October 14, 2011, 2:28 PM — You know how sometimes you glance at a word and mistakenly think it's another word? And it suddenly makes the text you're reading sort of bizarre?
That happened to me this afternoon. As I was scanning the front page of All Things Digital, I thought I saw this:
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: Yahoo Chief Tryst Officer Quits in Style on Facebook
Whoa! I said to myself. Yahoo's chief tryst officer is quitting?! Another setback! For a split second my mind struggled with the thought that, despite an inability to grow revenue or define a strategy, Yahoo was doing something right. I mean, a tryst officer? Talk about social!
Then, as I took a second glance at the headline, it dawned on me: Yahoo, sadly, doesn't have a chief tryst officer.
Even more sadly, Yahoo no longer has a chief trust officer. It used to be Anne Toth, but she just up and quit, Kara Swisher reports.
Most sadly, I was expecting some kind of spectacular flameout. I assumed that's what "quits in style on Facebook" met. Like maybe a rant video or something.
Instead, Toth is all clever and classy, couching the reasons behind her departure in a humorous "it's not you, it's me" break-up speech.
That being said, is there not an undertone of bitterness to her closing line, "I hope you’ll remember me for giving you the best years of my life"? I choose to believe there is, if not just for the page views.
Toth was with Yahoo for 13 years. In 2009 she testified about Yahoo's privacy policies at a U.S. House subcommittee hearing on "Behavioral Advertising: Industry Practices and Consumer Expectations."
This won't be the last high-level departure from Yahoo, which continues to drift, its plan to seek a buyer in obvious conflict with its plan to find a new chief executive to replace the fired Carol Bartz. If you're a talented, well-known Internet executive looking for an opportunity with growth potential, what possibly would keep you at Yahoo? The company's future is uncertain, and uncertain in the bad way.
Plus their tryst officer just left.
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