• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, December 5, 2006

Yahoo's top sports and programming executive, David Katz, quietly left the company last week, a Yahoo spokesman confirmed. And in an unrelated blow, Yahoo and Current TV have ended their content-sharing relationship for as-yet undetermined reasons.

Scott Moore, Yahoo's current head of news, finance, technology and health, will assume leadership over the company's sports and entertainment initiatives, according to a Yahoo spokesman. Vince Broady, meanwhile, will now oversee the recently formed Yahoo Studios division.

Katz left CBS's digital arm in the summer of 2005 to join the Yahoo Media Group, headed by Lloyd Braun. Last spring, Katz was tasked with heading up Yahoo Studios, a new unit that oversees original content development and production.

For some analysts, the two developments further painted Yahoo as a company badly in need of direction and leadership. "You always expect growing pains, but these developments are adding to a feeling--Yahoo has a lot of interesting pieces, but nothing that makes them gel," commented Gartner Research Director Mike McGuire.

In late September, Yahoo struck an alliance with Current TV, Al Gore's cable TV channel. The service intended to combine professional and user-generated video clips.

On Monday night, a Current TV spokeswoman said the deal with Yahoo had in fact ended, but could not provide further details at that time. A Yahoo spokesman provided the following statement: "As we approach the end of the initial ramp-up period built into the partnership with CurrentTV, both parties have determined that our respective goals and objectives were diverging and mutually decided to pursue other opportunities independently."

The deal struck many as odd because Google--Yahoo's main rival in the search space--is a partner and investor in Current.