Yahoo CFO leaving as new CEO prepares shake-up
SAN FRANCISCO -- Yahoo Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen is leaving the struggling Internet company as part of a management reshuffling by the company's new CEO.
Jorgensen's departure is the first of what are expected to be several major changes by the hard-charging Carol Bartz, who promised swift action when she took over at Yahoo last month.
The 49-year-old Jorgensen, who has been CFO since June 2007, was a close ally of former Yahoo President Susan Decker, who resigned last month after she didn't get the CEO job.
Jorgensen's exit was disclosed in a regulatory filing Thursday.
"Today (Thursday) I'm rolling out a new management structure that I believe will make Yahoo a lot faster on its feet," Bartz said in a blog post, titled "Getting our house in order."
"For us working at Yahoo, it means everything gets simpler," she wrote. "We'll be able to make speedier decisions, the notorious silos are gone, and we have a renewed focus on the customer."
Bartz also said Yahoo is creating a new Customer Advocacy group to improve customer relations.
Bartz, 60, known for her focused leadership and direct manner, faces a number of challenges to shore up Yahoo's flagging financial performance and stock price.
Some investors have lobbied for a breakup of Yahoo so it can more nimbly compete with rivals Google and Microsoft.
Changes are vital, analysts says, because Yahoo continues to suffer from nearly all the issues and problems described in former executive Brad Garlinghouse's so-called "Peanut Butter Manifesto" in November 2006.
In it, he described a company spread too thin, and in dire need of defining its priorities and radically reorganizing its management structure.
"The companywide roadmap must leave nothing unclear and all resources must be deployed towards a common goal and objective," says Kevin Lee, CEO of Didit, a search-engine marketing company that does business with Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and others. "A product roadmap needs to come from a central vision."
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