Yahoo!'s exec shuffle: What will it accomplish?

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is an internet company that has more visitors and users across its combined properties than any other company. Is it realizing all the revenue it can from all those customers? Not really. In fact, competitor Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is sucking Yahoo!'s well of customers dry each month using roughly one revenue avenue -- text-based search advertising. Yahoo! was late to realize that advertising was the place to be, rather than trying to get customers to pay for premium services and content that they can get elsewhere for free. Result? Yahoo! is scrambling to catch up to the mover and shaker in the industry -- and it ain't Yahoo!.

Yahoo!'s search for a new CFO ended last week. The catch, one with deep financial market ties, speaks volumes about potential Yahoo! strategy in the months and years to come. Blake Jorgensen's appointment means that Yahoo! may be looking to shed non-core assets or even set itself up to be sold. Yahoo!'s lingering rumor that it join with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has been vanquished (again), which leaves Yahoo! standing in the dark corner with a lit match while Google runs all over town with a bonfire on its back.

Yahoo! is losing some key employees as the "grass is greener" attitude continues to infiltrate the company. It's been speculated that 2007 may see the end of Terry Semel as Yahoo!'s CEO after some nice moves in 2002 and 2003 did not pay off as planned and Google's furtive moves caught the Yahoo! guard off-guard. The recovery has not panned out at all either and still remains murky. If Semel can somehow manage to get Yahoo! back in the prominent spotlight (and making more money based on all the customer relationships it has), he may be safe. It is not, however, happening to the degree YHOO shareholders are needing at this point.