LinkedIn's voluminous founder, Reid Hoffman (shown here), envisioned the site as the embodiment of his voracious appetite for meeting business partners. Social networks? Useless fluff, when everyone who walks through the door of Palo Alto's Coupa Cafe is someone Hoffman could hire, invest in, or strike a deal with.

Despite its business focus, LinkedIn has struggled to make money. Its main revenue stream, premium accounts for heavy users, depends heavily on recruiters, who are looking for jobs themselves these days. Under Nye, an experienced software salesman, the company toyed with becoming a so-called "expert network," an operation which matches up people hungry for knowledge with those who have it. Stock traders, especially, pay handsomely to talk to executives in companies whose shares they want to trade — a part of the business which can veer on breaking insider-trading laws, if contacts aren't carefully monitored.

Bain, the management-consulting firm, was so interested in the potential for this kind of matchmaking that it invested in LinkedIn's most recent $75 million round, which valued the company at $1 billion. But the ineptness of LinkedIn's middle management meant that the expert-network product never got off the ground. And the business as a whole badly missed the financial projections management had given investors, which infuriated Bain and others.

This may explain why Hoffman abruptly cancelled a trip to Japan, where he was due to speak at a conference, to oversee the company's recent layoffs. The company has hired a former Google executive, Dipchand "Deep" Nishar, and Jeff Weiner, a former top executive at Yahoo, has stepped in as its interim president.

Hoffman may have to do far more to save his company. A gregarious fellow who has invested in a host of startups, Hoffman is famously nice and good-hearted. And he prefers the dreamy work of strategy to the hard tasks of building a business. Is he prepared to fix LinkedIn? Or does he still think his company's problems can all be solved by making the right connections?

He aptly played a janitor in Dugan's previous "All Hands! The Movie," whose star, Jeff Weiner, recently left the company. If only Patel would copy Weiner's moves. Starring in videos seems to be all the Yahoo oldtimer does these days. Anyone care to send a copy of his latest starring role?

Weiner did meet with Zuckerberg over dinner to discuss a top position at Facebook — the COO spot that Sheryl Sandberg now occupies. But Weiner bombed, we're told, ordering a fancy bottle of wine (Zuckerberg's not a big drinker) and generally playing it slick. The two utterly failed to connect.

The notion that Facebook's venture capitalists could install a CEO over Zuckerberg's head is nonsensical. Greylock's David Sze doesn't even have a board seat; Jim Breyer of Accel is on the board, but he's easily overruled by Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel, the entrepreneur-friendly former PayPal CEO. Zuckerberg has the right to appoint two more board members, and one of the seats is rumored to have gone to Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen, who strikes me as an extremely unlikely ally for Weiner.

So where does that leave Weiner? Zuckerberg may not like him, but Zuckerberg's VCs do, which leaves him with the consolation prize of an EIR job. And Yahoo's conspiracy theorists in need of something new to talk about. How about Flickr cofounder Stewart Butterfield's gonzo resignation email?

As some of you may know, Jeff Weiner and his wife Lisette celebrated the birth of their new baby girl, Sophia, four weeks ago and Jeff has been on a scheduled paternity leave. Over the course of his time away, Jeff and I spoke a few times as he reflected on his priorities. After careful consideration, he has decided to leave Yahoo! to spend more time at home with his new family before beginning a new chapter in his career.

Using a time-tested euphemism such as the "spending more time with his family" line isn't a "Mission Accomplished"-level deception. But it is a lie, and a transparent one. Worse, it's a lie that makes more important ones — like Decker's line later in the memo that "We’re making amazing progress on our product initiatives" — less believable. Why not just dash off: "Weiner left us for a cushy job in VC because he can't take the heat. Let's make him regret it, shall we?" That seems easier. (Photo by AP/Applewhite)

Fayyad, a commenter tells us, is planning to return to Microsoft, where he worked before Yahoo. Had Microsoft's bid for Yahoo succeeded, he likely would have been welcomed back; now Microsoft is getting him much more cheaply. (Bassel Ojjeh, who worked with Fayyad at Microsoft and several startups before joining Yahoo, will be promoted to fill Fayyad's spot, a tipster tells us — but how long will he stay without Fayyad?) Weiner is taking temporary gigs with two venture-capital firms — a likely prelude to a CEO job somewhere. If he ever entertained that ambition at Yahoo, he was clearly thwarted by Sue Decker.

Kara Swisher thinks that another reorganization is coming at Yahoo, one which would not have Weiner directly replaced by one of his underlings. That makes a sort of sense, at least in being predictable. Yahoo is famed for its perpetual reorgs, and a pending reshuffle would explain why Yahoo still hasn't said anything publicly about Fayyad and Weiner's exits. This next one, Swisher thinks, would put Decker ally Hilary Schneider higher up the food chain, and undo a split between Yahoo's sales and product groups — one that Decker herself instigated, in a push to move from her previous job as CFO to an operational role.

What will this accomplish? “It would be nice to have sales in the room now, as we develop services, instead of totally separate,” a Yahoo executive told Swisher. Nice, but not game-changing; rather, it would simply undo a mess Decker made on her way up.

A whole lot of noise, about a whole lot of nothing. Silicon Valley is built on the idea of change — but not change for change's sake. Developing new products, not new org charts, is what excites people here.

Even Zawodny, a longtime Yahoo loyalist, the type of person who describes himself as "bleeding purple," is leaving to do a startup. I believe him when he says his departure has nothing to do with Microsoft or Icahn. But it has everything to do with Yahoo.

Brad Garlinghouse: The obvious candidate; a former CEO, Garlinghouse wrote a controversial "Peanut Butter" memo calling for Yahoo to focus on fewer products and do them well, a strategy Yahoo has followed. He currently oversees communications properties like Yahoo Mail and Messenger, which are shaping up as the centerpieces of Yahoo's attempt to catch up with Facebook and turn its user base into a social network. The odds-on favorite to succeed Weiner.

Scott Moore: The head of Yahoo's Media Group, overseeing properties including news, finance, sports, celebrity portal OMG and women's site Shine. Not in the running, we think: He was only recently promoted, and he likes living in the L.A. area, where the Media Group is based.

Vish Makhijani: Runs Yahoo Search. No chance; given the performance of Yahoo in the search market, it's not clear why he has his current job, let alone why Jerry Yang would give him a new one.

Tapan Bhat: Runs the Yahoo.com homepage and My Yahoo, among other "front doors." Bhat keeps a low profile, but he recently launched Yahoo Buzz, a Digg competitor which has been well received. The most likely scenario for Bhat: Garlinghouse gets promoted, but Bhat gets handed his communications and community portfolio. We'd like to see what Bhat does with sites like Flickr, whose product development has stagnated. (How long did it take to launch video on Flickr?)

Your thoughts on these Yahoo executives in the comments, and your tips in our inbox, are welcome.

Skip to 2:30 for a startling confession from Orchard. At 6:00, Allspaw explains why Googlers might not have the proper equipment to play.

CEO Jerry Yang gets a ball to the face.

CFO Blake Jorgensen waits patiently for the blow.

Network Division chief Jeff Weiner can take your balls like a man.

(Photos by Yodel Anecdotal)

Monday you'll see what I'm talking about. The site will have no RSS feeds etc. [It's] another example of Y! not innovating but rather copying existing products in the marketplace poorly.

Jerry Yang, CEO He'll be a large Microsoft shareholder after the deal goes through, so it's likely he'll get a board seat. And perhaps he'll get to keep the "Chief Yahoo" title.

David Filo, cofounder Might be named a Microsoft Fellow, working in datacenter operations — as he prefers.

Sue Decker, President Gone. There's no position Microsoft can give her that will suit her ambitions. Not to mention the hash she's made of things at Yahoo.

Blake Jorgensen. CFO Gone. Microsoft doesn't need another CFO, and he's a close Decker ally.

Ari Balogh, CTO Bad timing: Balogh just left VeriSign for Yahoo this week. If he'll settle for a title below CTO, Microsoft might grudgingly make room for him.

Marco Boerries, EVP, Connected Life Gone. He's widely disliked within Yahoo, and Microsoft already has plenty of mobile dealmakers.

Michael Callahan, General Counsel Gone. First, we fire all the lawyers.

Gregory Coleman, EVP, Global Sales Already announced his "retirement." Even more gone than he already was.

Usama Fayyad, Chief Data Officer A keeper. Microsoft needs better data analysis.

Qi Lu, EVP, Engineering Search A keeper.

Michael Murray, Chief Accounting Officer Gone.

Jill Nash, Chief Communications Officer Could stay. Microsoft desperately needs better PR in the Valley.

Ash Patel, EVP, Platforms and Infrastructure Division Gone. He's already checked out, insiders say, but it will take a takeout to dislodge him from his desk.

Libby Sartain, Chief People Yahoo Already rumored to be out.

Hilary Schneider, EVP, Global Partner Solutions Could stay, though she's a Decker ally. Microsoft lacks credibility with newspapers, Schneider's strong suit.

Jeff Weiner, EVP, Network Division Gone. Weiner, a Semel guy, has managed to hold onto his job against the odds. But he's not respected in Redmond.

Unconfirmed, but sensible, is a rumor that Windsor might switch strategies from merely investing in companies to developing original content. If so, Semel seems to be assembling an appropriate team. Drew Buckley, who headed up Yahoo's original-programming business, and Jeff Karish, former head of strategy for Yahoo's media group, are joining him. Understandable departures, given the shakeup Scott Moore's leading in that group. What I wonder: Will it take long for Jeff Weiner, embattled head of Yahoo's Network division, to rejoin Windsor Digital, which he cofounded with Semel?

Naturally, Moore's down with central control. "We couldn't just keep launching smaller sites," he told PaidContent. "We couldn't just keep adding sites like food or tech or that kind of thing indefinitely. We need to chunk things up into larger areas."

If Moore felt this way all along, it's no wonder Yahoo Food GM Deanna Brown left for Scripps to escape him. Still, you have to credit Yahoo for going with a guy who seems to have made things work with Yahoo News and Sports. The counterargument: At News, he had Neil Budde, hired away from Dow Jones, and at Sports, he had Yahoo's big fantasy-league franchise to carry him.

Moore, an 11-year Microsoft veteran before joining Yahoo in 2005, was hired by the disgraced and departed Braun, it's true. But the fact that he outlasted Braun and has continued to rise is a testament to the political skills he acquired at the software giant. Moore will take over much of Yahoo's enterainment division, including music, TV, movies, games, and gossip site OMG, which has garnered little buzz but appears to have overtaken AOL's TMZ in the ratings.

Moore displaces SVP Vince Broady, who remains with the company for now, but without a portfolio. He'll continue to report to Jeff Weiner, who'd best watch his back. They play corporate politics for keeps up in Redmond.

"Revenue is down 10-15% in this group year over year," says one tipster, of the marketplace unit. As part of the reorganization, Weiner's getting most of those businesses back, except for Yahoo's job-listings site, HotJobs. But here's the rub. To do any moneymaking deals, Weiner's group will have to "partner" with Schneider. That's unlikely to go over well, given the clear rivalry between the two. So much for Decker's claims that the reorganization will speed decisionmaking.