Any deal between Yahoo and AOL will likely be stalled until Yahoo finds a replacement for outgoing CEO Jerry Yang, the Financial Times reports. As one insider says, "How can you do a deal with a company that does not have a CEO? It doesn't feel like (there is) any energy to it." Even so, Bloomberg News reports that Yahoo and Time Warner executives continue to negotiate terms of a proposed deal that would see Time Warner hand over AOL's advertising business to Yahoo in exchange for a stake in the combined company. According to Sanford C. Bernstein analyst …

Microsoft is apparently "very close" to picking a replacement for former digital head Kevin Johnson, company insiders tell Kara Swisher. It's about time, too: Johnson left in late July, leaving Microsoft's online services division headless for nearly four months. Whoever he or she is -- and Swisher doesn't say -- will inherit the heavy task of overseeing Yusuf Mehdi's strategic partnerships division, Satya Nadella's search engineering division, and Brian McAndrews' advertiser and publisher solutions group. According to Swisher, Steve Ballmer has exhausted his Rolodex trying to find Johnson's replacement, having recently been turned down by former Yahoo COO Dan Rosensweig. …

With Jerry Yang gone, could Yahoo make a strategic return to media? When Yang resumed the post as Yahoo CEO following the departures of media moguls Terry Semel and Lloyd Braun in June 2007, the company drastically shifted its focus from media to consumer and advertiser services. This was a mistake, Gregory March, group media director at Wieden + Kennedy tells ClickZ. "(Yang) was a big proponent of technical solutions over content. They could've been a great media play but they took a step away from that to try and compete with Google. I think Yang stepping away might turn …

Microsoft has just hired Sean Suchter, Yahoo's VP of Search Technology, a move that a Valleywag source says signals "the end of Yahoo search." Indeed, in a memo to staff, Tuoc Luong, Yahoo's SVP of Search, sounded rather despondent in relaying the news. Luong described Suchter as a "Gibraltar rock", adding that many would find news of his departure "shocking." "Everyone in the office is shocked," the source said. "I've been on the Yahoo Search team for a while and he is the one key executive that it all depends on. If Microsoft has convinced him to leave and join …

The worsening economic climate will have a "very, very ugly" effect on the media business, said Marty Pompadur, the departing chairman of News Corp.'s European business, and it could force some companies to sell. He added that the worldwide recession would be "pretty deep and pretty long." Speaking at the European Media Leaders Summit in London, Pompadur said, "As I look at what's going on globally, in the United States, Europe and the Middle East, it's very, very ugly." Pompadur resigned from the News Corp. board last week after more than 10 years as one of Rupert Murdoch's closest advisors. …

More and more marketers are harnessing the power of social media, using blogs, viral videos, and social networks like Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed and Digg to reach consumers. According to Reuters, the common denominator in their advertising efforts is the high level of engagement that the ads demand from consumers. The flight to social media comes as big marketers slash their budgets due to the looming recession. According to UBS, global ad spending will fall 3.9% in 2009. "In such an environment, social media could prove to be a cost-effective way to sell to consumers," the Reuters report suggests. Of course, …

Google is well on its way to becoming "a significant retailer of out-of-print books" Ars Technica reports, after the search giant settled a lawsuit with book authors and publishers giving it the right to put millions of out-of-print texts online. In exchange, Google will put $125 million into a fund for copyright holders. Judge John Sprizzo approved the settlement in Manhattan yesterday. The suit dates back to the launch of Google Print in 2005, when Google started scanning books at a number of libraries across the country. At the time--since Google started copying books and making them searchable without gaining …

Forbes asks Yahoo employees to open up about what's gone wrong at the company recently. Most won't talk, but that doesn't stop Forbes from coming up with five themes. First is the number of projects the company has aborted over the last several years. How many new Yahoo products have launched with great fanfare only to fizzle a few months later? "They wasted a lot of money on projects that have been scrapped," says one engineer. The second big misstep was missing out on Google. Many forget that Yahoo actually had a chance to buy the search giant in 2002. …

Why hasn't Microsoft Steve Ballmer come back and made another bid for Yahoo at discount prices? Kara Swisher points out that the Microsoft CEO simply does not want the whole Yahoo, even with Jerry Yang's imminent departure. However, that's not to say that Microsoft execs weren't happy to hear that Jerry's leaving, as this could facilitate the deal that Microsoft does want: a search advertising partnership, similar to the one that recently collapsed with Google. "They are ready to move, as soon as it becomes clear who is in charge at Yahoo," one source says. "They don't want to appear …