Gawker: valleywag, rachel glaser

Reunion.com hires one of Yahoo's most hated execs

Owen Thomas — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:40:00 EDT

A high-level hire by a rival is usually bad news. So why do I suspect insiders at Classmates.com are rejoicing at the news that former Yahoo executive Rachel Glaser is joining spammy social network Reunion.com as COO and CFO? The two sites have close to the same traffic, and similar unscrupulous methods for gaining paid subscribers, charging for access to questionably accurate alumni lists.

But Glaser, a finance executive at Yahoo, was so grating that former CEO Terry Semel banned her from the corporate jet, and so underqualified that she drove more talented executives out of the company. If she was in over her head as a divisional senior vice president at Yahoo, why does Reunion.com think she'll be able to handle not one but two C-level jobs? Her hire may be enough to sink Reunion.com once and for all. Classmates.com, and victims of Reunion.com's spam tactics, will certainly rejoice.

Despised Yahoo finance exec gets her walking papers

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:20:05 EST

First, former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel banned Rachel Glaser from the corporate jet. Now the annoyingly loud talker is out of the corporation. The senior vice president will leave the company in 2008, reports Kara Swisher, who's an expert on loudness. On her way out the door, Glaser could hold it open for VP of media engineering Bharath Kadaba, also soon to depart. A source told Swisher that Yahoo is just trying to cull its executive herd. Not a bad idea, considering that as recently as September, that pack included 300 vice presidents and several dozen senior VPs. But there's likely more to Glaser's departure, at least, than simple economics.

Last we heard of Glaser, departing Yahoo finance exec Mark Rubash told us it would be "more enjoyable and rewarding elsewhere" than to take a job which would place Glaser as one of his reports. Rubash was hardly alone, according to one commenter who wrote, "To say Ms Glaser is 'widely disliked on the Sunnyvale campus' is being kind."

Sue Decker's ex-lieutenant speaks

Owen Thomas — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 12:59:14 EDT

Mark Rubash, the Yahoo finance executive who recently left the troubled Web giant — this, despite having the favor of new president Sue Decker — emailed Valleywag to deny that he lost a turf war with Rachel Glaser. If anything, he won the turf war, he says, getting offered a job in which he would have overseen Glaser's group. Instead, he turned down the job and left altogether. He's now CFO at Rearden Commerce, a startup in Foster City. In his note, though, he leaves a tantalizing hint about Glaser.

Rubash noted that, though the new job would have given him authority over Glaser's group, he believed life would be "more enjoyable and rewarding elsewhere." Wow. As unpleasant as Glaser is to work for, could she really be that unpleasant to have as an underling, too? Apparently. Rumor has is that former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel banned Glaser — like Semel, an air commuter from L.A. to Yahoo's Sunnyvale HQ — from the corporate jet.

Sue Decker loses a lieutenant

Owen Thomas — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:39:06 EDT

We hear that Mark Rubash, left, a Yahoo finance executive hired by Yahoo president Sue Decker in February, is already leaving the company. Rubash, a favorite of Decker, was apparently the loser in a turf war with fellow finance executive Rachel Glaser, pictured here to his right.. We can't help but wonder if Glaser, a commuter from Los Angeles who's widely disliked on the Sunnyvale campus, will last much longer, as Yahoo undergoes a top-to-bottom reorganization. "She has no financial acumen," whispers one tipster — a fact that, if true, can't be lost on Decker and her recently hired ally, CFO Blake Jorgensen. Update: Rubash says he was offered a job over Glaser's head, but turned it down.