Rough Personnel Day At Google, Yahoo

Although the two developments are taking place for different reasons and on very dissimilar scales, both Google and Yahoo were affected by headcount reductions today. Google’s going to lose an important exec, while Yahoo’s laying off hundreds of employees.

David Rosenblatt is "President, Global Display Advertising & Vice President, Google," according to his entry on an official page listing key executives. Before that, he was DoubleClick’s CEO; he joined Google during the $3.1 billion acquisition in April of last year.

Rosenblatt’s departure (to destinations unknown) means that Google’s going to lose an advertising expert. Stop a moment to consider Rosenblatt’s timing – he’s only spent about 12 months at Google – and you’ll see that his departure also doesn’t bode well for the company’s ability to retain top talent without signed contracts and/or financial incentives.

Meanwhile, Yahoo may have shown around 600 workers the door. Sean Percival wrote, "Most of the affected are being notified during the day, Wednesday April 29th, while some traveling employees have already recieved [sic] notice while still on the road."

Since Yahoo announced during its first quarter report that it would make about 680 layoffs within two weeks, this doesn’t come as too much of a surprise, but the move is still likely to hurt morale.