San Francisco - Shares of troubled internet pioneer Yahoo dropped some 1.5 per cent Friday as reports of an executive exodus and a major reorganization heaped misery on already disgruntled investors.

The exodus of top managers could increase the challenge facing Yahoo as founder and CEO Jerry Yang attempts to face down a shareholder revolt and convince his critics that he was right to reject a 47.5 billion dollar takeover bid from Microsoft.

Among those leaving are the head of the network division Jeff Weiner and Qi Lu who headed the company's search business. Other top execs on the way out are senior Vice President Vish Makhijani, and Brad Garlinghouse, the executive who ignited serious debate about Yahoo's future when in November 2006 with the leaked "peanut butter" memo that argued that the company was spreading itself too thin over its business opportunities.

In total at least nine officials appear to be leaving prompting doubts about the company's core leadership. However the Wall Street Journal said that President Susan Decker planned to take advantage of the exodus to reorganize the company and bring Yahoo's e-mail, search and homepage units into one global division that may prompt even more departures. (dpa)