Venkat Panchapakesan

Digital Musical Chairs: Google Exec to Scribd, Apple Exec to AOL, Yahoo Exec to Google!

Kara Swisher in News on July 19, 2010 at 9:56 pm PT

Oh, the game of musical chairs in the digital sector never seems to stop. In today’s Silicon Valley roundelay, Google’s head of traditional media and publisher partnerships, Rob Macdonald, heads to online publishing start-up Scribd, while AOL nabs Apple marketing exec Alan Eyzaguirre and Google grabs former Yahoo tech exec Venkat Panchapakesan.

Stop Me if You've Heard This One: Yahoo Management and Staff Set on Shuffle Again

Kara Swisher in News on April 15, 2009 at 1:31 am PT

Yes, more layoffs are indeed coming to Yahoo, sources confirmed to BoomTown, but perhaps even more than have been reported. But that’s not all, as even more top-level managers are either leaving or being moved around the ever-changing organizational structure at Yahoo. That includes a longtime top sales operations exec, Dan Foehner, who is about to start at Facebook next week, as well as others contemplating leaving, on their way out or being reshuffled. In other words, business as usual at the tumultuous company, whose nickname should be “Reorg.”

Bartz of 100 Days: Tough Talk to Microsoft Talks

Kara Swisher in News on April 13, 2009 at 8:30 am PT

Here’s an interesting irony–Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz will have her 99th day in office on the very one that the Internet giant will announce its first-quarter earnings: April 21, 2009 at 2 p.m. PST. Technically, it will mean that she has been running Yahoo for 100 days, a time when most administrations get their first evaluation. Thus, if it’s good enough for President Obama, it’s good enough for Bartz! While most expect the results for the quarter to be weak, due to the econalypse, the overall verdict from BoomTown’s needling of Yahoos to give me info on their new leader recently: Love, love, love Bartz’s innate decisiveness, and wanting more of the same.

Another Yahoo Techie to Go–Venkat Panchapakesan on His Way Out

Kara Swisher in News on March 31, 2009 at 8:59 am PT

At least he’s not going to Microsoft! But nonetheless, sources said another major Yahoo tech exec and a longtime company veteran, Venkat Panchapakesan, EVP of the Audience Technology Group, is readying his departure from the company. This time, it’s to return to India, where he has long told colleagues he wanted to return. Sources said Panchapakesan will not be leaving until the end of the summer, but “his departure is well along the road.”

More on Yahoo Reorg in Process: Ari and Hilary Rule, but Who Is Joel Jones?

Kara Swisher in News on February 25, 2009 at 2:28 pm PT

“It’s being changed every minute,” joked one Yahoo source about the reorg now in process at Yahoo, which is being shepherded by new CEO Carol Bartz. Actually, it’s kind of true, as execs at the troubled Web company are being moved around the board like chess pieces, while others players are added. According to numerous sources, mostly in Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, Calif. HQ, things are still in flux and not completely settled as yet. But one thing is clear: Layers are being collapsed quickly, as fewer people are in charge of more, with all roads leading to Bartz.

The Yahoo Management Structure: Who Is In and Who Is Out?

Kara Swisher in News on February 23, 2009 at 7:30 am PT

On Friday, BoomTown first reported that new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is likely to be announcing a sweeping new management structure soon, which can only mean the possibility that some existing top execs are likely to be broomed out, even as some new ones are ushered in. “This is going to be a full-scale peanut butter recall,” joked one exec, referring to the infamous “Peanut Butter Manifesto,” which was sent around the company several years ago by former exec Brad Garlinghouse. It laid bare the problems at Yahoo, most especially a decided lack of decision-making and lugubrious levels of managers. Here is the sticky skinny.