Yahoo President Susan Decker has groomed Schneider, who joined in 2006, to move up the ranks. Weiner's departure provided the impetus to move ahead with the management overhaul, a plan Decker is pushing. That could lead to more departures as some find themselves with less responsibility, according to one person who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity.
Yahoo is under rising pressure to prove that it's worth more than the $47.5 billion Microsoft had offered to buy it. Yahoo most recently turned down a proposal from Microsoft to buy its search business.
Investor Mithras Capital, which holds 1.7 million Yahoo shares, on Thursday called on Microsoft to take that proposal directly to shareholders.
Yahoo is betting on a new system to buy display advertising and the search partnership with Google to buy time with investors and stave off corporate activist Carl Icahn.
Yahoo announced the Google deal the same day that it said it had pulled out of talks with Microsoft. Yahoo and Google are delaying the start of their partnership by as much as 3 1/2 months so they can answer questions from antitrust regulators concerned about a tie-up between the world's two biggest search engines.
Icahn has mounted a campaign to replace Yahoo's directors in an Aug. 1 shareholder election. If he gains control of the nine-member board, he has pledged to remove Yang as CEO. Yang has insisted Yahoo is more valuable to investors as a stand-alone company.
Talk of an overhaul is causing turmoil among Yahoo employees. Some former Yahoo executives are comparing the predicament to the "AOL death spiral," referring to the decline of the once-powerful Internet brand.
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jessica.guynn@latimes.com
