Yahoo, (NSDQ: YHOO) which announced its Q1 earnings earlier today, is making some major international appointments. We have learned that Yahoo’s Chief Strategy Officer and top dealmaker Toby Coppel will now be heading the European operations. His new position comes very shortly after he was promoted from SVP-corporate development to CSO. With Coppel’s move, expect some Yahoo Europe M&A activity.

Yahoo PR did not comment on the move, but did give us a statement in response to our repeated queries: “We are pleased to have appointed strong, veteran Yahoos with proven track records to lead our three international regions.  Our international businesses are aligned with the rest of the organization and we are now structured to more effectively focus on the changing demands of our customers and to capture the major growth opportunities around the world.” The other two regions would probably be Yahoo Asia and LatAm, though that’s just a guess.

Staci adds: In today’s earnings call Chairman and CEO Terry Semel mentioned making three international appointments. John Marcom, Jr., who had been SVP-international operations, left as part of the re-org; he reported to then-COO Dan Rosensweig. International operations contibuted just over a third of Yahoo’s revenues this quarter—$571 million compared to $1.1 billion for the U.S.

During the call, Semel talked about expanding the Panama search ad platform internationally: “Given the early success of Panama in the U.S., we are now well-positioned to succeed in the international markets, including the ad interface first and then launching our new ranking model, as we did in the U.S.” They started showing the platform to Japanese customers Monday; the international roll out will continue starting with Korea and Europe later this year.