Oath has gutted its leadership team over the past year - and former employees say it's a cause of dysfunction

AP Photo/Richard Drew

• There have been massive changes to Oath's leadership team in the course of one year.
• A team of 13 is now five, only two of whom were on the team last year.
• Some Oath employees have cited employee turnover as a cause of dysfunction at Oath.

Verizon's media and advertising business, Oath, reported third quarter 2018 revenue of $1.8 billion on Tuesday, down 6.9% from a year prior. Verizon said it expects revenue to be "flat in the near term" and that it won't meet its previously stated goal of $10 billion in revenues by 2020.

On the company's earnings call, CFO Matt Ellis touted the strength of the team in place.

"The team is focused on the right things," Ellis said. "We have some great assets and talented people in there, at this point the business growth is not yet consistent with the quality of the assets or the people. That's what we are focused on is supporting that team and the efforts they have."

But a snapshot of how much the leadership team has changed in the course of a year reflects the stark reality of the employee churn since the AOL-Yahoo integration begun.

Business Insider / Shayanne Gal

The leadership team members with and "X" indicate individuals who have left the company.

Tim Armstrong stepped down as CEO in October. Armstrong had been at Verizon since it acquired AOL in 2015 and helped shepherd the 2017 acquisition of Yahoo, which joined AOL to create Oath.

In his place is former Oath president and COO Guru Gowrappan. That position hasn't been replaced. The CFO role has been a revolving door of executives, from Holly Hess, to Vanessa Whitman, and now Sowmyanarayan Sampath. Sampath was previously chief product officer at Verizon.

In September 2017, Oath leadership was 13-person team.

That list has been culled to five. While some of those people, like Atte Lahtiranta, are still with the company, they are no longer listed as part of the leadership team.

Business Insider / Shayanne Gal

From the original leadership team, only Julie Jacobs, general counsel, and Mark Roszkiwski, head of corporate development, strategy, and partnerships, still remain.

More striking is the composition of the team. In 2017, there were seven legacy AOL employees and four legacy Yahoo employees on the leadership team. Today just two AOL-ers remain: Jacobs and Roszkowski. And no legacy Yahoo employees comprise the team (Gowrappan worked for one year at Yahoo starting in 2009).

Some positions have been completely axed.

There is no longer a chief revenue officer, head of media brands and products, or chief marketing officer. The chief communications officer role, most recently held by Natalie Ravitz, is also gone. Ravitz had been on the job just four months. It's unclear if Oath will hire a replacement.

The integration between AOL and Yahoo has never been on solid footing as a result of this high employee turnover, according to former Oath employees who spoke with Business Insider.

On Verizon's earnings call, Ellis said the integration is now largely complete. What's still unseen is whether turnover will start to steady.

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