When Yahoo!'s chief executive Terry Semel gave way to co-founder Jerry Yang in June, industry gossip, particularly in Silicon Valley, turned to who would be the next to exit. Toby Coppel, who previously managed Semel-founded Windsor Media, and who joined Yahoo! with Semel in 2001, topped a few lists.
But in the same month that Semel bowed out to take up a non-executive role, Coppel escaped the California heat and took up the position of managing director, Yahoo! Europe.
However, no season has been kind to Yahoo! recently, with its profits down from $164m (£80m) in Q2 2006 to $161m (£78m) in the same period this year.
Coppel, who studied at Oxford University before heading to the Silicon Valley production line at Harvard Business School, is comfortable on either side of the pond. He is keen to reaffirm his commitment to Yahoo! in his new role.
"I love this company and what we do," he says. "I work closely with all the senior management - Jerry Yang, Sue Decker and the team. We've had some great years, but we've definitely been in transition over the past year. There is a lot more change ahead, but I like change and I am embracing it."
Speculative stories
Yahoo!'s "year of transition" has sparked some speculative stories. A potential takeover by Microsoft is the juiciest story around, although the New York Times description of said rumour as "dog-eared" may be closer to the mark.
"All I can say is we are focused on our business and our future as an independent company," says Coppel. "We are pursuing all strategic growth opportunities by taking steps such as the BlueLithium acquisition. We've lots more to come over the coming weeks and months."
Coppel's impact on Europe has been immediate. Two massive developments for Yahoo! have materialised in as many weeks - the aforementioned purchase of BlueLithium for $300m and a subsequent deal with Bebo to sell display ads across the social network.
Bebo, despite waves of hysteria about Facebook and MySpace, remains the most-used site of its type in the UK, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Such a partnership should not come as a surprise, since Coppel has a history of shrewd acquisitions.
His previous role as chief strategy officer saw him bring on board photo-sharing site Flickr, social bookmarking site del.icio.us, and UpComing.org, among others. But buying BlueLithium and ad exchange Right Media could be the most significant deals to date.
He says: "Our key priority is building our display advertising network in Europe. BlueLithium is a big part of that, but we are working on a range of things. There are opportunities in the market to leverage the technology we have developed in the US and make them relevant to Europe."
Display advertising is a must-win area for Yahoo!. But with Google, WPP and Microsoft spending almost $1bn between them on advertising firms this summer, it won't be an easy ride.
Meanwhile, Yahoo! is behind on search. While one in five internet searches in the US go through Yahoo!, it accounts for just 7.1% of query-share in the UK, compared with Google's 77.3%, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
Changing habits
But Yahoo! is fighting back. Its commitment to paid search is unquestionable, having employed 400 engineers for two-and-a-half years to come up with Panama, Yahoo!'s paid-search platform.
"If you do the Pepsi-Coke test and look at consumer research in the majority of the markets, you won't get a difference (between Google and Yahoo! search results) from a basic quality perspective," says Coppel. "Google has clearly created a very strong brand, so you have to give people a reason to move their habits towards us."
He adds: "A winner for us has been Yahoo! Answers, which is creating unique content that's not available on the web through search. We now have 17 million users in Europe; this is one significant strategy that we'll build up over time. We can change people's behaviour and how they perceive web versus knowledge search."
Embedding Yahoo! Answers into Bebo is another significant strategy. Bringing search with a social element to social networks is a move with the times and one Google cannot compete with, having wound up Google Answers.
Strategy is what Coppel does, and his arrival in Europe has heralded a new chapter for one of the most successful online firms. With the launch of Panama, the purchase of BlueLithium and the promise of more partnerships like Bebo, Coppel has the tools to take on Google in search and to dominate display advertising.
Such a commitment from Coppel should be welcomed by advertisers and agencies alike.
CV
2007: Managing director, Yahoo! Europe
2001: Chief strategy officer, Yahoo!
2000: Managing director, Windsor Media
1997: Vice-president, Allen & Company
1995: Harvard Business School, MBA
1993: Financial analyst, Goldman Sachs International
1990: University of Oxford, MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.