Yahoo hires chief operating officer

Yahoo on Wednesday said it appointed Daniel Rosensweig, president of CNET Networks, as the Web portal's chief operating officer.

Effective May 13, Rosensweig will fill a vacancy left by longtime Yahoo COO Jeffrey Mallett, who announced his resignation in January.

Rosensweig, 41, will oversee Yahoo's worldwide operations. Groups reporting to him will include product development, marketing and international, as well as North American operations, including the company's six business units and advertising sales.

"Having Dan on board will help Yahoo continue to gain momentum against the execution of our business plan and further sharpen our organizational focus," Yahoo Chief Executive Terry Semel said in a statement.

Rosensweig is the third senior executive to be hired by Yahoo this month. Two weeks ago, the company tapped former Knight Ridder executive Dan Finnigan to head its HotJobs.com subsidiary. Last week, the company appointed former Warner Bros. executive and longtime Semel confidante Jim Moloshok to head Yahoo's media division.

Rosensweig joined CNET Networks as president when CNET and ZDNet merged in 2000. CNET publishes News.com. Rosensweig previously was an 18-year veteran of tech publisher Ziff-Davis, where he held titles including president and chief executive officer of ZDNet from 1997 to 2000.

Since last year, Yahoo has refocused its efforts on becoming less reliant on advertising while exploring more ways to charge for its services. The company also reorganized its businesses into six divisions--access, listings, commerce, communications, media and enterprise--while eliminating certain under-performing divisions.