Ross Levinsohn has quit Yahoo Inc after
being snubbed twice for the top post at the internet portal. Yahoo announced the departure in a securities filing.
Levinsohn's exit is not unexpected.
With much fanfare, Yahoo appointed
37-year-old Marissa Mayer as CEO two weeks ago. Retaining Levinsohn, who had been the interim CEO since May, would have been one of her first big triumphs.
Levinsohn, 48, had been head of Yahoo's global media business and had pushed the company to enter into exclusive partnerships with the likes of CNBC and Tom Hanks to create original content.
But
Levinsohn was passed over twice by the company's board in favour of other top executives, including
Scott Thompson, who resigned in May over discrepancies on his resume after just four months on the job.
The appointment of Mayer - a former Google top executive who oversaw its email, mapping and news services - suggests the company intends to focus more on the functionality of its products rather than on the media content which was Levinsohn's domain.
Yahoo's stock barely moved in after-hours trading. Following the announcement, it rose 2 cents to $16. The stock closed Monday's regular session down 13 cents, or less than 1 per cent, at $15.98.
In the last year, Yahoo's stock has traded between $11.09 and $16.79.
Levinsohn leaves Yahoo with a hefty severance package. As part of the agreement, he was granted 67,000 shares of restricted Yahoo stock and the option to buy another 250,000 shares at $15.80 apiece.
Both benefits were immediately available to Levinsohn.
He also received a lump sum equal to his salary and bonus of about $1.5 million along with health premiums and faster vesting of stock options he had accrued already. Levinsohn's compensation package was valued at $12 million last year.
With inputs from Associated Press
Special 
