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Yahoo has lost two more well-regarded VPs this month, part of an ongoing exodus of top talent at the company. Re/code wrote about that in October, but it has accelerated since.
VPs at the Silicon Valley Internet giant make up about 2 percent of the staff, said one source, and their departure typically has wider repercussions.
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This time it is Steve Fan, a VP in Yahoo’s corporate development unit, who is now director of strategic initiatives at China’s Tencent. Fan had been involved in numerous deals since he arrived in 2009, including Citizen Sports, Dapper, Aviate, Flurry and Polyvore.
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Also set to depart is Tekedra Mawakana, its global head of public policy and deputy general counsel. She arrived at Yahoo to much acclaim in 2013 and now she is headed to eBay as their new VP of government relations.
Both Fan and Mawakana are considered top performers at Yahoo and quickly found great jobs, though others are bracing for big cuts coming from CEO Marissa Mayer. It’s part of an attempt to stave off a likely inevitable attack from activist shareholder Starboard Value, that came after the company declined to explicitly put itself up for sale.
Mayer is vulnerable now — including a spate of much tougher press (the same press that was largely slavish to the former Google exec until only recently) — because her turnaround of the storied Internet brand has been more of a downturn, despite energetic efforts and a myriad of acquisitions.
Losing talent now is obviously not a good thing.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
