Mitch Lazar, Yahoo’s European Mobile managing director, is stepping down from his post after working at the company for four and a half years. Lazar marks one of many recent departures from Yahoo’s mobile group. Over the past year-or-so, departures range from all the way at the top, like Marco…

Thumbplay has hired an exec away from Apple’s iPhone ranks to bulk up its team as it attempts to transform the ringtone company to a full-track music download service for the phone and PC. Pablo Calamera, who oversaw the launch of Apple’s MobileMe cloud services, will serve as the company’s…

A restructuring is on the way for the revenue side of the Associated Press, with changes coming as soon as next week as part of Jane Seagrave’s recent promotion to chief revenue officer and the creation of new business unit AP Gateway. Among the changes: paidContent has learned that Jeff…

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is following its $275 million (£172 million) acquisition of mobile advertising firm Quattro Wireless by hiring a couple of mobile advertising execs in Europe - suggesting it’s ramping up mobile ads sales in its head-to-head with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) in this space. —Former Microsoft EMEA sales manager…

The Mobile Marketing Association is reorganizing its structure in order to support the “unprecedented awareness” of mobile marketing worldwide and its surging membership, the non-profit trade association said today. The new structure will give its four operating regions in Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Latin America and North…

Photobucket is having a small executive-level shake-up less than two months after it announced it would merge with Ontela, a Seattle-based company that develops photo-sharing software for phones. Ontela’s Founder Dan Shapiro said today that over the next month he will transition out of his role as CTO, but will…

Another notable movement in the mobile advertising space, and an ironic one, given Google’s recent Admob acqusition: mobile advertising company InMobi has poached a Google (NSDQ: GOOG) executive to be its new European head. Rob Jonas, who had previously been Google’s director of strategic partnerships for Europe, Middle East and…

The new man charged with keeping the peace between eBay (NSDQ: EBAY), Silverlake, Andreessen Horowitz, CPP and Joltid is former Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) president Miles Flint. Skype is appointing him to chair its new-look, 17-person board, CEO Josh Silverman tells Bloomberg. Former chairman Michael van Swaaij exited…

RealNetworks’ Chief Operating Officer John Giamatteo will resign effective April 2, the company said today in an SEC filing. No reason was given for his departure, but in a statement, Chairman and CEO Rob Glaser said: “John has been an excellent executive at Real for more than four years. Among…

*Apple* vet Avie Tevanian has defected to what *Apple* fans might consider the dark side: He’s joining Elevation Partners, the PE firm that counts Palm (NSDQ: PALM) as one of its biggest portfolio companies. Tevanian will serve as a managing director, per DigitalDaily, and he’ll be surrounded by a number…

A changing of the guard at mobile browsing powerhouse Opera Software—as co-founder and CEO Jon von Tetzchner is stepping down—with long-time vet Lars Boilesen taking his place. Von Tetzchner ran Opera for 15 years; he’ll stay on full-time in a “strategic” capacity, though no word on his official title. Boilesen…

With the mobile industry potentially entering one of its biggest growth periods in history, this one took us as a bit of a surprise: Len Lauer, who announced his resignation as Qualcomm’s COO late last year, has landed at Memjet, a color-printing technology company. Lauer will serve as CEO, and…

San Mateo, Calif.-based Glu Mobile (NSDQ: GLUU), which had been struggling to appoint a new CEO, says it has hired Niccolo de Masi as President and CEO. De Masi’s name rings a bell because he most recently served as CEO and president of San Francisco-based Hands-On Mobile, one of Glu’s…

Qualcomm’s COO Len Lauer has resigned in favor of accepting a new position as CEO at an unnamed company, which is expected to be announced in the new year. Release. In a document filed with the SEC, Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) said Lauer quit on Dec. 18, and that his resignation…

Thumbplay said its Founder and CEO Are Traasdahl will now serve as Chairman, and co-founder and CMO Evan Schwartz has been promoted to CEO, effective immediately.  A spokesperson said that Traasdahl will concentrate on Thumbplay’s long-term corporate development, which is a role he has been transitioning to over the past…

Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel said today it is appointing Matt Carter to lead the company’s WiMax roll-out. Previously, Carter was VP of Sprint’s prepaid division, which consisted of Boost Mobile. His new role as President of 4G will begin Jan. 11. Release. Sprint owns slightly more than 50 percent of…

Reston, Vir.-based ICO Global Communications, which has been slowly working on building a satellite network for mobile devices, has appointed Ben Wolff as Chairman and CEO. He will join the board immediately, and will take the helm as CEO on Dec. 31. In a release, ICO said Michael Corkery will…

The Mobile Marketing Association announced that its global CEO and President Mike Wehrs will resign effective December 31, after just missing his one-year anniversary in January. In a release, it says that Wehrs will be returning to the commercial sector, but it didn’t not say in what role. Wehrs will…

CBS Interactive (NYSE: CBS) has promoted Rob Gelick to the position of SVP and GM of CBS Mobile, which fills a gap after Cyriac Roeding, and then his replacement, Jeff Sellinger left the position over the past year. Gelick joined CBS Interactive in 2008 and most recently served as VP…