Head of Yahoo Video Division to Leave
Satish Menon, VP of the Consumer Platforms Group at Yahoo (aka the video platform division, with responsibility for video infrastructure, software and advertising), will soon leave the company, he told us over the weekend.
Menon’s departure comes on the heels of major layoffs — 20 to 25 employees, we’re told — on the Yahoo Video team earlier this month, as well as attrition across that team as video has been de-emphasized. We’ve contacted Yahoo for official comment but have not heard back. Yahoo also would not confirm the number laid off.
Menon, who prior to Yahoo co-founded Kasenna, told us via email that his post-Yahoo plans are to introduce community into online education using online social tools. He did not say if he was joining or starting a specific company, but said he would leave Yahoo “soon.”
“I have been dabbling in video (IPTV, Cable VOD, Enterprise Video, Online Video), since 1994. Time for a change. I am going to apply everything I have learned last 25 years or so to see if we can reinvent education…especially online education.”
It’s unclear why Yahoo has failed at online video, given its tremendous assets. It’s also bizarre timing. With web sites everywhere adding video, why is the world’s top portal seemingly phasing out video development?
Yahoo’s corporate disorganization is storied, but employees associated with the video team keep mentioning an internal hangup about how Yahoo has failed to compete with Hulu. They also say there was a two-year effort to get Yahoo onto a single video player and platform that never got its act together, in part due to changing requirements and demands.
And we hear that Yahoo will be phasing out its $160 million Maven Networks acquisition from last year, which still powers video for sites such as Fox News.
Comments (16)
Linkbacks (10)
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[...] everyone else continues to prosper, Yahoo continues losing its key execs. Today it waved goodbye to its VP of consumer Platforms Group, Satish Menon. Satish plans to use his years of experience [...]
Yahoo continues being peeled off as two more…
— 11:36 PM on May 26, 2009
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[...] Yahoo’s head of video quits [NewTeeVee] [...]
Finance Geek » Is Google SkyNet? In A Word…
— 4:49 AM on May 27, 2009
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[...] Satish Menon, the Yahoo VP in charge of video infrastructure, software and advertising, will quit the company, NewTeeVee reports. [...]
Finance Geek » Yahoo Video Topper Quits…
— 8:02 AM on May 27, 2009
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[...] Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, May 26 2009 with story from NewTeeVee.com [...]
Head of Yahoo video quits, Yahoo will bow…
— 10:19 AM on May 27, 2009
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[...] execs from all aspects of online video at the company have seen or showed themselves the door. We reported yesterday that Satish Menon, VP of the Consumer Platforms Group, intends to depart Yahoo shortly. Earlier [...]
Yahoo’s Bartz: Video “Is So Exciting…
— 2:08 PM on May 27, 2009
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[...] Its questionable weather creating premier content makes sense, with the shutdown of ThisJustIn.com OfficePirates.com and SuperDeluxe.com. Ad revenue is drying up with CBS cut to near junk status. It seems that Yahoo is getting out of Video. [...]
Hulu Charging for Admittance « mediacto…
— 7:58 PM on June 8, 2009
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[...] Cuts Off Maven Customers As we’d previously reported, Yahoo is discontinuing its Maven Networks white-label video service, which powered video for sites [...]
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[...] platform they purchased called Maven Networks. Even before the latest reports (NewTeeVee reports on Yahoo shutting down its video publishing platform ), when you type the company’s URL (www.maven.net), it redirects to [...]
Maven Networks Shutting down - Delve Networks…
— 3:03 PM on July 1, 2009
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[...] might have an opportunity to pounce in online video, given its competitor Yahoo has seen some serious reshuffling in that division. What’s clear is that a little innovation and some good content [...]
Is Bing Driving Video Views for Microsoft…
— 10:16 AM on July 15, 2009
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[...] have an opportunity to pounce in online video, given that its competitor Yahoo has undertaken some serious reshuffling in that division. What’s clear is that a little innovation and some good content will [...]
Is Bing Driving Video Views for Microsoft…
— 12:48 PM on July 16, 2009
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First they got rid of Podcasting and now Video?
I don’t think they will dump video. I think they will take what works for them in text advertising and figure out a way to do a do it yourself video advertising portal. Something like Ad Grinder. http://www.adgrinder.com/
I wish they had partner rev-sharing on Yahoo like YouTube. Some of my videos do better over there! >:O — I think they’ll keep video going, just a re-brand, re-structure. Shake it up y’all!
I think it comes down to a business principle — is video making Yahoo! money? If the answer to that question is ‘no,’ then it doesn’t matter.
At the end of the day, Yahoo! is a popular portal, but it is also a company. If the company doesn’t make money, products have to go.
I don’t think Yahoo can or wants to dump video entirely, and maybe it’s time for some fresh thinking (or at least some fresh bodies).
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Carol Bartz seem to be good at cutting her losses. Executives at Yahoo may have been quite lucky to have had a secured and well paying jobs for so many years. It will be interesting to track their career now they are out of Yahoo – will they make it or break it ?
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But how does it feel to plug into a system that’s say, a million times as smart as a person.
I think it comes down to a business principle — is video making Yahoo! money? If the answer to that question is ‘no,’ then it doesn’t matter.
At the end of the day, Yahoo! is a popular portal, but it is also a company. If the company doesn’t make money, products have to go.
I think it comes down to a business principle — is video making Yahoo! money? If the answer to that question is ‘no,’ then it doesn’t matter.
At the end of the day, Yahoo! is a popular portal, but it is also a company. If the company doesn’t make money, products have to go.
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That’s too bad. I don’t think the layoffs were made from that particular reason but something else.