Yahoo SVP Adam Cahan to exit after Verizon acquisition closes

Update: Today, Yahoo confirmed our scoop. Cahan will not continue with Yahoo post acquisition. For more on how the merge will go down check here.

Another high-profile Yahoo executive, SVP of Mobile and Emerging Products Adam Cahan, will leave the company as the acquisition by VerizOath: comes to a close. This news via multiple sources comes amid cuts of as much as 15 percent of the combined Oath/Yahoo staff.

TechCrunch is owned by Oath: which is owned by Verizon which bought Yahoo and is smushing it together with Oath: creating overlaps in jobs, hence the cuts. We’re fine, thanks for asking.

Earlier today we reported that CISO Bob Lord would also be departing. We reached out to the mothership for comment but were declined.

Cahan was a favored lieutenant of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s who scored a job as head of mobile just before Mayer acquired 30-plus teams’ worth of engineers in an acquisition spree. Cahan had come to Yahoo with the acquisition of IntoNow. The spend was designed to give Yahoo an injection of talent to help reinvent its mobile offerings at a time when its major revenue streams still depended on homepage and mail products. Cahan was in charge of Flickr and mail for a time (to no real effect) but transitioned to mobile when Jeff Bonforte took that steampunk legacy on.

While at Yahoo, Cahan launched several mobile products, including Yahoo Finance, Weather, a gif-heavy redesign of Yahoo Sports and the News Digest app — the last of which included tech from very young Sumly founder Nick D’Alosio, whose company was acquired by Mayer to a chorus of raised eyebrows.

Cahan was also embroiled in some politicking and abortive launches as the structures at Yahoo became more malleable, at one point overseeing the development of a doomed relaunch of Yahoo Instant Messenger. That app was actually very cool and something I should probably tell you about some time but, alas, it was never to be. Under pressure to ship something safe, Bonforte began developing a much more run-of-the-mill group messenger based on acquisition MessageMe, which launched as Yahoo Messenger. Cahan’s star waned a bit, but he still retained some power as the conduit for mobile, the only real chance Yahoo had for reinvention.

Though he had a reputation as a confrontational and demanding manager, I always found him to be engaging and intelligent in our few interactions. Like Mayer, Cahan will likely be receiving a nice payout from the acquisition and was recently engaged, so it seems likely he’ll land on his feet.

TBD? Who will now be leading mobile for the new combined Verizahooath: entity.