WebProNews

Two years ago, Yahoo acquired Upcoming.org, and its founder, Andy Baio, went along for the ride.  Baio is now leaving, though, and intends to focus his attention on the Waxy.org blog.

Baio’s departure is definitely a voluntary move - as Greg Sterling notes, he’s far too nice in his “goodbye” post to have been forced out.  It also appears that he wasn’t motivated to quit by Yahoo’s problems - he writes, “I have the utmost faith that Upcoming will thrive without me, as the team continues to make the site better and better.”

Still, from Yahoo’s perspective, this is probably a bad sign.  Cammie Dunaway, Jacki Kelley, and Joanna Stevens have all left the company in recent weeks, and it’s getting to the point that we have to wonder what percentage of high-ranking employees remain.  But not everything’s going badly for Yahoo - the company’s stock closed up 5.3 percent (or $1.32) for the day.

As for Baio’s future, things are looking completely pleasant.  “I’m going to be taking some time off for the rest of the year to travel and get things in order (e.g. I’m long due for a redesign),” he writes, “so don’t expect things to really get moving until the first week of January.”