Yahoo poaches Google ad exec

Yahoo has hired Google advertising executive Michael Barrett as its new chief revenue officer, as part of the web portal's efforts to re-emerge as an internet titan.

While Tim Morse remains Yahoo's chief financial officer, Barrett will focus on new and existing ways to generate revenue for the company, rather than look after Yahoo's finances.

He has been at Google since his company Admeld was acquired by the search giant last year, for around US$400 million. He will report directly to interim chief executive Ross Levinsohn.

It's an interesting hire. While unexpected, it hardly comes as a surprise. Beyond anything else, Yahoo has to get its advertising groove back on.

Barrett was Fox Interactive's chief revenue officer in 2006 to 2008. It's also not the first time he's worked at Yahoo, having left the then-booming web giant after only seven months in 1999.

Out with the old, in with the new: there's been a revolving door of chief executives at Yahoo as of late, and Levinsohn is now charged with getting the company back on track. Former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson didn't even get a chance before he "resigned" from the company, following the "Resumegate" scandal.

One of the first "policies" to get Yahoo back on track was to get the company's ad space back into the limelight.

Yahoo posted only US$1.08 billion revenue, during the first quarter — just a 1 per cent increase on the same period, a year earlier — something just had to be done. Google and Yahoo are obvious rivals in the ad space. Granted, Yahoo is way behind Google — the worldwide search behemoth — which makes more than 95 per cent of its revenue from ads.

According to AllThingsD's sources, Yahoo is considering a plan to sell or abandon large parts of its advertising tech business and, instead, rely on third-party suppliers, including Google.

Via ZDNet US