Yahoo Launches Three New Divisions Under Susan Decker

As expected, Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) yesterday revealed plans for an internal restructuring, creating three new divisions under the leadership of company president Susan Decker, launching a new department to support its cloud computing initiatives and altering the leadership of the executive team of its search unit following the outsourcing of the portal's search advertising functionality to Google Inc. (GOOG). Yahoo! is under pressure to show that it has a plan to grow as a standalone public company now that it has rejected a $47.5 billion acquisition offer from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT).

According to the announcement, Yahoo! will launch the new Audience Products division under the leadership of former platforms and infrastructure team leader Ash Patel, shift former global partnerships chief Hilary Schneider to lead U.S. regional operations and create an Insights Strategy department with leadership to be announced. All three divisions will report directly to Decker.

Separately, the company's technology and infrastructure operations will  include a Cloud Computing and Data Infrastructure unit, and its consumer-facing platform personnel will report to Audience Technology team leader Venkat Pranchapakesan. Finally, the leaders of its Research and Search Engineering divisions will now jointly lead its search unit, presumably in response to the Google deal.