June 01, 2007 | Friday

Exodus at Yahoo: Semel next?

By Jackie Danicki - Blogger  in News |Search Engines |Google |Yahoo

I often think that it must be frustrating for other search engines that the media is so very Google-mad at the moment. Make no mistake, Google does plenty of genuinely newsworthy things, but even product launches like Google Gears (which, as web pioneer Dave Winer points out, is not at all revolutionary) attract yards of press.

But there is one big advantage for the search giant’s competitors in all this: It distracts everyone, however briefly, from negative events on their own turf.

Recently, as Silicon Valley tech commentator and venture capitalist Jeff Nolan notes, a number of Yahoo executives are jumping ship. The latest to bolt is chief technology officer Farzad “Zod” Nazem, just six months after being appointed head of Yahoo’s new technology group during a management shake-up. Valleywag is scratching its collective head, too, and wonders if Terry Semel might be persuaded to retire soon, too:

Terry Semel...said Yahoo’s chief techie...had been on his way out for months. But just begs the question: given all that notice, why would Semel have to tap Jerry Yang, who hasn’t had an executive role in years, as interim head of tech? Of the three key positions under Semel—sales, product and tech—two are open. Terry Semel is having as much difficulty hiring external execs as George Bush in his lame-duck phase; and, if Kara Swisher’s right, it can’t even persuade internal candidates to step up to top jobs. If Yahoo’s board hasn’t been moved by the company’s eclipse by Google, surely this management vacuum will prod them to accelerate Semel’s retirement.

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