Verizon EVP and president of Global Media Marni Walden will step down from her post at the end of this year.

Walden is due to move into a strategic advisor role as of December 31 and will leave the company altogether in February 2018.

Verizon completed its acquisition of Yahoo earlier this year: the company was combined with Verizon’s previously acquired AOL assets to form Oath. Appointed head of media and telematics in March, Walden was set to oversee the integration and scaling of Yahoo and AOL’s technologies at Oath.

Yahoo troubles
News of Walden’s departure follows a reveal from Verizon earlier this week that a previously disclosed 2013 data breach at Yahoo was much larger than originally thought. Rather than the 1 billion accounts cited at the time, Oath indicated all 3 billion Yahoo accounts were compromised in the hack.

After the breach was first announced in late 2016, Walden was one of a few key figures who continued to advocate for following through on the Yahoo deal. At a conference organised by The Wall Street Journal in October 2016, Walden maintained the rationale for the deal – massively expanding Verizon’s audience – still made sense. She reiterated the position at another investor conference in January, despite revelations not one, but two data breaches had occurred at Yahoo.

However, Walden wasn’t alone in her view. In comments made at the Internet Association’s Virtuous Circle conference in October 2016, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam told attendees he was “not that shocked” by the data breach revelations and stated “the industrial logic of doing this merger still makes a lot of sense”.

In a statement issued on Wednesday (4 October), McAdam praised Walden.

“Marni helped build our wireless business, starting as a sales representative in a store, and grew into an inspirational leader and role model for so many at Verizon,” McAdam said: “She has most recently spearheaded Verizon’s entry into global digital media and telematics and will leave us in a strong competitive position.”

Following Walden’s exit Tim Armstrong, CEO of Verizon’s media brand Oath, will report directly to McAdam. The telematics organisation will report to John Stratton, EVP and president of Global Operations.