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Yahoo poaches former Google exec. to lead revenue push

Yahoo has hired a new chief revenue officer, Michael Barrett, as part of the company's efforts to boost its advertising business.
Written by Zack Whittaker, Contributor

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.

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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 $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---2008. It's also not the first time he's worked at Yahoo, after leaving 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 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 $1.08 billion revenue during the first quarter --- just 1 percent 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 takes more than 95 percent 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.

Image credit: Yahoo.

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