Yahoo! Executive Calls for Change

A senior Yahoo! (YHOO) executive's call for a dramatic reorganization of the Web giant is drawing the attention of the company's top brass, according to a weekend media report.

The executive, Brad Garlinghouse, penned a memo entitled "The Peanut Butter Manifesto" last month, according to the report in The Wall Street Journal. In it, the senior vice president argues that Yahoo! is spreading itself too thin.

"I've heard our strategy described as spreading peanut butter across the myriad opportunities that continue to evolve in the online world," the memo states. "The result: a thin layer of investment spread across everything we do and thus we focus on nothing in particular."

In the memo, Garlinghouse says Yahoo! needs to pick specific things to focus on and cut out nonessential projects. But the memo doesn't specify which units or projects to sell or eliminate.

Top Yahoo! managers are listening, according to The Wall Street Journal report. Yahoo! COO Dan Rosensweig has asked Garlinghouse to head a group that will look into the issues raised in the memo, the report said, citing people familiar with the situation.

Yahoo!'s collection of Web properties rank No. 1 on the Internet in terms of visitors. But rivals like Google (GOOG) are ratcheting up the competition, and Yahoo! has seen revenue slump and its new online ad system suffer a high-profile delay.

Yahoo! shares finished Friday up 27 cents at $26.91.

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