Yahoo’s product group continues to see turmoil – Bryan Lamkin, the SVP Consumer Products Group, has resigned. He joined the company just a year ago after working as an entrepreneur in residence at both Sutter Hill Ventures and New Enterprise Associates.
The word on the street is that Lamkin made a big push for the Chief Product Officer position that was recently filled by former Microsoft executive Blake Irving. When that didn’t work out, says a source, he decided to leave and work on his own startup.
Lamkin ran a huge part of Yahoo’s business, including all consumer facing sites and services like Mail, Messenger, Front Page, Flickr, News, Sports, Finance, Listings and Mobile products.
Yahoo says “Bryan Lamkin, SVP, Consumer Products Group, has decided to leave Yahoo! to pursue a new entrepreneurial venture. His last day will be May 28, and he’ll spend the next several weeks focused on ensuring a smooth transition. We wish him all the best in his new endeavors.”
Lamkin’s official statement: “My time at Yahoo! has been extremely valuable and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished since I started. While on a personal level, the time is now right for me to transition to a new, entrepreneurial-focused venture, I firmly believe that Yahoo! is in a unique position and has the right strategy in place to create an exciting new wave of consumer experiences.”
Yahoo also recently lost CTO Ari Balogh and EVP Ash Patel. But there are still a group of execs effectively running product. The real issue is whether Irving can take control of that group, and figure out which direction Yahoo wants to run.
Update: email from reader:
You missed the best part of his resignation email! The subject of the first email sent was \”Moving Up\”. About 10 minutes later a second email was sent by Bryan that read:
No, the subject line was not one last tongue-in-cheek jab from Lamkin. I meant to say “MOVING ON”!!!!