Yahoo chief operating officer Henrique de Castro has stepped down.
He spent less than 18 months at the online search engine.
Though Yahoo did not share an official press information, it removed Castro’s details from the company website.
Yahoo did not give a reason for his abrupt departure in a Wednesday filing. At the time of his hiring, Mayer was building a management team to try and revive flagging sales and traffic, and cited de Castro’s internet advertising expertise as a key asset.
During the third quarter of 2013, Yahoo revenue dipped 5 percent to $1,139 million from the third quarter of 2012.
EBITDA for the third quarter of 2013 was $331 million, a 19 percent decrease. Yahoo income from operations was $93 million for the third quarter of 2013, a 39 percent decrease from the third quarter of 2012.
De Castro will get severance benefits as laid out in his October 15, 2012 employment letter, including equity awards, according to the filing.
Yahoo is one of the world’s most-visited online properties, but revenue has declined in recent years amid competition from Google and Facebook. Mayer has built a senior leadership team and is now in the midst of engineering a turnaround at the once dominant Web icon.
