Yahoo loses search chief amid upheaval

His departure further dents Yahoo's senior UK executive tier and is a
blow to the company as it seeks to close Google's dominance of the UK
search market.

Three senior sales executives left for online rival Facebook in October
and November last year, with commercial director Blake Chandlee the
first to depart, followed by head of agency strategy Stephen Haines and
group head Jon Harvey.

As of December, Google commanded 81% of UK search spend, while Yahoo
took just 6%.

Since Chandlee's departure, Yahoo has merged its display and search
teams and has created an as-yet unfilled UK and Ireland commercial
director role spanning both disciplines. Previously, Chandlee headed
display and Firminger led search.

It is understood that Firminger's departure was amicable and not part of
Yahoo's reported plan to cut 1,000 jobs worldwide. He declined to
comment.

Yahoo declined to comment, other than to say it was not ready to
announce any new appointments.

Firminger spent four years at Yahoo and was the architect of the
roll-out of Panama, Yahoo's relaunched paid search platform, which went
live in the UK last year.

Agencies reported a vast improvement on the previous model and a largely
smooth transition period, but Yahoo, like Microsoft, has failed to erode
search behemoth Google's dominant market position in the UK.

Research firm comScore last week reported that both Microsoft and Yahoo
posted a fall in their number of UK search queries in December,
recording their lowest figures since such records began.

Prior to working at Yahoo, Firminger was UK managing director of
Enpocket, the mobile marketing agency bought by mobile phone giant Nokia
last year for a sum thought to be in the region of £100m.

His departure comes amid speculation about the future of Yahoo. It has
rejected Microsoft's approach and is reported to be in merger talks with
AOL.