In another major roadblock to Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) that is trying to revamp its search engine, Kevin Gentzel, North America Advertising Head of the company is leaving. Even though the company has not made any official comment on the departure of Gentzel, his colleagues found him to be well-connected with the clients. Gentzel was formerly associated with Forbes and was highly ambitious and an important asset to CEO Marissa Mayer’s cabinet of officials.
Having served the company for less than a year, he was appointed at a time when the company was in turmoil. According to reports by Digiday, the ad buyers of the company were not happy with the company, and some of the products failed to impress the advertising fraternity. Mayer is currently working on a strategy to build the image of Yahoo in the eyes of the advertisers and focusing on making the company zoom ahead of the other tech giants.
Failed To Boost Advertiser Confidence
Gentzel was an expert in his field, and he has had a good standing with the people associated with the company. His biggest achievement was the Honda sponsorship in a venture of Yahoo called Community.
The revenue from display ads was, however, unsatisfactory, and this was an area that even Gentzel could not help revive. Yahoo registered a growth in revenue in the Q12015, but the numbers are still not too great to boast.
The revenue from premium ads segment saw a 40% dip in Q12015. Yahoo has not got into any major deals in 2015 till now, and this has also dampened the market sentiments.
Analysts Doubtful
Trade analysts are skeptical about the departure of Gentzel, and there are rumors about the role of Mayer in the hasty disposal of the former sales head of North America. The revenues from this market have also not yielded any positive results in this quarter, and this could be one of the reasons that he stepped down. Nevertheless, it is yet to be seen how the departure will impact Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL). The company has yet to reveal the exact reasons and the news about some other big departures are also on the cards.
