Radical shake up at Yahoo

Starting on 1 January 2007, the company will organise itself into three new units: the Audience Group, the Advertiser & Publisher Group, and the Technology Group. The new arrangement is hoped to increase accountability and to speed up decision making.

Each group's head will report directly to CEO Terry Semel.

Commenting on the restructure, Semel, said: "We're moving aggressively to deliver the most possible value to our key customers - audiences, advertisers and publishers - and seize the major new opportunities we see ahead for the internet."

The Audience Group will concentrate on the company's existing consumer products, such as search, Web-based e-mail, and news aggregation, while also developing social networking, mobile and handheld content, and international offerings.

The Advertiser & Publisher Group will handle advertising and relationships with Yahoo partner publishers. It will be responsible for creating a global advertising network both on and off Yahoo sites.

The group will be lead by Yahoo's chief financial officer, Susan Decker.

Yahoo's new Technology Group will be charged with building and maintaining the infrastructure for these new efforts, and will continue its work on Project Panama, a new search advertising system.

Farzad Nazem, the company's chief technology officer, will head the technology unit.

The shake-up will also see chief operating officer Dan Rosensweig leave the company.

Semel added: "The internet is continuing to grow and evolve at a rapid pace, and we're reshaping Yahoo to be a leader in this transformation, just as we did successfully five years ago."