Yahoo India will soon be deprived of its managing director – reports indicate that George Zacharias has put in his “four-to-six week notice.” After concluding his career with Yahoo, Zacharias intends “to pursue his own entrepreneurial interests.”
And perhaps because of that plan to go solo (as opposed to, say, work for Google), the search company appears to have made its peace with Zacharias’s decision. “We wish George success in achieving his personal goals,” said Keith Nilsson, who will fill in as managing director.
According to exchange4media, Nilsson then continued along a back-to-business, we’ll-be-fine path, saying, “As India continues to be a major focus for Yahoo!, we are excited about the aggressive pace that we have set ourselves to realize the enormous opportunities in this market, and grow the business both organically and inorganically.”
That reassurance may be especially necessary considering a fresh deal between Google and Bharti Airtel, India’s largest private broadband and telephone service provider. That’s not to say that Yahoo isn’t competitive in India – it recently launched Yahoo India Advertising and bought a 35 percent stake in the Tyroo advertising agency – but the Airtel-Zacharias double whammy has to hurt.
Zacharias feels everything will be all right. “[I] know that Yahoo! India will continue to scale greater heights as the leading Internet company in this country,” he said.
