Yahoo marketing chief Kathy Savitt leaves for STX Entertainment

Jessica Guynn | USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo's marketing chief Kathy Savitt, who was tasked with broadening the appeal of Yahoo's aging brand to a new generation of consumers, is leaving to join start-up film and television studio STX Entertainment where she will lead its digital content business.

Savitt, who was a key lieutenant to Chief Executive Marissa Mayer, was also responsible for Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports.

Yahoo confirmed Savitt's departure in an emailed statement.

"We appreciate her contributions to Yahoo over the past three years and wish her well," Yahoo spokeswoman Becky Auslander wrote.

Savitt's departure comes amid a growing number of defections from Yahoo as well as a growing chorus of questions from Wall Street about the leadership of Mayer, a former Google executive who came in more than three years ago on a tide of high expectations but has failed to revive growth of the company's advertising business.

In February 2014, a management shake-up handed more power to Savitt, a marketing executive who had earned Mayer's trust. Savitt, who joined as chief marketing officer in 2012, took over news and video after operating chief Henrique de Castro was fired. Now Yahoo is planning a major shakeup of its media unit, technology news service Re/code reported Friday.

Making matters more challenging for Yahoo: the Internal Revenue Service recently delivered a major setback to Yahoo's tax-free plan to spin off about $23 billion worth of shares in Alibaba Group Holding. Yahoo is still pressing forward with the spin-off but analysts are unsure if will still happen.

Shares of Yahoo have slipped about 40% from their 52-week high of $52.62.

At Yahoo, Savitt helped revive the cult series "Community" and helped launch the Paul Feig sci-fi comedy "Other Space." But during her tenure as marketing chief, Yahoo did not stem the flow of advertising dollars to rivals Google and Facebook.

Producer Robert Simonds' launched STX last year with private investment firm TPG Capital. Its first release was "The Gift," a $5 million thriller that grossed more than $40 million in the United States and Canada.