Gawker: valleywag, vish makhijani

Yandex nixes IPO, which sucks for that Yahoo it just hired

Owen Thomas — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:00:00 EDT

This summer's no-brainer career move now looks like a headscratcher. Vish Makhijani left his job as Yahoo's head of search in June to join Yandex, a Russian search engine which had filed for a $3 billion public offering the month before. Getting pre-IPO stock options, with the exit in plain sight? Much better than watching Yahoo shares sink from $34 to below $13. But Yandex has postponed its IPO plans. Anyone want to take bets on how long Makhijani will stay as CEO of Yandex Labs, the company's U.S. outpost? Memo to Vish: Microsoft may still be hiring.

Who's moving up, moving out or on the fence at Yahoo

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Yahoo CEO-in waiting Sue Decker continues to push the company through yet another reorganization. An her minions aren't happy about it. One told Kara Swisher: “I am not sure right now, with all this drama and all this tension from Microsoft’s failed takeover and the rest of it, why we have to do this. This feels crazy.” We figure the best way to do this is rip the band-aid off and move on. So below, who's in, who's up and who's out in quick and dirty bullet points.

Loathed EVP Ash Patel will head up Global Products group.
Global Partner Solutions EVP Hilary Schneider will oversee both ad sales and product development for the entire US region and be Patel's peer.
Scott Moore, who runs the Yahoo Media Group, will report to Schneider. Though he has startup offers.
Brad Garlinghouse will probably leave by the end of the summer.
Yahoo Search’s Vish Makhijani will leave the company.
Front Door head Tapan Bhat will either report to Patel in Global Products or bolt.
Yahoo SVP for Strategic Alliances, Chris Bolte, will leave the company.

Who will replace Jeff Weiner at Yahoo?

Owen Thomas — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:00:00 EDT

If Jeff Weiner, head of Yahoo's search, community, and media properties, leaves the company, who's left to run things? An outside hire seems unlikely, Michael Arrington points out, given Carl Icahn's fight with the Yahoo board. That leaves a battlefield promotion for one of Weiner's direct reports, shown here from left to right: Brad Garlinghouse, Scott Moore, Vish Makhijani, and Tapan Bhat. Here's our handicapping of this horserace:

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.