Three top Yahoo Inc. executives are leaving the slumping Internet company in an exodus that could put CEO Carol Bartz on the hot seat as she approaches the end of her second year trying to engineer a turnaround.
The company disclosed the departures Thursday, confirming an earlier report published on the technology site All Things Digital.
The defecting executives are: Hilary Schneider, an executive vice president who oversaw Yahoo’s advertising in the U.S.; David Ko, a senior vice president in charge of mobile and audience; and Jimmy Pitaro, a vice president who ran the division that produced the heavily trafficked news, sports and finance sections of Yahoo’s Web site.
“These are some of the most important people at the company,” said Standard and Poor’s equity analyst Scott Kessler. “It’s definitely going to put more pressure on Carol Bartz.”
Bartz, known for her brash, sometimes profane language, has been cutting costs while trying to find ways to get people to spend more time on Yahoo’s Web site instead of rapidly growing online hangouts such as Facebook and Twitter.
In doing so, Bartz also abandoned any hope of catching Google Inc. in the lucrative Internet search market. She has farmed out the bulk of the company’s search technology to Microsoft Corp.’s Bing.
Although analysts have applauded Bartz for bringing more discipline to Yahoo, her strategy has yielded few dividends. Advertisers are still spending more at Google and Facebook, leaving Yahoo in a financial funk that began under her two predecessors, former movie mogul Terry Semel and company co-founder Jerry Yang.
Yahoo’s stock price also has fallen by about 15 percent so far this year, leaving it even further below the $33 per share that Microsoft was prepared to pay to buy the entire company in May 2008. Yang balked at the offer, prompting Microsoft to withdraw the bid.
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