Following the leaving of former CEO Scott Thompson, Yahoo will reorganize
under interim CEO Ross Levinsohn, folding its consumer-commerce division back into its global media team where it was previously housed, said Dana Lengkeek, senior director of corporate
communications at the company.
Yahoo declined to comment further.
The reorganization comes after months of changes at the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based
company. Charlene Li, founder and analyst at Altimeter Group, said that although she
was surprised by the speed with which the change occurred, it seemed only
natural for Yahoo to reorganize its commerce division.
“The reason [media and commerce] need to be tied together is that Yahoo is
primarily a media company,” Li said. “First and foremost, Yahoo is media.” In
short, she said, this is Levinson trying to form a clear company vision, which
will allow Yahoo to move forward.
“At this point, they want stability about what the future of Yahoo is going
to be,” she said. “Expectations of Yahoo are pretty darn low at the moment…I
think what they want to do at this point is satisfy the shareholders who really
want the company to be focused on media.”
According to an AP report, Yahoo’s interim CEO Ross Levinsohn alerted
employees to the change in a companywide memo May 18. Levinsohn took the top
position less than one week earlier when CEO Scott Thompson stepped down
because his resume included a false college degree in computer science.
During the past six months, Yahoo has seen a series of changes. In April, the
company laid off 2,000 employees. Last September, CEO
Carol Bartz was also ousted from the company. Thompson had held his job as
CEO for just four months.
