In an interview BoomTown did yesterday with Yahoo’s Chief Product Officer Blake Irving–the video of which will be posted later today–at the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s HQ in Sunnyvale, CA, he managed to actually give me some news to report: the hire of crackerjack user experience design head Tim Parsey.

Parsey’s title will be SVP of User Experience Design at Yahoo, which is now centralizing the important task, Irving said. Previously, in the 67-ring circus that has been Yahoo’s product organization, design was widely dispersed.

Parsey certainly has the cred in the industry, with stints at Apple, Microsoft’s entertainment and devices unit, Mattel and Motorola. Most recently, he was a principal at a Seattle-based design firm called shiftalliance.

The British native ran Apple’s design studio for five years in the early 1990s and and was the main dude behind Motorola’s freaky V70 switchblade mobile phone in 2001.

Best of all: Parsey was once responsible for Barbie, as you can read below from his bio from shiftalliance, which announced his departure several days ago on its site:

[Tim Parsey] co-founded shiftalliance to focus on higher order value creation in business. The company is built on three beliefs: 1. that higher order, or meaningful, value is the next value driver in mature markets; 2. that sustainable innovation needs to consider the whole business model and; 3. that establishing a people-centric continuous change process is critical for success in today’s markets .

Prior to shiftalliance, he served as Partner, User Experience (UX) Director, Xbox Design at Microsoft, where he led a 22-person team responsible for the design and development of a new technology-enabled paradigm of interaction and entertainment that would not disrupt revenue streams from the existing Xbox gaming platform and contribute to the business in a more strategic way.

Previously, at Mattel as VP, Consumer Products Design, Tim was responsible for the Barbie, Hot Wheels and Fisher Price brands (in all non-toy categories) across 45,000 sku’s contributing nearly $2 billion in revenue worldwide. His charge was to establish the strategic and creative vision, and evolve the culture from a traditional licensing to a ‘leveraged innovation’ and ‘marketed product’ based approach. Key components of this evolution were to establish the first design languages for Mattel brands; lead design innovation for cross-functionally conceived marketing platforms (product, entertainment/web and 360 degree marketing); and nurture the individual licensee businesses and 5,000 designers across the portfolio into a community motivated to share and innovate together, thereby driving the business evolution at an appropriate pace. Before that, as VP, Wheels Design, he led 45 toy designers to advance the Hot Wheels, Matchbox and Pixar CARS toy design businesses. Activities included establishing product and brand design strategies, evolving the toy teams and building the first licensed consumer products design team, all of which led to re-energized business growth. This experience was a planned opportunity to understand toy design and specifically play innovation, and led to the formalization of the first play design methodology for Mattel.

Prior to Mattel, Tim served as Corporate Vice President at Motorola, where he built and led the Consumer Experience Design (CxD) group for the Personal Communications Sector (mobile phones) from an established industrial design team of approximately 22 in the US to a multifunctional design organization of approximately 150 distributed. This journey that included developing design as a competitive advantage for the company began 5 years after the StarTac and led to the design of Razr, the most successful brand and product range to be informed by a design strategy called ‘rich minimalism’. At the time, approximately 100 cell phones a year were being designed with a broad range of derivatives for different markets and carriers. CxD was distributed across Asia, North America and Europe and included Advanced Design and Design Planning groups that fed advanced thinking and strategies into the User Interface, Industrial Design and Human Factors groups. Specific achievements included establishing a collaborative industrial and user interface design methodology with key carriers.

Before that, Tim served as VP, Product Design and Development for ACCO, a manufacturer of office supplies and Manager, Design Studio at Apple after working as staff designer at ID Two (now IDEO) and other leading design consulting firms.

And here is a video of him speaking at a TEDx event about a year ago:

In fact, the Bay Area unit was one of the first parts of Nokia that CEO Stephen Elop visited when he took the job earlier this year–in part because the company’s board had already scheduled to have its meeting in the area.

Silicon Valley has slowly become an important spot for the company, despite the fact that Nokia doesn’t sell all that many smartphones in the U.S.

Earlier this month, the company’s area employees got a new home as Nokia consolidated nearly all of its Bay Area workers in new offices in Sunnyvale (see picture above). Each floor of the Finnish-style interior has self-standing structures that from the outside look like saunas, but are actually “privacy huts” used for small group meetings or just some alone time pondering the ins and outs of the cellphone business. Nokia kept its research labs in Palo Alto and Berkeley so they could stay close to the area’s top two universities.

The local staff is doing a range of different things. About 50 of Nokia’s Silicon Valley employees come from the company’s 2008 purchase of a Norweigian company called Trolltech, which makes an application platform called QT that is used to control everything from phones to trains and more.

There are also a variety of individuals and small groups working on various product and research efforts. Kari Pulli is a Nokia Fellow who focuses on camera technology. He helped develop a panorama photo feature that is part of the latest Nokia cellphones. His team also developed an HDR photography capability–a feature Pulli reminds people was added to Nokia’s phones before Apple included it in the iPhone. He said his team is currently working on techniques to improve cellphone pictures taken in low-light conditions.

Typically, such photos are either noisy or blurry, depending on what step is taken to compensate for the lack of light. But by taking two pictures–one picture that aims to be sharp, though noisy, and another that will be a bit blurry, but have low noise–he said that a better composite image can be created.

Pulli, who was born in Finland but has spent the past four years in Palo Alto, said he is not too worried that the new Nokia chief is not Finnish. “At least he’s Canadian,” Pulli said, pointing out it’s another cold, dark place that loves hockey. (Elop does love hockey.)

While some of Nokia’s workforce is building new features, others are working on making sure that the company has partnerships with all the important companies in the valley–especially the Facebooks and Twitters of the world.

As for the research projects, they vary widely, and many are only tangentially related to Nokia’s core phone-making business.

Tico Ballagas is a user experience researcher working on how to make technology a better tool for family communications. So he’s been spending a lot of time with Elmo as part of a Family Story Play project to see if distant relatives can better connect with young relatives by reading a story to them over videoconferencing gear.

Meanwhile, Jorg Brakensiek is working with a number of German carmakers to develop a framework known as Terminal Mode, which would allow all manner of smartphones to be usable within cars without users having to stare down at a screen to make use features like maps, email and more.

What many at the offices lament, though, is the fact that so few of the people in the U.S. get a chance to appreciate their work. While Nokia certainly has its challenges globally, it is all but invisible at the cutting edge of the U.S. market. that’s because none of the major carriers here sell a subsidized model of the company’s high-end phones.

What’s worse, the phones that the carriers do sell tend to be the most basic and boring of cellular designs. The company has plans to change that next year, when it hopes the introduction of Meego-based phones will finally sway U.S. carriers to offer subsidized Nokia smartphones, ideally by next summer.

It matters a great deal to the unfortunate employees at Yahoo who are being laid off this week for the reporting on the subject to be accurate and to entail some serious effort.

(It’s bad enough to lose a well-paying job in this still-tough economy, but to lose one over the holidays requires quite a lot more than incorrectly quoting a tweet off Twitter without checking first.)

And so here’s the deal, as BoomTown has previously reported, about what’s happening with Yahoo layoffs, set for tomorrow morning:

Yahoo will lay off about 650 to 700 employees.

Those layoffs will come largely from its product division, headed by Blake Irving, although there could be firings in other parts of Yahoo.

The layoffs are mostly in the U.S. units of Yahoo.

Those let go will be notified tomorrow and will likely have to leave Yahoo facilities immediately. Company sources said the action will be completed by early afternoon, Pacific time.

It’s definitely bad timing for Yahoo, given it is less than two weeks until Christmas, but cost-cutting at the company seems unavoidable as it seeks to improve revenue and spur growth.

Still, it is another sad day in Sunnyvale, Calif., where the iconic Internet giant is headquartered.

Tonight, I got a call that another top Yahoo–Global Initiatives Group SVP Keith Nilsson (pictured here)–was also leaving the Silicon Valley Internet giant.

Nilsson, a 12-year Yahoo veteran, had run emerging markets for the company, until he was appointed in January to his new job.

Reporting directly to CEO Carol Bartz, Nilsson was focused on supporting global relationships and alliances, as well as revenue partnerships.

It’s not clear where Nilsson is going, but he might be headed to a start-up opportunity.

It’s another big blow to Yahoo, where employee morale is worsening after a series of top exec departures and the prospect of a round of layoffs in less than two weeks.

The management capabilities of Bartz are likely to get further scrutiny by Wall Street investors if this talent drain continues.

But that kind of rigorous oversight is unlikely to come from Yahoo’s ineffectual board, which–in fact–is now having a regularly scheduled meeting at Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, Calif., HQ.

Here is a question they might ask Bartz: Why is Yahoo losing so many of its execs and how are you going to stop it?

Andrew Siegel–Yahoo’s head of corporate development, who is in charge of its mergers and acquisitions strategy–is leaving the company, according to sources.

The former General Electric exec, who came to the Internet giant just over a year ago, is well liked at Yahoo and also has been active in making the rounds in the tech scene in Silicon Valley.

Siegel’s exit is part of a long line of departures of top talent under the leadership of CEO Carol Bartz.

Siegel has made some very prescient moves on game-changing companies for Yahoo to purchase–including Yelp, Foursquare and Groupon–but Yahoo has not been able to land them for a variety of reasons.

In Foursquare’s case, the geolocation hot spot decided to remain independent and take more funding, after also talking to Facebook, and moneybags Google has hip checked Yahoo out of the running for social buying phenom Groupon.

Yelp, the reviews site that had unsuccessful talks with Google too, simply did not want to sell to Yahoo.

Both also were worried about Yahoo’s future prospects and its top management’s ability to turn the situation around, multiple sources confirm, as have other top start-ups that Siegel has been interested in.

And while he has bought some smaller companies for Yahoo–such as Citizen Sports and Associated Content–that’s been frustrating to Siegel, said sources.

Sources also noted that Siegel has also been commuting to Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, Calif., HQ from New York, where his family lives–also a factor in his decision to leave.

He apparently told his Yahoo bosses he was leaving just last week and the company has no replacement as yet.

Yahoo declined to comment about Siegel’s status.

Yahoo is debuting a new offering for its hundreds of million of users, which takes the Demand Media model and notches up the volume by presumably allowing a thousand flowers to bloom.

Or, more to the point, blab.

The Internet giant is “inviting people to contribute to many of its most popular sites with the launch of the Yahoo Contributor Network, a new platform for people to publish their creative content on Yahoo!.”

This all comes out of its recent acquisition of Associated Content.

It’s an interesting gambit, since everyone is already yammering away like mad on Facebook.

But Yahoo is trying to put a spin on it by using its copious content assets as inspiration for consumers, and which the Silicon Valley social networking giant does not have.

Yet!

(By the way, Mao Tse-Tung’s whole phrase in his famous speech was: “Let a thousand flowers bloom, a hundred schools of thought contend.” After that happened all over the place, a brutal crackdown was then initiated.)

Let’s hope Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz does not do that, but here is the company’s official press release:

Yahoo! Adds the Voice of the People With the Launch of the Yahoo! Contributor Network

Yahoo! Invites You to Reach Millions of People by Contributing to Its Popular Content Sites, Including the Yahoo! Homepage

SUNNYVALE, Calif., November 15, 2010– Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) today is inviting people to contribute to many of its most popular sites with the launch of the Yahoo! Contributor Network, a new platform for people to publish their creative content on Yahoo!. The Yahoo! Contributor Network is an evolution of the Associated Content platform and will bring contributions from more than 400,000 writers, photographers, and videographers to the Internet’s largest media destinations, including Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports, and even the Yahoo! homepage, among many others.

“The launch of the Yahoo! Contributor Network is a great example of how Yahoo! is executing against its content strategy. In less than six months since the acquisition of Associated Content, we’ve completely retooled the platform in order to bring the people’s voice to Yahoo!,” said Carol Bartz, CEO, Yahoo!. “Bringing this authentic perspective to Yahoo!’s most popular sites will deepen our engagement with the millions of people who visit us every day and provide new opportunities for creative contributors who participate in the Yahoo! experience.”

The Yahoo! Contributor Network extends Yahoo!’s position as the leading provider of high-quality, personally relevant content by bringing the diverse perspectives of more than 400,000 contributors to Yahoo!’s existing media portfolio. The new platform invites all Yahoo! users to become a part of the Yahoo! experience by sharing their perspectives and expertise, and also lets Yahoo! editors quickly and efficiently assign and select crowdsourced contributions for all of Yahoo!’s media properties. These contributions–which span topics from niche to mainstream–complement the programming already provided by Yahoo!’s award-winning editorial team and content partners.

“With the launch of the Yahoo! Contributor Network, our contributors now have an unprecedented opportunity for exposure and distribution across Yahoo!’s portfolio,” said Luke Beatty, vice president and general manager, Yahoo!. “Associated Content has been known for maintaining the industry’s largest contributor base, and with the launch of the Yahoo! Contributor Network, we’ve added scale and reach that sets us apart from any other crowdsourced media platform.”

The Yahoo! Contributor Network is the culmination of a months-long effort to merge the strengths of Associated Content and Yahoo!, following the announcement of Yahoo!’s acquisition of Associated Content in May 2010. The Associated Content From Yahoo! library will continue to serve as the official digital library for all content generated by the Yahoo! Contributor Network. It remains one of the world’s largest sources of community-created content, with over two million contributions spanning text, images, video, and audio.

The Yahoo! Contributor Network also sets performance payment guidelines for content featured on Yahoo! sites, and has a dashboard that provides full transparency into how each contributor’s content performs. For more information, visit: http://contributor.yahoo.com.

Vurve (formerly called Palaran) is almost all automated (customers have to put in about 15 minutes per week, the company says), and to start it is focused on e-commerce businesses. The company figures out what combination of search, display, remarketing, social and shopping engine advertising will be most effective on a dynamic basis.

A partnership with Shopify gives Vurve access to more than 10,000 stores, and it is also available through an integration with Yahoo. Customers spend a minimum of $200 per month. Vurve has also scored preferred access to Google and Facebook’s APIs so it can create its ads more easily. As you can see in the image above, the company does a neat job of illustrating where every sale actually comes from.

Vurve founder and CEO Amit Kumar said that though he doesn’t see much direct competition now, he expects there to be a demand-side platform-style gold rush for optimization and data mining. “Anyone can do this; it’s not voodoo science,” he said. Vurve has had a year in stealth to get its product ready and also has a strong team. Kumar previously worked on Yahoo SearchMonkey, and was also at Dapper, which was acquired by Yahoo last month. Vurve recently hired Kent Brewster, formerly a well-known Yahoo engineer, who apparently “singlehandedly” built the Netflix iPhone app.

Vurve raised $1.2 million from True Ventures and is based in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Dear Ross,

Perhaps more than anyone, BoomTown is thrilled to have you back in the Internet ops game, after several years on the sidelines.

Besides introducing an exciting new character and plotline into the daily digital drama set in Sunnyvale, Calif.–kind of like when one of Alexis Carrington’s ex-husbands returned after a bout with amnesia on “Dynasty”–it’s clear you are not going to be a shrinking violet.

Plus, you know how to handle drama after all those crazy years herding digital cats at News Corp.’s MySpace.

In other words: Nobody puts Ross in the corner!

But it’s a very big job you have, running both Yahoo’s massive media properties, as well as its giant sales organization–especially after all those years of long lunches as a venture investor.

Thus, I prepared a short list for you–kind of a Yahoo cheat sheet–to cut out and put in your cyber-wallet, and pull out if the need should arise:

10. If you have any internal emails, product roadmaps, acquisition plans and–especially–juicy memos, please immediately forward them to kara@allthingsd.com via the secret Gmail account every Yahoo staffer has. (Don’t worry, everyone does this! Really!)

9. If anyone offers you $31 a share for Yahoo, take it.

8. If someone asks you the question, “What is Yahoo?”: Run for the hills.

7. If anyone tries to drag you back to Sunnyvale from Los Angeles, resist, even after what happened to Lloyd Braun. There are no advertisers nor any significant digital media folks in Silicon Valley, however much anyone tells you there are.

6. If a billionaire shareholder activist named Carl whom you used to canoodle with about taking over Yahoo calls, please refer to No. 8.

5. If you can locate where Yahoo co-founder and former CEO Jerry Yang has gotten to of late–he has been sighted at Yahoo “strategery” meetings and playing golf with advertisers–please send his coordinates to kara@allthingsd.com. I am not a stalker. Well, only a little bit.

4. If you have to ask who Judy is, you have already lost, because Judy is actually in charge at Yahoo. (By the way, since you are both from Jersey, work that angle hard!)

3. If a smiley, cheekboned, Don Draper-looking dude calls from AOL wanting to do a “reverse merger” and offers a ride on Air Tim to discuss it, please refer to No. 8.

2. If you feel frustrated and have the need to utter naughty words and curses, stifle it! That’s a job for the CEO!

1. Ignore me.*

* At your peril.

As BoomTown reported yesterday as likely, Yahoo has finally hired former News Corp. digital exec Ross Levinsohn.

He replaces Hilary Schneider as EVP of the Americas region, the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s most critical unit.

That means Levinsohn will be in charge of both Yahoo’s powerful media properties and also its massive advertising business.

Levinsohn will report directly to CEO Carol Bartz, but will not be primarily located at its Sunnyvale HQ. Instead, he will remain in Los Angeles and work out of the company’s offices in Santa Monica.

One bright note: Bartz has finally hired an exec on her own whose prime expertise is in digital media and not related to enterprise and software.

Giant sigh of relief from ATD HQ, since Levinsohn actually realizes that things need to move a lot faster inside the giant bubble of Yahoo.

Today’s hiring had a few snafus. Levinsohn’s plane to Silicon Valley from his home base in the southland was delayed and he could not sign his contract until just now.

In addition, there had been a number of outstanding negotiating issues that were just resolved earlier this afternoon.

Thus, Levinsohn just signed moments ago and here is the official press release from Yahoo:

Yahoo! Appoints Ross Levinsohn as Executive Vice President of Americas

SUNNYVALE, Calif., October 27, 2010–Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) announced today that the company has appointed Ross Levinsohn as executive vice president of the Americas region. As one of the direct reports of CEO Carol Bartz, Levinsohn will join the executive staff of Yahoo! in November and will be responsible for the company’s media group, advertising sales, and partnerships for the Americas region.

“Ross has a phenomenal track record of executing digital media strategies that increase user engagement and, most importantly, accelerate topline growth,” said Bartz. “I am confident that Ross’s strategic vision, in addition to his deep industry experience, will allow us to solidify our position as the largest digital media, content and communications business around the globe.”

Levinsohn has long been on the forefront of digital media innovation. Prior to joining Yahoo!, he was the co-founder and managing director of Fuse Capital, an investment and strategic equity management firm focused on investing in and building digital media and communications companies. Levinsohn previously served as the president of News Corporation’s Fox Interactive Media, where he was responsible for running the day-to-day business, designing the overall strategy and leading investments that helped transform the company into a leader in digital media.

Levinsohn also held senior management positions with AltaVista, an early pioneer and leader in search, CBS Sportsline where he oversaw all content and development for the top rated sports site, and HBO where he launched and oversaw a unit developing new programming and revenue streams.

“Yahoo! is one of the premier Internet companies in the world,” said Levinsohn. “Having this opportunity to work with a group of immensely talented people to enhance Yahoo!’s leadership position is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

As BoomTown reported yesterday, former News Corp. digital head Ross Levinsohn’s appointment as the head of Yahoo’s Americas division is imminent.

He will be in charge of Yahoo’s massive media and advertising units.

But–and this just cracks me up–he has not actually signed on the dotted line yet and, thus, Yahoo could not announce it early this afternoon, as planned.

According to sources, there were several issues between Levinsohn and Yahoo to settle. His staying in Los Angeles–and not being located at the company’s Sunnyvale HQ–was not among those last negotiating points.

But those issues seem settled now and sources at Yahoo are confident that Levinsohn will sign sometime today, and the Internet giant will announce the news soon after.

Then the real fun begins.

So stay tuned…

The Sunnyvale, Calif., company soon will roll out a feature called Y Connect to allow media publishers, web developers and other websites to integrate elements of their services with Yahoo–an approach Facebook has used in allowing sites to forge links to the popular social network, these people said.

Such efforts can help Internet companies track the activities of users around the Web and better tailor advertising offerings to them. Representatives of Yahoo declined to comment.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Here’s how Yahoo’s top brass and board–with the help of its newly re-engaged crisis-management PR firm, Abernathy MacGregor–are already trying to spin the latest executive turmoil to hit the company:

Trashing those on the way out, to take focus off those remaining who have been just as responsible for driving the Internet icon and claiming that this is all part of yet another well-planned reorganization at Yahoo (YHOO).

Don’t believe most of it for a second. Some of it is corporate politics as usual, some of it rejiggering of events, some just not true at all.

After BoomTown’s scoop earlier today that Yahoo’s U.S. head Hilary Schneider, as well as Audience head David Ko and VP of Media Jimmy Pitaro, would be departing the company–all of which Yahoo is still planning to announce after the markets close on Friday–here comes this gem in a follow-up story in The Wall Street Journal:

“[Yahoo CEO Carol] Bartz, who joined Yahoo in January 2009, is in the midst of a turnaround effort. People familiar with the matter said she is removing the company’s old guard to assemble a new team.”

Let’s parse this ridonkulous spin-addled blame game, shall we?

Bartz is, in fact, the very person who picked all those execs for prime responsibility in her last reorg.

If they were so incompetent, why not dump them much quicker? After all, it’s not like the problems have not been mounting for months and months, with more and more talent taking off.

In addition, the exec exodus at Yahoo over the last year has been unrelenting and broad, encompassing way too many employees for her to act as if it were all planned and okay.

As to the “midst of a turnaround effort” canard that Bartz keeps insisting on, even comparing herself to Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Job’s epic journey to return that legendary company to health?

Um, we are deep in the second year of the Bartz regime, and there appears to be no iPod-like save in sight, and it’s a little long in the tooth to keep using the turnaround excuse for all that has not yet happened under her command.

Which is to say, stock with a pulse and real growth across all metrics, as Facebook and Google (GOOG), to name a few, are showing.

In addition, it was Bartz herself who handed over a lot of the responsibility for the revival of Yahoo to Schneider.

Which meant Schneider had to be thrown under the wheels of the bus in the Journal by dragging out a very old–and tangential to the much larger flat revenue crisis at Yahoo–newspaper deal as pretty wet cannon fodder:

“Ms. Schneider is leaving because officials haven’t been satisfied with her performance, according to people familiar with the matter. Ms. Schneider was responsible for a 2006 deal with industry group Newspaper Consortium, in which Yahoo sold ads for newspaper websites and print editions. The effort continues but has not met Yahoo’s expectations, according to a person close to the company.”

Memo to readers: “People familiar with the matter,” I am guessing, would be current Yahoo execs.

The fact of the matter is that there have been both critics and admirers of Schneider at Yahoo, which comes as no surprise for one of its top execs. Some consider her smart and canny, while others complain of indecisiveness and slowness to act.

And, she has definitely had some very big whiffs, including the newspaper consortium, but most especially not finding an ad sales chief to replace Joanne Bradford, who left in March, about which I gave her a hard time when a very squishy structure was announced.

And, right now, sources tell me, Yahoo’s upcoming quarterly report could be an even tougher one.

And that falls to Schneider, of course, who has been in charge of its many partnerships, as well as advertising sales across the key Americas region.

Perhaps good reason for an ouster, except I have been tracking Schneider’s status for many months now, since hearing from many sources–not her, ever, in case you wanted to know–that she had told Bartz she wanted out.

Maybe that is what began to sour the boss on Schneider. But to now suddenly call her performance poor seems unusual, especially when you can just as easily point to Yahoo’s disastrous and pricey marketing campaigns–it is definitely not You!–helmed by CMO Elisa Steele, which has failed to move the needle on key user metrics.

But she has a tight relationship with Bartz, so she’s all right, jack? I am dizzy from all the spinning.

In other words, execs make mistakes and there is a lot of blame to go around and–as the old saying goes–the buck really does stop with Bartz.

But, guess what? Perhaps it should be noted that Bartz has also misstepped badly of late by making a series of wild remarks that have seriously angered many partners and other companies in Silicon Valley.

And I have heard from countless and very significant investors, all of whom are deeply concerned about her tone and recent public comments.

Just ask Yahoo Japan’s Masayoshi Son. Or Alibaba’s Jack Ma in China. Or the fine folks over at Apple in Cupertino, Calif.

And, I can also report that several execs at Yahoo’s new search technology partner, Microsoft, are also increasingly alarmed. Said one to me yesterday: “It is becoming a little unsettling.”

I can say for certain that Ko, who will doubtlessly be the next to get dinged, left on his own motor, telling Bartz himself recently.

He was quickly followed by Pitaro, who, as I reported earlier this week, is headed to another big company. No matter what the spin, his departure is a big loss, as he is well-liked inside and outside the company.

Then Schneider rounded out the latest trio of execs to go.

Thus, sources said, Yahoo is about to go on the offense, which is the expected thing to do, ready to announce a plan to move most of the product organization under Chief Product Officer Blake Irving.

The former Microsoft (MSFT) online exec is as sharp as a tack, in my experience, and clearly an even sharper corporate player, recently bringing in a series of his old cohorts from the software giant to take over big jobs at Yahoo.

He’s obviously now won some version of a corporate power play, and is now in favor with Bartz. But that means he’s being handed the entire thing.

Apparently, Irving has told numerous people that he plans to “rip it all down” and streamline the whole organization.

More rearranging at the company that has moved around the corporate living room umpteenth times over the past several years? Except it is still essentially the same room and same house.

Okay, Irving should probably have his choice of where the sofa goes, but as one exec wisely told me tonight: “Yahoo needs to build great products, not have another reorg….It needs a win.”

Indeed, just as board member Eric Hippeau apparently said at a recent meeting to deal with the latest executive kerfuffle.

Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock–who has presided over so many stumbles over the years that I have lost count–said to the room: “We need crisis management.”

Countered Hippeau, a longtime Internet exec who is now CEO of the Huffington Post: “What we need is revenue.”

Indeed. And innovation. And a vision. And, most of all, spin-free leadership.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yahoo declined to comment.