Yahoo US chief sales officer resigns

Yahoo said its chief sales officer in the US resigned and the company will merge its search and display advertising departments in the US as the Internet powerhouse fights to catch up with online search leader Google, an Associated Press report said.

The Associated Press report said Yahoo hopes the latest shake-up will streamline the way it sells advertising to customers who increasingly want to buy ads across a variety of formats, from being linked to search terms to popping up as a graphical display to being shown as video.

The reshuffling follows a major executive overhaul announced last week, with co-founder Jerry Yang replacing Terry Semel as CEO, the report said.

In the latest organizational change, Yahoo said Wenda Millard, chief sales officer in the US, is leaving the company effective immediately, the Associated Press report said.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Millard, who immediately announced that she has taken the newly created position of president of media for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in New York, said she bore no ill will toward Yahoo.

David Karnstedt, who previously served as SVP of Yahoo's search sales business, was tapped to lead the newly combined sales teams as head of North American sales, the report further said.