By John Letzing New Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) Chief Executive Marissa Mayer wasn't the only top executive to skip the company's earnings call with Wall Street analysts Tuesday: Interim CEO Ross Levinsohn, who had been running the company prior to Ms. Mayer's hiring, was also absent. The status of Mr. Levinsohn, a respected executive who has been with Yahoo since 2010, remains unclear. That raises questions about potential upheaval among the rank and file he has put in place since his own hiring at the embattled Internet firm. "Everyone pretty much expects him to leave," said B. Riley & Co. analyst Sameet Sinha. "He's obviously hired some people, so what will they do?" In particular, Mr. Sinha said staff charged with forming the sort of media partnerships that have become key to Yahoo's content efforts may be in flux, should Mr. Levinsohn leave. Last month, Mr. Levinsohn touted Yahoo's hiring of Michael Barrett as chief revenue officer, a position that has Mr. Barrett overseeing advertising sales and global operations. Mr. Barrett previously worked with Mr. Levinsohn at News Corp.'s (NWSA, NWS) Fox Interactive Media. Dow Jones Newswires is a News Corp. property. "I am thrilled to have him join Yahoo," Mr. Levinsohn said of Mr. Barrett in a statement at that time. Potential upheaval in Yahoo's ranks following a Levinsohn departure is "definitely a concern, particularly some recent hires including Michael Barrett," said Macquarie Securities analyst Ben Schachter. A Yahoo spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Levinsohn assumed the interim CEO role in May, when Scott Thompson was ousted as CEO after less than five months on the job. Prior to that, Mr. Levinsohn had served as executive vice president of Yahoo's Americas region, overseeing ad sales and partnerships. Partnership deals reached under his watch include a tie-up with ABC News that has the network providing content on Yahoo websites. Mr. Levinsohn also featured in a revamp of Yahoo's ad sales team undertaken last year. During a conference call last summer, then Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said Mr. Levinsohn and others had been spearheading an effort to "reorient our relationship with advertisers," which involved significant turnover and bringing in "a lot of new people." The staff turnover ended up being significant, Ms. Bartz explained, which helped lead to poorer-than-expected display advertising sales. Ms. Bartz stepped aside in September, and was eventually succeeded by Mr. Thompson. Following Mr. Thompson's departure as a result of his misrepresented academic credentials, many analysts expected Mr. Levinsohn to eventually win the CEO job on a permanent basis. Instead, Yahoo announced Monday that Ms. Mayer, a Google Inc. (GOOG) executive who oversaw that company's search engine and local services efforts, had been named CEO. In an interview Monday, Ms. Mayer said she planned to reach out to Mr. Levinsohn regarding his status, adding that she has "a tremendous amount of respect for him." Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan said he isn't certain Yahoo made the right choice. "I'm not sure you can learn much from all the incredible success Marissa's had at Google," Mr. Rohan said. He then drew a comparison using the tony Silicon Valley college town where Ms. Mayer attended college: "If the mayor of Palo Alto were asked to run the city of Detroit, would the experience in Palo Alto be relevant?" Write to John Letzing at john.letzing@dowjones.com Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
