Bewkes has been trying, on and off, to swap AOL and a fistful of cash for a 20 percent stake in Yahoo, which would help CEO Jerry Yang fend off both Microsoft and Carl Icahn. Yahoo executives aren't particularly interested in having AOL's aging Internet assets dumped on them to manage — but they were eager to buy Bebo, particularly Yahoo Europe head Toby Coppel. Yahoo has a deal to sell ads on Bebo in Europe, a deal that most expect AOL to do away with after it expires. Buying Bebo serves to makes AOL more attractive to Yahoo — and if that gets AOL off Time Warner's back, then it may be $850 million well spent.

Toby Coppel, the new head Yahoo's European business, told the FT Yahoo does not intend to hire more local staff the way Google or MySpace have in Europe. Instead, Yahoo will focus on making its content more relevant. "If you make a great product, they will come," Coppel said. Gee, hope that doesn't mean they plan to ax greeting cards, horoscopes, and property, car and holiday listings.

From: Toby R. Coppel [mailto:toby@yahoo-inc.com] Sent: 23 August 2007 05:29 To: Ruth Sarfaty; Dan Foehner; Mark Rabe; Charles Thomas; Jim L'Heureux; Damian De Rosaire; Tim Mihok; Maria Marshall; Chris Karl; Beth Lawrence; Vish Makhijani; Vince Broady; Tapan Bhat; Scott Moore; Ira L Kurgan; Eckart Walther; Brad Garlinghouse; Rollanda Harris; Jeff Weiner; David Windley; Jeff McCombs; all-svps@yahoo-inc.com; all-canada@yahoo-inc.com; all-europe@yahoo-inc.com Cc: Sue Decker; Jerry Yang Subject: Canada - Change in Reporting Lines

Hi Canadian and European Yahoos

As you know Yahoo! is working on a strategic plan that will position our company to win. This will involve aligning our resources within the best organizational structure to deliver the highest levels of growth and profitability.

As we look to our strategic needs and our vision to power Yahoo! for the future we have decided to move Yahoo! Canada into the European organization. We believe this provides the right environment for our Canadian business to thrive and benefit from the many opportunities that lie ahead. So with immediate effect Kerry Munro, Canada GM will report into me.

We see strong market similarities and product synergies between Canada and Europe. For instance:

* Canada's multicultural diversity parallels Europe; and Canadian sites operate in English and French
* Canada enjoys a comparable size of operation to that of the European countries and it has many of the same opportunities and challenges
* From a product/engineering standpoint Canada has ongoing collaboration with the EU team, particularly in the UK and France
* Like Europe - Canada has been leading international development of properties such as Lifestyle, video, UGC and platforms like mediasuite.

At this time we do not plan to incorporate Canada into the European overhead infrastructure but to manage it as a separate country. Going forward we'll look at the best operational structure to support its growth. I'll also work with the leadership teams of Canada and Europe to chart the optimum course for the new organization to support our ambitions for both our Canadian and European businesses.

I want to warmly welcome all 135 Canadian Yahoos (and our 16 million users in Canada) - I'm looking forward to meeting you and working together. We are all aware of the many challenges ahead - but I'm equally confident we can build on our great talent and assets to deliver extraordinary value for our users, advertisers and publishers. We should also take the time to have some fun along the way.

Toby

Futurist Esther Dyson catches Yahoo senior veep Toby Coppel chatting with Facebook veep and general counsel Chris Kelly. "What are they cooking up now," she asks. Oh Esther, you mischevious darling, why must you tease us so?

Let's see — Toby's holding the water, while Chris seems to be holding a plastic cup — beer or iced tea? Therein lies the secret, folks. Beer means somebody's re-thinking that $2 billion figure.

Note to Esther: Bounce flash or ambient lighting will make those indoor shots more flattering. No one wants to make Toby Coppel look pasty.

what are they cooking up now? [Esther Dyson on Flickr]

Seriously stacked, this woman was. There is an employee directory on the Yahoo corporate intranet. It's called Backyard. You can look up all employees. It has their pictures.

Anyway, some engineer rigged up a way to see whose photo is pulled up the most. Invariably it's some hot chick. Toby's now wife was ALWAYS near the top.

This, by the way, was right after they married.

But my question is, what the hell is her name? 'Cause Toby may have Coldplay, Terry, and Bono tagged, but he doesn't use his wife's name once. Not in a single photo of the beautiful woman. Guy really did lock that down.

So all you Yahoo employees, here's the chance to use those fresh comment accounts. Name Toby Coppel's hot wife!

By the way, can someone donate this Yahoo executive a Flickr pro account? Maybe that'd get him to pay attention.

Update: Tipster says it's Sharon B. "And yes, she was stacked like you wouldn't believe - and wore tight sweaters to prove it."

Toby Coppel's photos [Flickr]