Yahoo!'s Talent Keeps Bailing

If ever there was a time that Yahoo!(YHOO) needs to rally the troops, it's now.

The company's stock price is off 33% for the year at $27.40, and rival Google(GOOG) is expanding its lead in the online advertising market even as it encroaches on Yahoo! strongholds such as social media (blogs, message boards, podcasts) and mobile technology.

But instead, the world's most visited Web destination is seeing even more of its admirals jump ship.

Over the weekend, media blog paidcontent.org reported Yahoo!'s confirmation that senior vice president Bill Demas of Yahoo!'s Publisher Network Group, will depart at the end of November.

The blog also reported the impending departure of Will Johnson, who leads the division's beta program, which is intended to help the company close the online ad gap on search leader Google. A Yahoo! representative said both departures are voluntary.

And while large rivals such as Microsoft(MSFT), Time Warner's(TWX) AOL division, and InterActiveCorp(IACI), along with Google, continue to turn up the heat, Yahoo! is now losing some of its best and brightest to ambitious upstarts.

Demas is leaving "to pursue his goal of leading a small company or venture," Yahoo! said in a statement.

In August, the company lost its vice president of shopping to a start-up, and the vice president of its developer network went to lead another start-up earlier in the year. Yahoo!, a poster child for the nimble Internet start-up during the last tech boom, now seems sluggish in the midst of Silicon Valley's most recent resurgence.