CEO Bartz plans to streamline Yahoo

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), a leading global brand and one of the world’s most trafficked Internet destinations, announced today that Carol Bartz, a veteran technology executive who was most recently Executive Chairman of Autodesk (NASDAQ: ADSK), has been named Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors, effective immediately. less Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), a leading global brand and one of the world’s most trafficked Internet destinations, announced today that Carol Bartz, a veteran technology executive who was most recently Executive ... more Photo: Business Wire Photo: Business Wire Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close CEO Bartz plans to streamline Yahoo 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Get ready for yet another Yahoo Inc. reshuffle.

Carol Bartz, named chief executive last month, is planning to revamp the beleaguered Sunnyvale Web portal in an effort to speed up decision making and help reverse its slowing growth.

The shakeup, which could come as early as this week, is expected to create a new, more streamlined organizational chart. No major layoffs are planned, according to an executive familiar with the matter.

However, as part of the upcoming reorganization, Bartz, 60, a former CEO of business softwaremaker Autodesk, is expected to replace some Yahoo executives. Who will be leaving, and when, was unclear.

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A Yahoo spokesman declined to comment on what he called "rumors and speculation."

On Monday, Neeraj Khemlani, who led Yahoo's news, tech and weather properties, said he would be joining Hearst Corp., owner of The Chronicle, as vice president and special assistant to the chief executive for digital media. He said that his departure was unrelated to any Yahoo reorganization and that Bartz "really understands how to reposition the company, which needs a little bit of help, but has all the core assets that it needs to succeed."

Yahoo's management has undergone a series of upheavals over the past 20 months, including a raft of departures and shifting responsibilities amid a failed $47.5 billion takeover bid by Microsoft Corp. But the changes haven't prompted the turnaround that many investors were hoping for.

Derek Brown, an analyst with Cantor Fitzgerald, said that Yahoo's future success depends on fixing its internal problems. Only then will it be able to tackle the formidable challenge of Google Inc., whose success in search has cemented its position at the top of the Internet food chain.

Brown criticized Bartz's predecessor, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, for failing to make significant changes during his brief 17-month tenure, which started with him promising that there would be no sacred cows. He has higher hopes for Bartz, who he said seems to be more willing to do what's necessary to speed up "decision-making that was significantly slower than the marketplace demanded."

"One thing that seems reassuring on the outside is that you have a relatively new set of eyes assessing the situation more objectively," Brown said.

During her first six weeks on the job, Bartz has voiced thinly veiled criticism of Yahoo's past executives, describing the company "as one with enormous assets that frankly could use a little management." She also said that Yahoo needed fundamental change to speed decision making and to develop a clearer strategy.

Yahoo has steadily lost market share in search to Google, prompting some investors to ask whether Yahoo should get out of the search business and partner with Microsoft instead. The failure to compete has hurt Yahoo particularly hard amid the deteriorating economy because search ads have performed better than other kinds of online advertising, particularly banner ads, a category that Yahoo leads.