues that the San Francisco-based company faces in local markets as it grows.

Hantman is already coming out swinging in his internal memo to Yahoo staffers about the departure:

“[Airbnb has] some huge challenges with a few antiquated laws in their biggest markets, so my job will be to help them convince governments that allowing people to rent out their own homes or apartments should not be a problem, and that in fact it is great for the economy and for the tons of people that can only pay their mortgage or rent through the extra income they get from airbnb … As always, I like to be on the right side of history, and I believe in the mission and the team over there.”

An Airbnb spokewoman (also a former Yahoo) confirmed the hiring. (I did not even try Yahoo’s current PR personage, as I already have the memo and she never calls back, anyway.)

Here’s Hantman’s full email to Yahoo staffers on the move:

From: David Hantman
Date: Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 9:41 AM
Subject: A brief announcement to help clutter your inbox
To: David Hantman

Friends –

With apologies for the impersonal nature of this e-mail, I wanted to let you know that I recently accepted a job at an exciting new company called airbnb, and will thus be leaving Yahoo! next month. I am already assisting in the process to select my successor, which will hopefully be complete soon.

This is a bittersweet departure for me, since I leave behind an awesome team and a company I love and believe in. But while I have loved every day of my 5+ years at Yahoo!, I am very excited to return to my startup roots. When I graduated law school way back in 1994, the first thing I did was to co-found an Internet company with a couple of friends. That company eventually went public, but I walked away for my Capitol Hill dream long before it had a viable business model (or really anything other than a few of us trying to convince the world that the Internet was going to be awesome someday). For the last five years, I have had the privilege of working for and among my heroes — people who turned a simple list of neat web sites in 1995 into a company that serves 700 million users and helped revolutionize the way people get and share information around the world.

Now, though, I have a second chance at the startup life — this time at a company whose brilliant founders have already proved it to be an amazing and disruptive business. I am excited to join an incredible team at airbnb and, hopefully, to be a small part of their future success. Airbnb is maybe the most successful little known company in the world. Millions of people have used the service to rent rooms or entire apartments — even private islands — as an alternative to hotels. They have some huge challenges with a few antiquated laws in their biggest markets, so my job will be to help them convince governments that allowing people to rent out their own homes or apartments should not be a problem, and that in fact it is great for the economy and for the tons of people that can only pay their mortgage or rent through the extra income they get from airbnb. For hundreds of years families have been taking in boarders or renting out extra space, and this service is just bringing that process into the 21st century, at a time when it is more needed than ever. As always, I like to be on the right side of history, and I believe in the mission and the team over there.

Anyway, please let’s stay in touch. I will be headquartered in DC to start, and while this yahoo-inc e-mail will soon stop working, my personal e-mail will stay the same:

xxx@xxx.com [redacted by ATD, since it is Hantman's personal email]

All the best!

David

Marissa Mayer, in a move that was not unexpected, has replaced Yahoo CFO Tim Morse with longtime software-focused financial exec Ken Goldman.

When she bounced Yahoo’s longtime HR exec David Windley in August, just a month into her tenure, I noted:

“Several sources at the company said that they expect Mayer to replace almost the entire current executive team, from its CFO Tim Morse on down.”

Thus: Check, please!

Morse’s departure is part of a major house-cleaning by Mayer of many longtime Yahoo execs that she had not hired herself.

Besides Morse and Windley, many others have hit the road, including former interim CEO and media head Ross Levinsohn, CMO Mollie Spillman, U.S. sales head Wayne Powers and former strategy exec Jim Heckman.

(In fact, if I were a senior Yahoo exec B.M.M. — Before Marissa Mayer — I would be doing a resume refresh about now.)

Sources said she has been looking for a replacement for Morse since she arrived, seeking to put in place her own execs.

That would be Goldman, along with several other recent hires. He comes from Fortinet, a provider of threat management technologies. He has some consumer Internet experience, having previously worked at one of Web 1.0’s most exquisite disasters, Excite@Home.

Morse, who was hired in mid-2009 by ousted CEO Carol Bartz, had served — including as interim CEO — through a number of major crises at Yahoo.

(On a personal note, Morse has always been a polite, affable and stand-up guy in my dealings with him, even in some very dicey moments and though I most definitely had to have been very irritating to the buttoned-up exec.)

Sources said Morse had been trying to leave the company for some time now, but wanted to get through its board meeting last week before departing. He has been talking recently to a number of companies about moving there.

That’s no surprise, since sources also said that Mayer had been increasingly sidelining Morse — who had previously been a key player in decision-making at Yahoo — when making a series of decisions about Yahoo’s future.

For example, he was not heavily involved in the recent strategic presentation that she unveiled in very broad strokes to Yahoo employees today.

Here’s Yahoo’s official press release on the CFO switcheroo:

Yahoo! Names Ken Goldman as Chief Financial Officer

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) today announced that Ken Goldman will join the company as chief financial officer (CFO), effective Oct. 22. In this role, he will be responsible for Yahoo!’s global finance functions including financial planning and analysis, controllership, tax, treasury, and investor relations. Goldman will report directly to Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer.

“Ken is one of the most accomplished and respected financial executives in the technology industry having served as a CFO for more than 25 years, and we’re thrilled to have him join Yahoo!,” said Mayer. “His track record leading the financial strategy and stewardship of many successful public and private companies makes him an ideal choice for Yahoo! as we enter our next phase of growth.”

“Yahoo! is an iconic brand with an incredibly strong business model and balance sheet,” said Goldman. “I believe there is a lot of runway ahead for this business, and I look forward to working with Marissa and the rest of the executive team as we define Yahoo!’s future.”

Goldman brings more than 30 years of experience in financial, operational and business management. He joins Yahoo! from Fortinet, a provider of threat management technologies, where he served as CFO. Prior to Fortinet, Goldman spent nearly six years as senior vice president of finance and administration and CFO of Siebel Systems, until the company’s acquisition by Oracle Corp. in January 2006. He has held CFO positions at Excite@Home, Sybase, Cypress Semiconductor and VLSI Technology.

Goldman has served as a director on several public and private sector boards and has been named among “America’s 15 Most Connected Capitalists” by Forbes magazine.

Goldman succeeds Yahoo! CFO Tim Morse, who has been with the company since June 2009. Morse will leave the company later this fall.

“Tim has been a trusted leader for Yahoo! over the past three years and has expertly guided the company through some key periods as well as our most important strategic deals,” added Mayer. “I’ve personally relied on Tim’s knowledge and leadership in my first few months at Yahoo!. I know I speak for everyone in wishing him the best.”

ShoeDazzle, the Los Angeles-based personalized style and retail service, is replacing its current CEO Bill Strauss with its founder Brian Lee.

In an interview, Lee said Strauss had “voluntarily resigned,” but did not give any further details of the departure.

Strauss joined ShoeDazzle last fall from a longtime stint running Provide Commerce, which has e-commerce sites such as ProFlowers and RedEnvelope.

“Bill has done some amazing things for the business,” said Lee, who has been serving as chairman of ShoeDazzle. “The company has so much potential and over the past year has grown tremendously.”

The start-up, which got its first burst of attention from its affiliation with famebot Kim Kardashian, recently announced that it would tweak its monthly subscription offering and it also added several new retail categories beyond shoes.

It has certainly gotten a lot of money to make it work, raising $60 million from a high-profile group of venture investors since it was founded in 2008, including from Polaris Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

The reappointment means Lee will now have two CEO jobs — he has most recently been running The Honest Company, a monthly subscription service he co-founded with actress Jessica Alba and others that delivers bundles of eco-friendly diapers, wipes, skin care and home cleaning products.

Lee noted that Honest co-founder Sean Kane, who has been COO there, would be stepping up in helping run that start-up.

“These are two of the most exciting companies in L.A. and there are strong teams at both companies,” said Lee, who also co-founded LegalZoom.

To get an idea of the now multi-tasking entrepreneur, here’s Lee talking about Honest with Alba in a video interview I did earlier this year:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120924/exclusive-shoedazzle-replaces-ceo-with-founder-brian-lee/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120823/exclusive-digital-chief-jon-miller-leaves-news-corp/ http://allthingsd.com/20120823/exclusive-digital-chief-jon-miller-leaves-news-corp/#comments Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:00:00 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=244270

According to sources close to the situation, News Corp.’s Chief Digital Officer Jon Miller will soon be leaving the media giant.

It seems to be a cordial, although perhaps inevitable, parting — sources said Miller will remain an adviser to chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, as well as COO Chase Carey and deputy COO James Murdoch, for a year after his departure in late September.

Update: News Corp. confirmed the departure in a press release, which is embedded below.

His leaving brings into focus the fate of News Corp.’s overall digital strategy in an upcoming new structure. Miller was hired in 2009 to turbocharge the company’s long-troubled digital assets.

But I had noted in an article in July that the well-known Internet exec was not likely to continue at News Corp. in the wake of a complex transaction that will ultimately break the company apart into two separate entities — an entertainment company and a publishing one.

That’s a very different situation from when Miller was hired by the media giant to lead its tech and online initiatives and make digital a priority across its many divisions.

Not for lack of trying or access to powerful News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch — it has been a mixed bag for Miller in his tenure.

That’s due in no small part to a problem faced by many execs like Miller: The difficulty of successfully pushing digital initiatives inside a large traditional media organization.

His job has encompassed everything from a failed effort to revive its once mighty Myspace service to selling it and other properties off to working to improve its Hulu partnership, where he serves on the board.

It is not clear who will replace Miller as one of the News Corp. directors at the complexly-owned premium video service, which had been for sale and then not recently.

One of the brighter Miller accomplishments for News Corp. has been forging decidedly better relationships with key Internet companies, both large and small, as well as with venture investors in Silicon Valley and elsewhere.

That was most pronounced and visible between Apple and News Corp., which struck a number of deals to work together, some of which worked and some that had much less success.

Miller has also been active in China, working on several digital investment opportunities for News Corp. there. That included a recent $70 million investment in Bona Film Group.

He was key to a recent $45 million investment by the company and others in the company that sells the Roku video streaming device.

He also worked on various New Corp. efforts on creating channels on Google’s YouTube, including WIGS, a drama series. The jury is still out on these kinds of creative endeavors, of course, especially to a company with much more lucrative traditional film and television assets.

There was a possibility that, in his leaving, Miller might form a separate investment fund to focus on digital publishing and media, funded by News Corp. or even by the Murdoch family, who control the company.

But that has appeared not to have worked out, said sources.

Before he came to News Corp., Miller ran an investment fund with former Yahoo exec Ross Levinsohn called Fuse Capital. He also was chairman and CEO of AOL under its Time Warner ownership and was a top exec at IAC/InterActiveCorp.

Miller has remained an active angel investor, funding a range of start-ups such as Maker Studios, Voxer, Science, Solavei, Personal.com, as well many as others.

He is also chairman of OpenX and serves on the boards of Shutterstock and TripAdvisor.

Clearly, this is a world Miller will return to easily and it’s likely he’ll be starting something sooner than later. (Maybe bringing the band back together with Levinsohn?)

JonathanMillerAug23.2012

(Full disclosure: This Web site is owned by Dow Jones, which is owned — in turn — by News Corp.)

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120823/exclusive-digital-chief-jon-miller-leaves-news-corp/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120817/boxes-and-a-bar-onlive-employees-pack-up-after-gaming-company-obfuscates-about-fate/ http://allthingsd.com/20120817/boxes-and-a-bar-onlive-employees-pack-up-after-gaming-company-obfuscates-about-fate/#comments Fri, 17 Aug 2012 21:24:18 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=242751

According to multiple reports I have received, some employees of OnLive have been walking out of their Palo Alto, Calif. offices over the last few hours laden with boxes.

And some, no surprise, are headed to a nearby bar — The Patio — presumably to drown their sorrows.

The departures from the online cloud-gaming service came after a meeting this morning in which its top execs told staff that it would be letting almost the entire staff go, but without a lot of explanation of what that meant.

While founder and CEO Steve Perlman runs a number of other digital efforts — via his own Rearden Labs — at its Silicon Valley HQ, sources said only fraction of staffers will be left to keep the servers running until a resolution for the assets is found. Kotaku reported that OnLive would be filing an “alternative to bankruptcy called an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors, or ABC, in the state of California.”

It is not clear who actually owns the pricey technology and patents for OnLive, which has raised $56 million in funding from investors such as Maverick Capital, Time Warner and HTC. HTC, the Taiwanese telecom giant, invested $40 million of the total in early 2011.

That’s a lot of dough, so it is not clear what has happened or if Perlman is poised to sell off the entity.

Sony recently bought one of OnLive’s rivals in the space — Gaikai — for $380 million to turbocharge its cloud-gaming service efforts.

One thing is entirely clear: While egregiously denying it was doing so, the gaming and virtual desktop software start-up is effectively shutting down OnLive as it has been previously run.

Earlier today, an OnLive spokesperson denied the obvious situation.

“We don’t respond to rumors, but the service is not shutting down,” OnLive said, while also bizarrely flacking their games.

Last week, I heard a rumor of just this thing happening and asked a spokesperson last Friday via email: “I hear via very good sources it is closing down or cutting back.”

This was the disingenuous response: “The latest rumors have been around acquisitions — this is a new one! Not the case, but officially we never comment on rumors.”

No need for comment, as you can see from the photo above and also here that was just sent to me.

OnLive launched in 2010 as a Web portal for streaming games, which it demoed here, from the D: All Things Digital conference in 2010.

As Lauren Goode wrote earlier: “In addition to its cloud-based gaming platform, which runs on PCs, tablets and now Google TV products, OnLive also offers [Microsoft] Office-based, virtual desktop software for [Apple] iPads and [Google] Android tablets, which got the Palo-Alto-based start up in some hot water with Microsoft earlier this year.”

Mashable first reported on the possible layoffs earlier. Let’s upgrade that to actual.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120817/boxes-and-a-bar-onlive-employees-pack-up-after-gaming-company-obfuscates-about-fate/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120810/exclusivr-yahoos-longtime-hr-head-david-windley-out/ http://allthingsd.com/20120810/exclusivr-yahoos-longtime-hr-head-david-windley-out/#comments Fri, 10 Aug 2012 23:47:07 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=240302

David Windley

As I reported earlier today, new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is shaking up the human resources unit at the company.

Consider it shook and definitely not stirred: Leaving the company, by mutual agreement, is its longtime head David Windley, several sources said.

Also out is his No. 2 exec, several sources said, talent acquisition head Grant Bassett. Both have been replaced by another Yahoo HR exec Kristen Robinson on interim basis. (In another big HR departure, international head Marc Ketzel just left for a top HR job at Samsung.)

Windley’s tenure has included a huge brain drain at the Silicon Valley Internet giant and a series of layoffs at Yahoo, as well as an ongoing musical-chair series of top leaders.

Yahoo, keeping with a spanking new policy of non-communication, has not returned an email seeking comment.

Windley’s leaving comes as exactly no surprise, since Mayer has arrived and taken control of its culture and recruiting, which have basically boiled down to making a Yahoo version of the search giant. Before taking the top job at Yahoo, Mayer worked at Google for her entire career.

As I wrote earlier: “While free food and better swag have attracted attention, Mayer has also plunged into the recruiting arena aggressively. She is now reviewing all new hires personally — another steal, um, borrow, from Google — and has also begun to require a much more stringent set of standards.

That has included the requirement of the addition of solid college grade-point averages and a preference for higher-level educational institutions for incoming resumes.”

Windley follows former interim CEO Ross Levinsohn out the door as Mayer begins her house-cleaning of the current crop of exec at Yahoo, while searching her her own team.

Mayer is reaching out to a number of execs outside the company, including Twitter exec Katie Stanton, as well as perusing at a series of start-ups to bring new people into the company.

She has made two hires of mid-level execs from Google — both of whom have been described to me as longtime Mayer loyalists. But she has still to pull in a big name or deeply experienced exec to her team.

We’ll be watching for that, of course, as well as who’s next to go in this game of “10 Little Yahoos.” Several sources at the company said that they expect Mayer to replace almost the entire current executive team, from its CFO Tim Morse on down.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120810/exclusivr-yahoos-longtime-hr-head-david-windley-out/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120810/is-yahoos-human-resources-department-next-to-get-a-mayer-shakeup/ http://allthingsd.com/20120810/is-yahoos-human-resources-department-next-to-get-a-mayer-shakeup/#comments Fri, 10 Aug 2012 19:46:29 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=240163

David Windley

According to sources close to the situation, active new CEO Marissa Mayer has turned her focus on the troubled Silicon Valley Internet giant’s human resources unit.

It is now headed by David Windley, whose tenure has included a huge brain drain and a series of layoffs at Yahoo, as well as an ongoing series of top leaders.

Yahoo, as has become its new practice, has not returned an email seeking comment.

Some in the company think a big shakeup is coming, which could include Windley’s departure.

He could stay too, but it is clear his new boss will be in his business much more than previous CEOs.

That is probably no surprise in the wake of the hiring of Mayer. The former Google exec has instituted a series of quickfire changes across the company related to its culture and recruiting, which have basically boiled down to making a Yahoo version of the search giant.

While free food and better swag have attracted attention, Mayer has also plunged into the recruiting arena aggressively. She is now reviewing all new hires personally — another steal, um, borrow, from Google — and has also begun to require a much more stringent set of standards.

That has included the requirement of the addition of solid college grade-point averages and a preference for higher-level educational institutions for incoming resumes.

Windley has been at Yahoo through a long series of CEO musical chairs and has been criticized internally for the talent loss and also its series of layoffs at Yahoo.

While none of this is his fault specificially, Windley is the person, according to its Web site, in charge of “driving Yahoo!’s worldwide strategies around talent, culture and organization effectiveness.”

Which has not been very effective — thus, the Mayer scrutiny.

If he left, Windley would follow former interim CEO Ross Levinsohn out the door as Mayer begins her house-cleaning of the company and looks to put her own team in place.

Mayer is reaching out to a number of execs outside the company, including Twitter exec Katie Stanton, as well as perusing at a series of start-ups to bring new people into the company.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120810/is-yahoos-human-resources-department-next-to-get-a-mayer-shakeup/feed/ 0