At least five Infoseek Corp. managers have resigned in
recent weeks, including Barak Berkowitz, who was in charge of the Go Network with partner Walt Disney Co.
In addition to Berkowitz, the management defection includes Jim Morouse,
Infoseek’s vice president of marketing, and other managers involved with
customer service, communications and international partnerships, according to The Wall Street Journal. Several content producers working at the Go.com site are
reported to be leaving as well.
The company told The Journal that the departures are unrelated to
the restructuring of the company, which occurred in January when Infoseek
merged its online business with Disney. The intent was to create a portal,
the Go Network, designed to rival competitors such as Yahoo!, Excite and Lycos.
“Even through the merging of the companies and the coordinating of the
transition, our involuntary turnover has been well below industry
standards,” Harry Motro, Infoseek’s chief executive officer, told the Wall Street Journal.
Even so, employees told the newspaper that the departures have hurt company
morale because many thought the management restructuring had been completed
after January.