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The move is an attempt to reorganise the company and centralise its mail, search and homepage divisions into a single group, the Wall Street Journal reports.

It claims Yahoo president Sue Decker is behind the move, in an attempt to improve coordination between product and global sales groups.

The move comes as Yahoo, which has now ended talks for a tie-up with Microsoft<

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in favour of a search deal with Google, tries to convince investors it will substantially improve its business.

Several senior executives are also said to be leaving the company, although it is not clear if this is part of a potential change in company structure.

Vish Makhijani, general manager of Yahoo's web search business, and Brad Garlinghouse, who oversaw services including e-mail and instant messaging, are leaving, according to technology and investment blog TechCrunch. Qi Lu, the top engineer for Yahoo's Panama search marketing platform, is also leaving the company.

As well as the rumoured departures, Yahoo said at the beginning of the week that Jeff Weiner, recently executive vice president of the network division, had left to work at venture capital firms.

A Yahoo spokeswoman was not immediately available to comment on the reorganisation plans.