Yahoo’s EVP Network Division Jeff Weiner, who’s been the subject of rabid speculation since the weekend, has submitted his resignation, our sources within the company say. Yahoo and Weiner are still negotiating his separation agreement, and will make an announcement “imminently” about his departure. But the big question is – who will replace him?
Weiner first joined Yahoo when former CEO Terry Semel took charge in 2000. He is considered by many employees to be, after Jerry Yang, the spiritual leader of the company and the guy who’s actually holding things together. His departure leaves a gaping hole in the senior management of the company.
Going forward, Weiner will likely become an entrepreneur-in-residence with both Accel Partners and Greylock Partners. Weiner is close to Accel via Andrew Braccia, who used to run Yahoo search and reported to Jeff. His relationship with Greylock stems from James Slavet, who previously ran Yahoo Autos and also reported directly to Weiner.
I had dinner with Weiner last month, where we discussed his passion for socially responsible investing (he’s on the board of and actively involved with Donor’s Choose and Malaria No More, Peter Chernin’s pet charity), social media and Yahoo’s ongoing “open strategy.”
Weiner’s direct reports, Brad Garlinghouse, Tapan Bhat, Scott Moore, and Vish Makhijani, run Yahoo’s U.S. property. Presumably Yahoo would move one of the four into his position – bringing in an outsider at this point, with Yahoo’s future uncertain, would be less likely, say our sources. It’s also possible, we hear, that Yahoo may undergo a new round of exec reorganization.
Here are the likely contenders for the job:
Brad Garlinghouse
Garlinghouse, the SVP Communications and Communities, is the author of the infamous Peanut Butter Manifesto. He runs Yahoo’s communities and communications services. His properties include Mail, Messenger, Groups, Flickr and Zimbra. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Brad served as CEO of Dialpad Communications. Earlier in his career, Brad led VC investments in communications and Internet businesses at @Ventures. He also spent time in leadership roles at @Home Network and SBC Communications.
Scott Moore
Scott Moore is the SVP of Content Operations for Yahoo. He works from Yahoo’s Santa Monica offices and controls all media properties and content verticals – things like news, finance, sports, movies, television, music, fantasy sports, games, OMG and video. Niche verticals like Kids and Shine also fall under Moore. He was previously a well respected long term executive with Microsoft at MSN, responsible for their news, finance and sports sites. He joined Yahoo in 2005.Vish Makhijani
Vish Makhijani is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Yahoo Search. He controls Yahoo Search, Delicious and other properties. Previously he was Vice President and General Manager of Yahoo!s consumer International Search business. Before joining Yahoo!, Vish served as Vice President and General Manager of Inktomi, and joined Yahoo when Inkomi was acquired. Before joining Inktomi, Mr. Makhijani worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in both the company’s New York Metro and Silicon Valley practices where he helped Fortune 500 clients and leading technology, media and start up companies with financial reporting, mergers, acquisitions, and public offering issuances.
Tapan Bhat
Bhat, the Vice President of Front Doors and Network Services, controls the Yahoo home page, My Yahoo and other properties like Buzz. 500 million people a month enter Yahoo through properties he controls. He’s responsible for developing the front door strategy for Yahoo across all network “front doors”. Additionally, he has direct management and P&L responsibility for the front door of the network (www.yahoo.com) and My Yahoo.
Yahoo is getting another beat….
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“He is considered by many employees to be, after Jerry Yang, the spiritual leader of the company and the guy who’s actually holding things together.”
If that’s the case then g’night Yahoo!. If they were without direction having the guy on board that holds things together then I don’t wanna know what’s coming now that he’s gone. Maybe they’re going to join a space program or something.
Y! mgmt is full of gaping holes…including some of the full ones.
Jeff is an amazing guy. I had the pleasure of working with him while I was VP of Community @ Yahoo. I am no longer with Yahoo but still consider his departure a significant loss for the company. Best of luck Jeff. I am sure you will do amazing things.
Good luck Jeff!
Definitely a big loss for Yahoo! I too have had the opportunity to work for Jeff and he is one of the most inspirational visionaries on Yahoo’s exec team.
I guess he sees the writing on the wall and doesn’t want to work for MSFT.
Jeff was the biggest kool-aider ever, OOOOHHHH YEAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!
http://youtube....h?v=Oy00KL_4ZKk
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Everyone please say a prayer that Brad does not get a move up with Jeff’s departure. Although, it wouldn’t surprise me since he as slimy of a political operator as they come and Jerry and Sue seem to like him for some unknown reason. God knows mail and the rest of the products under his watch have not done all that well. Brad and the rest of his inner circle stooges should all go as a next move.
Put one of the Indian guys in charge.
Garlinghouse would be a complete disaster. Yes, Brad was CEO of Dialpad, and later, Yahoo! bought Dialpad for their VoIP / web-to-POTS solution. And recently killed their VoIP solution to partner with Jahjah.
Brad passed on Flickr, only for Y! Search to buy it 6 months later by Brad Horowitz (now at Google) – as documented in Business 2.0’s article “The Flickrization of Yahoo!”
The Yahoo! Mail OddPost integration and deployment of Yahoo! Mail 2.0 AJAX was a complete disaster (performance was horrible), so Y! Mail had to buy Zimbra.
I knew someone who used to report to Brad as well as someone else who knew Brad at Excite@Home – nice guy, but how did Big Boy get to where is today is beyond many. Brad is the Michael Scott (i.e. “The Office”) of Yahoo! IMHO.
It HAS to be Vish – no two ways about it – all in
Arrington is jaking off to the idea that Brad G! is going to take over. Douchebags of a feather flock together.
From my limited experience with Scott I have the impression that he’s a worthwhile guy. He has an earthy style and is well liked.
I don’t know Tapan. He’s not very visible.
But I’d bet on Vish, because his properties are so much more important than Scott’s.
Loosing Jeff Weiner would be a real blow to the Yahoo! Both Brad Garlinghouse and Vish Makhijani are excellent executives, and would be good choices for the job. I didn’t have much contact with Scott Moore when I worked at Yahoo! so I can’t comment on him.
Tapan Bhat is a politician who is primarily interested in promoting his own career (which he’s very good at). Unfortunately, he’s blind (and antagonistic) to the ideas of others. There are many good things about Yahoo! and the people who work there. Tapan is an example of what is wrong with the company and why it is in the position it is in today.
When was the last time you reported a departure from M$?
Or you have it forbidden by higher powers?
TC is a M$ outlet, can’t deny that huh?
A comments rating system would rock right about now…
@John
Totally agree, Brad would be a total disaster but Yahoo seems to continually promote/protect him even as he and his circle of stooges flank him.
Y! Mail is crappy experience, thanks in large part to Brad’s inability to take risk and make bold changes. If anyone calls Mash/Mosh bold, they’re drinking kool aid.
Dialpad was a failure that Brad somehow convinced Y! to buy, prior to that Brad’s performance at @Ventures and @Home was average at best. What Brad is good at doing is politicking and surrounding himself with younger Yahoo’s that are dumb enough hook their wagons to his and keep lookout – for very little in return. Unless you think a ship of fools has value.
One good note about the name Garlinghouse…is his sister Meg.
work it while you can jeff. in five years, green tech will be all the rage and no one will care about a midlevel exec from the perennial number 2 web site
oh and as for a replacement it will almost certainly be garlichouse. its not like tier-1 resumes are flowing into yahoo these days…every name you have above is a third stringer.
this place is bleeding talent, not breeding it. i’ve watched a lot of good people leave in the last four years…almost to a person, the kind that you want to retain. there are still good people there, but its obvious that yahoo’s leadership of the web is over, it has as much to fear from facebook as it does google.
five years from now the company will be down to 5k employees. as soon as the proxy battles are over, jerry is going to lay off 2k-3k employees…you can be sure of that. what else does he have to offer the street? nothing.
Good luck
Nobody thinks Marco Boerries? SVP of Connected Life…
Jeff W. came in from Warner Bros with Terry… Brad came in from a damaged startup… Marco sold his second company to Y! for a ton of cash and has release a bunch of new products from scratch…
He is an ass but he gets shit done and is downright serious about product management. When he wants something done right he takes a hands-on approach and works directly with the designers/engineers/PMs sometimes on a daily basis.
I can’t say I like him but he certainly has the inflated ego and desire for power suitable for the job!
@Josh & @Bleeding Purple:
The only reason no-talent asses like Garlinghouse keep getting mention on TechCrunch is due to Arrington’s dubious insight into tech companies in general and Y! in particular. He himself is big on blab and little on action, and so Brad G clicks well with him. They’re the same type of self-promoting yammering blowhard.
Brad’s idiotic memo was a total duh moment in Yahoo history. It said what every employee from the bottom up already knew for years before dialpad was acquired and asshole brought on-board. But since Arrington has the focus of a 12 year old with ADHD he couldn’t stop bleeding purple himself and ate peanut butter sandwiches for an entire year (3 times a day, I hear).
To even mention that douchebag as a potential successor for Weiner is simply his way of paying back Brad for his constant leaks to TechCrunch. In short, Arrington is an asshole who shills for his sources (Brad) and financial supporters (M$)
it will probably be garlinghouse but it really should be scott – he’s got the track record, the team and the maturity to lead yahoo (or, in this case, the network) at this challenging point in time. that said, i wouldn’t bet on him getting it as he’s been working in santa monica and not in the mother ship.
Booktown called you out, dude.
http://kara.all...ot-be-replaced/
Cage match!
Hey Mike,
Look what I got –
This comes a day after it was reported by you!
Sorry forgot thie link –
http://finance....ed?tickers=yhoo
Well, they got rid of their Weiner, now if they can just get rid of that d_ck Yang.
(yeah, I know the i and e are in the wrong place, but I couldn’t resisit)
BFD
@Yodel123
Some of your comments regarding Tapan are true, but he is a very smart, competent guy, which is more than I can say for Garlinghouse, having worked with both guys. Tapan is in the position he is in today because he got recruited by Yahoo!
@H.Leadbelly
>Marco Boerries? SVP of Connected Life…
He was after my time at Yahoo!, but I have heard so many bad things about this guy… he would be a disaster. I’ve met people who quit Yahoo! knowing that they would be reporting to Boerries.
>approach and works directly with the designers/engineers/PMs
>sometimes on a daily basis. I can’t say I like him but he certainly
>has the inflated ego and desire for power suitable for the job!
I was told he is a massive micro-manager and likes to change things to make peoples’ lives difficult, not to improve the product.