The new service, dubbed “Novela y Series,” or “Novelas and Series,” is slated to start in the spring. It will offer full episodes of telenovelas from Univision and outside suppliers free online and through mobile phones.

“The world has shifted,” Joe Uva, Univision’s president and chief executive, said of the move online. “Our audience is consuming more and more content on digital platforms and the go.”

Between 2006 and 2008, the percentage of Hispanic adults in the U.S. who use the Internet grew to 64 percent from 54 percent, according to survey results from the Pew Hispanic Center.

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New Yahoo Marketing head Elisa Steele named a colleague from her former job, NetApp (NTAP), as SVP of Global Communications at the Internet giant.

Eric Brown (pictured here) was the VP of corporate relations at the data storage company, on whose board Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has also served. Before that, he was at Adaptec (ADPT).

Brown will report to Steele and start at the company in July.

Brown is filling a slot left when former Yahoo PR head Jill Nash left at Yahoo in February. She was briefly replaced by her deputy Brad Williams, who was laid off from Yahoo in a recent round of cuts.

He is also yet another executive from the business software arena to be hired under Bartz, who also comes from that background. Bartz also hired Jeff Russakow from Symantec (SYMC), which makes antivirus software and other security for the post of Customer Advocacy SVP.

It’ll be interesting to see how they all operate in a consumer-facing company like Yahoo, with all its many dramatic ups and downs of late, and which BoomTown has often compared to a Mexican telenovela.

Here’s Steele’s memo to the Yahoo (YHOO) staff, which includes a self-described “bad habit of eating ice cream in bed while reading my Kindle and surfing the web.”

(BoomTown can’t make this stuff up!)

Here’s the internal memo:

Marketing & Executive Teams,

I’m very pleased to announce that Eric Brown will be joining Yahoo! as Senior Vice President, Global Communications, reporting directly to me. In this critical role, Eric will oversee our Global Communications function, including public relations, product promotion, executive communications, public affairs, internal communications, corporate reputation management and social media outreach.

Eric is joining Yahoo! at a particularly pivotal time, as we update our corporate position and message, develop and execute a renewed global brand strategy and launch major new products and solutions. Eric will be tasked with more closely integrating the global communications team with broader marketing initiatives and the company’s overall business strategy. A critical objective will be to set the communications agenda and drive Yahoo!’s message to our various constituencies–the media, analysts, consumers, employees, and key industry influencers who create buzz and can have a significant impact on how our brand is perceived.

Eric is a Silicon Valley communications veteran with 18 years of tech experience. Most recently, Eric and I collaborated at NetApp, where he spent the last nine years helping to transform the company into a multibillion dollar global enterprise. As Vice President of Corporate Relations, Eric managed a large global team and strategic communications program. He was the core communications executive responsible for the company’s recent revamp of brand strategy and execution. He also played a significant communications role in helping the company gain recognition by Fortune magazine as the “Best Company to Work for in America” in 2009. Prior to NetApp, Eric was the head of PR for Adaptec responsible for B2B, brand and consumer communications, and held additional leadership positions in both corporate and agency environments.

On a personal note, Eric’s partner’s name is Scot, he has a Pomeranian named Clio, a passion for cooking and travel, and a self-described “bad habit of eating ice cream in bed while reading my Kindle and surfing the web.”

Eric will join us in early July, so please join me in giving him a warm welcome. I look forward to his leadership contributions in this vitally important role at Yahoo!.

Misguided managers, Luddite corporate raiders, a dramatic hostile takeover from a software giant, a revolving door of employees, a dash of Internet moolah and a tough-talking lady CEO to the rescue! And even some Googzilla action thrown in for good measure.

Of course, it has all the elements of a good story for Vanity Fair magazine!

Actually, Yahoo (YHOO) has all the elements of a good Mexican telenovela, but it’s only a magazine article that is apparently in the cards to chronicle the stumbles and bumbles of the Internet giant.

According to sources at both Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo, well-known Silicon Valley scribe and author Alan Deutschman has contacted the companies about a piece he is doing about the company–and, presumably, its tangles with various Web powers like Google (GOOG) and Microsoft–for the Condé Nast-owned Vanity Fair.

BoomTown’s efforts to contact Deutschman to find out the particulars were, alas, unreturned as yet.

But it goes without saying that our site’s huge archive on Yahoo’s hijinks–with much more to come soon, including memos I tag with secret codes too, much as sources tell me Yahoo does these days under new CEO Carol Bartz to prevent leaks–is free of charge to him for research.

Until then, here is my personal favorite Yahoo-related video about the awkward dinner former CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang finally had with me after a year of haranguing:

Okay, here is what is true at this moment about Yahoo, which is sure to get even more caught up in the maelstrom of rumor and innuendo about its fate after the collapse of its controversial search advertising deal with Google today.

While Yahoo’s corporate gyrations are beginning to feel like there are more twists and turns than a Spanish telenovela, the actual situation is a lot less sexy and definitely more grim.

Simply put: Yahoo (YHOO) is in the midst of a very serious resetting of its business that might or might not go well, after years of mismanagement and damaging external forces over which it sometimes had control and sometimes not.

And there are valid questions about whether its current leadership is up to the task of reviving Yahoo, after one painful stumble after the next.

Nonetheless, Yahoo remains one of the Internet’s most trafficked and profitable sites and its products are uniformly excellent.

And, while it has lost share in search, it is still No. 2. In addition, even though its graphical ad business is suffering badly in the weak economy, it is still the best on the Internet.

But, let’s face it: What a mess.

Thus, in the interests of clarity, here is a rundown of the situation.

1. Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is not stepping down. In fact, I will soon be headed out the door to see him onstage at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco later this afternoon.

In fact, he seems determined to stay, until someone throws him out. And who would that be?

Investors had their chance at the annual meeting and failed; so did activist shareholder Carl Icahn, who is now on the Yahoo board and unable to agitate publicly.

Maybe employees will revolt on the Sunnyvale campus in a purple rage? Doubtful.

In a two-part interview with BoomTown after its sad-sack third-quarter earnings were released, Yang was telling the truth 100 percent:

BT: You have been attacked a lot recently for not selling Yahoo to Microsoft, Yahoo’s low stock price and your management of the company–why do you think you are the best leader for Yahoo going forward?:

Yang: I think if you look at what the company is doing and what we have been going through and the story we have been telling, we have done most, if not all, of what we set out to do, starting last year.

My dream is to transform Yahoo as a platform and product company and I think we are on the way to really doing that. And a lot of what we have been doing is starting to translate into value–whether it is our front page, our profiles, our email or our APT ad platform.

And, in this uncertain environment, I think I am absolutely the right person. Times like this require a leader who really understands this company and its customers, and I think I do. The world is a different place today than even a month ago and I think I am the best person to guide Yahoo through this volatile time.”

2. The collapse of Yahoogle does not mean that Yahoo will now be automatically forced to turn to Microsoft (MSFT) to strike a similar deal, and on terms with no leverage.

After all, Yahoo is still the No. 2 player in search by far after Google (GOOG), with Microsoft trailing badly.

Of course, it must now contemplate spending a lot on keeping that spot, and it is not good to be caught between two warring moneybags.

3. Microsoft does not want to buy Yahoo and will not show up with another bid, unless the stock truly tanks and it becomes such an amazing bargain that CEO Steve Ballmer has to get over himself.

Microsoft is now only interested in Yahoo’s search business and there might be more talks to revive that offer in the future.

But, no matter what analysts pontificate about, neither is under any “pressure” to act fast. It is a crappy economy and everyone has cover to do badly for a while and scuttle along.

4. Yes, a merger deal with AOL looks more likely than not now, especially with the Yahoogle uncertainty out of the way.

Why? Well, Yahoo execs like it and Time Warner (TWX), which owns the AOL online unit, needs it. AOL’s poor results today should underscore that fact.

While integration issues are complex, it also brings together some of the biggest communications, advertising and content properties on the Web.

Done right–and that is a big if with both these crews in charge–it might work and give the pair the much needed boost they desperately need.

Done wrong, well, the soap opera just continues on endlessly.