Kathy Savitt, Yahoo's top marketing executive, is fleeing the company for Hollywood, the latest in a series of worrying departures.
Yahoo is going through another shakeup as its top marketing exec is ditching the company.
Investors have been scrutinizing the Yahoo brand as it falls further behind giants like Google and even Bing in the search engine wars, and now Kathy Savitt, who was tapped by CEO Marissa Mayer to help push Yahoo into the original content realm, is leaving the company for Hollywood, according to a CNN report.
She has been with Yahoo for three years, and helped bring the show “Community” to Yahoo’s new streaming platform, in addition to some other original programs. She also spearheaded digital magazines based on Tumblr, which included some major names like Katie Couric.
The loss of Savitt is the latest in a series of departures of top executives at Yahoo. And it comes at a time when investors aren’t terribly pleased with Yahoo’s inability to revitalize its advertising business. Yahoo said through a spokesperson that it believes it has strong leadership that will continue to drive the business forward, according to the report.
Savitt will be heading to Hollywood to head up the digital unit of STX Entertainment, which is a film and TV studio that produces original content.
Meanwhile, the IRS rejected Yahoo’s request to classify one of its spinoffs, Alibaba, as a tax-free organization. Yahoo currently owns about 384 million shares of Alibaba that are worth $23 billion, according to the report.
Yahoo is of course globally known for its search engine capabilities, but as market share has been gobbled up by Google and Bing, Yahoo has pushed further into original content in order to secure a lasting niche.
The company was founded in 1994, and is currently headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.
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