Stuart Sayers to depart Yahoo!7
CEO of Yahoo!7 Stuart Sayers is to depart the joint venture digital company, Mumbrella can reveal.
Sayers will be replaced by Emma Harrington Seven West’s head of data & transaction commercialisation, who will serve as acting managing director while the company searches for a replacement.
Sayers has been in the role since September 2012, but has faced a turbulent year with the withdrawal of group buying website Spreets from the group buying market, the closure of its search business and a $61.5m writedown in the book value of the digital publisher because of the challenging ad market.
Harrington has worked at Yahoo!7 since its inception, most recently as director of strategy. The announcement was made to staff this morning.
Reports suggest Sayers will take up a senior role at Amazon. In a statement a Yahoo!7 spokeswoman said Sayers would be leaving “for a new role in the digital industry.”
“I would like to personally thank Stuart for this commitment and efforts over the past year in leading the Yahoo!7 business in the role of CEO,” said Rose Tsou, senior vice president of APAC for Yahoo! Inc and chair of the Yahoo!7 board.
“We wish him all the best in his future endeavours. The executive recruitment process is already underway and we hope to announce a new CEO soon. Stuart has agreed to remain in the business until the end of January 2014 to ensure a managed transition working alongside Emma.”
Nic Christensen
