Yahoo sacks COO as ad revenues decline

Yahoo’s chief operating officer, Henrique de Castro, has unexpectedly been dismissed from the company just over a year after Marissa Mayer poached him from rival tech-firm Google.

The now former chief operating officer of Yahoo was hired by Mayer in October 2012 to help turn Yahoo’s advertising business around, however was fired on Thursday for reasons unknown.

RE/Code reported that Mayer wrote in an internal memo to the company: “During my own reflection, I made the difficult decision that our COO, Henrique de Castro, should leave the company. I appreciate Henrique’s contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavours.”

Mayer added that from today Yahoo’s leadership will undergo a restructure, and that there may be further changes to “increase alignment and sharpen [Yahoo’s] media and product focus”.

The news comes less than a week after Yahoo announced its new unified suite of digital advertising products for premium and audience-focused display, and native and search advertising.

A whole range of new products were announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas after Yahoo’s share of worldwide digital ad revenues dropped from 3.4% in 2012 to 2.9% in 2013.

Display advertising revenue, which accounts for approximately 40% of the Yahoo’s sales, declined -7% to £257 million.

Mr Castro will leave Yahoo with a severance package believed to be worth $40 million.