Rosensweig to Replace Mallett at Yahoo!

Web portal Yahoo is looking to a veteran online and Internet trade publisher to fill its vacant chief operating officer post, tapping Daniel Rosensweig for the position.

Beginning May 13, Rosensweig, who formerly served as president of CNET Networks , will oversee the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company’s worldwide, day-to-day operations, reporting to Chairman and Chief Executive Terry Semel.

Specifically, Rosensweig will assume operational responsibility for Yahoo’s product development, marketing and ad sales, international and North American operations, which includes the six business units created through a company-wide restructuring late last year.

“His reputation as a visionary, combined with his strategic abilities and strong operational and business skills, make him the perfect complement to our existing management team,” Semel said. “With his background and experience, we expect Dan to make an immense contribution to developing new ways for Yahoo to provide valuable solutions to our consumers, clients and partners. Having Dan on board will help Yahoo continue to gain momentum against the execution of our business plan and further sharpen our organizational focus.”

At CNET, Rosensweig oversaw global operations and the integration of ZDNet and CNET following their $1.6 billion merger in 2000. During his tenure, Rosensweig was also a key participant in company-wide efforts to develop and introduce new, larger, rich-media friendly Internet advertising formats — one of the first major publishers to do so.

Prior to joining San Francisco-based CNET as a result of the merger, Rosensweig had served as ZDNet’s president and CEO, a post in which he spun the unit out of parent Ziff-Davis and took it public. He is credited with a restructuring that left the company cash-flow-positive.

From 1992 to 1997, Rosensweig held publishing positions at Ziff-Davis’ PC Magazine, and later, Ziff-Davis Internet Publishing Group, where he served as president from 1996 to 1997. Since joining Ziff-Davis in 1982, he also held positions in advertising sales, classified ad sales, and circulation.

Rosensweig fills a position vacated this month by Jeff Mallett, who also held the title of president, and who announced his resignation in January. At that time, Yahoo was in the final stages of its restructuring, which began in November under Semel, himself a recent appointment.

The new hire comes as Yahoo is struggling with a protracted downturn in advertising revenues, and efforts to roll out new paid services. Earlier this month, the company posted its sixth-straight quarterly net loss but raised its outlook for later quarters.

In a statement, Rosensweig said his background would be well-suited to such an environment, as the firm “enters its next phase of development.”

“I’m a strong believer in the plans Yahoo has laid out for future growth and look forward to working with the management team to build and create new opportunities for the company,” he said.