Yahoo! gives itself an overhaul


27 Jun 2008

Yahoo! has launched a series of changes aimed at “improving its products, technologies and execution”.

Key elements of the systematic overhaul are the centralisation of consumer product development to enhance the company’s ability to release products worldwide; the creation of a US region focused on bringing products to market for users, advertisers and publishers; formation of an insights strategy team; and enhancements to the technology infrastructure to optimise the use of data and improve coordination between product and engineering teams.

“These moves accelerate the ability of our deep and talented team to build great products, grow our audiences and improve monetisation globally,” said Jerry Yang, CEO, Yahoo!. “They are designed to put us in an even better position to leverage our leading global audience and capture the opportunity we see in the convergence of search and display advertising.”

The company is creating three new teams: an Audience Products division will assume responsibility for companywide product strategy and product management; a US region with accountability for all go-to-market activity in the US; and an Insights Strategy team that will assume responsibility for centralising and executing a common strategy for the use of data and analysis across Yahoo!.

Yahoo! is also making changes to its technology organisation, led by chief technology officer Ari Balogh, to better position the company to execute on its strategic priorities. Principal changes are developing a world-class cloud computing and storage infrastructure, rewiring Yahoo! onto common platforms and creating a stronger partnership between product and engineering teams.

Yahoo! will form a Cloud Computing and Data Infrastructure group, charged with developing a computing infrastructure that balances scalability with cost effectiveness. It will move all consumer-facing platform teams to the Audience Technology Group.

In addition, Yahoo! is putting new leadership in place for its Search group. The company’s Marketing Products division, Connected Life and Corporate Marketing groups will continue to operate as they do today.

By Niall Byrne