Yahoo names GE veteran as CFO

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Yahoo on Thursday announced it has appointed longtime General Electric veteran Tim Morse as its new chief financial officer.

Morse currently serves as the CFO of semiconductor company Altera Corp. (ALTR), a position he's held since January 2007. Prior to Altera, Morse was at GE (GE, Fortune 500) for 15 years, including a stint as the CFO for the conglomerate's plastics division.

"Yahoo is an amazing brand with a unique combination of assets, and I am extremely excited to be joining a finance team with a deep commitment to financial excellence and fiscal discipline," Morse said in a statement.

Morse's appointment is one of Carol Bartz's first major executive hires after taking over as Yahoo's chief executive in January. Bartz has said that she aims to make the company's management structure more efficient as she tries to move the once-dominant tech company back to the industry's vanguard. Yahoo has lost significant online search market share to Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) and Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) over the decade, though its share has stabilized recently.

Bartz said the beginning of her tenure that she would be bringing in her own CFO.

"Tim has a proven ability to translate strategy into structure, process, and execution, and I am delighted that he will be joining my leadership team to help drive Yahoo's growth," Bartz said in a statement. "With his passion for operational finance, global experience, and expertise simplifying complex organizations and managing growth, Tim is a natural fit for Yahoo."

Morse will start at Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) on June 17 will become the company's CFO on July 1. He replaces Blake Jorgensen, who has been at Yahoo since June 2007, when founder Jerry Yang took over again as CEO.