Yahoo Taps New CFO as Reorg Continues

Yahoo has tapped Tim Morse, formerly CFO of semiconductor industry supplier Altera, as its new CFO, filling a three-month vacancy and continuing the company’s sweeping reorganization.

“With his passion for operational finance, global experience, and expertise simplifying complex organizations and managing growth, Tim is a natural fit for Yahoo,” Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz said in a statement.

When Morse joined Altera in January 2007, he praised the semiconductor supplier’s customer relations. “The company’s reputation of operational excellence and customer-driven culture are key strengths I look forward to leveraging,” he said in a statement at the time.

In contrast, Morse today said that his focus at Yahoo will be on the bottom line. “I look forward to working with the entire leadership team to continue to focus on driving results and creating value for our shareholders,” he said today in a statement.

Yahoo’s balance sheet continues to be a concern and the company recently sold a 10 percent stake in a South Korean auction company that eBay acquired.

Morse’s appointment will be seen as part of Bartz’s vision for Yahoo’s management. When Yahoo’s previous CFO, Blake Jorgensen, left the company in February, industry analysts told InternetNews.com that Bartz was building a simplified reporting structure that would resemble the org chart of Autodesk, where she was CEO from 1992 to 2006.

Simplifying Yahoo is Bartz’s goal, said earlier this year in a company blog post.

“I’m rolling out a new management structure that I believe will make Yahoo! a lot faster on its feet. For us working at Yahoo!, it means everything gets simpler. We’ll be able to make speedier decisions, the
notorious silos are gone, and we have a renewed focus on the customer,” she wrote in February, a month after assuming the top spot at the Web portal.

Today, Douglas Anmuth, an analyst at Barclays Capital, agreed that Morse will continue the process of rationalizing management that Bartz has begun.

“We look for Morse to expand this effort by focusing on cost controls and low-hanging fruit, and we believe there’s much to be had,” he wrote in a research note.

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