Updated: Yahoo’s Shakeup Continues: Top Mobile Exec Boerries Leaves

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Updated: Yahoo’s Shakeup Continues: Top Mobile Exec Boerries Leaves

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Update: Yahoo‘s official statement on the matter after the jump...

This had been expected: Marco Boerries, the EVP for Connected Devices division at Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) for four years, and the head of its mobile efforts, is leaving the company, according to Kara. The news was in an internal e-mail sent to staff on Sunday. Boerries came to the company in 2005 with the acquisition of VerdiSoft. He also had earlier sold another software company to Sun Microsystems (JAVA) in 1999.

Boerries has more recently been splitting his time between Northern California and Hamburg, where his family is, and that has contributed to his decision as well, the story says. From his e-mail he sent to employees: “Most of you know about my personal situation, the ‘living in 2 continents’ and the importance of my family to me. I cannot reconcile these personal needs, my future plans and ambitions and Yahoo! anymore. And that’s why it is time to say goodbye.” Reportedly, Boerries wanted to leave the company earlier, but felt loyalty to former CEO Jerry Yang. With a new CEO in place, that hurdle went away.

At Mobile World Congress earlier this month, Boerries gave a keynote, his last as part of the company, and relaunched the company’s mobile efforts yet again, its third in as many years. This time it launched “Yahoo Mobile,” which combined OneSearch, OneConnect and OnePlace products as well as other features such as Yahoo Maps, into a more convenient package than its previous attempt with Yahoo Go. No word yet on how this will affect the mobile division, though it went through a mini-reorg last September as well. Yahoo, doesn’t have a device of its own—unlike mobile rivals Google (through Android) and Apple (through iPhone), and that has placed it at a bit of disadvantage when it comes to mobile applications. To be fair, it has made the right noises in the mobile search (it is now powering search on AT&T (NYSE: T), T-Mobile and Virgin USA) and mobile advertising fields for the last two years, though monetization has been a low priority.

It has been suggested over the last two years that if Yahoo has any chance of trying to compete with Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Microsoft or AOL, it had to reinvent itself as an online-mobile convergence Internet company of sorts. Whoever fills this position, if anyone does, will have to start a rethink on Yahoo’s mobile products and their integration, whatever the main Yahoo product line ends up looking like after new CEO Carol Bartz is done with her review.

This continues the re-jiggering the Yahoo’s senior exec ranks as Bartz reorganize the company. Just two days ago Yahoo News head Neeraj Khemlani left to join Hearst Corporation, as VP and head of digital.

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Yahoo’s statement:

“After four years at Yahoo!, Marco Boerries is leaving the company for personal reasons. Under Marco’s leadership, the Connected Life division developed a leadership position in Mobile, and most recently in the Connected TV space.

The division has seen many accomplishments over the last several years, including setting the standard for a great device experience with Yahoo! Go, delivering an award-winning mobile search experience via Yahoo! oneSearch and winning in mobile search distribution by signing more than 70 operator partners globally to date. Most recently, the Connected Life team unveiled the next generation of technology and services for Internet-connected televisions and introduced Yahoo! Mobile, a highly-personalized mobile starting point to the Internet, at Mobile World Congress 2009.”

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By Rafat Ali