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Yahoo! announced a reorganisation yesterday that marks chief financial officer Susan Decker as a potential successor as CEO and simplifies its structure as it battles rival Google.
Chief executive Terry Semel will reorganise the company into three groups to stem a slide in the stock price and win back users and advertisers lost to Google.
Chief operating officer Dan Rosensweig would leave, Semel said yesterday. Decker would lead a new advertising group and stand down as chief financial officer.
Chief technology officer Farzad Nazem will oversee technology and Yahoo! will recruit an executive to oversee users.
Semel, 63, is making the changes to stem 10 quarters of declining sales growth and boost a share price that's down almost a third this year.
The Sunnyvale, California-based company, the most visited US web site, has delayed new advertising software while facing intensifying competition from Google and newer sites including News Corp's MySpace, YouTube and Facebook.
Decker was promoted to oversee all of Yahoo's advertising sales. The user group will focus on search, media and communications, and expand the company's products outside the US and to mobile devices. The technology group, led by Nazem, will create software that lets consumers create and share content and have responsibility for new ad software.
Yahoo! rose 54c, or 2 per cent, to US$27.43.
- BLOOMBERG, REUTERS
