June 16 (Bloomberg) -- Yahoo! Inc., the Internet company fighting a proxy battle with billionaire investor Carl Icahn, lost executive Jeff Weiner to two venture capital firms.

Weiner will become executive in residence at Accel Partners and Greylock Partners, according to a statement from the companies today. At Yahoo, he oversaw the network division, including the home page, search engine and communications products.

Weiner is one of the most senior employees to leave since Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, disclosed its intention to buy Yahoo in February. Yahoo, owner of the second most popular search engine, said last week that talks about a combination have ended and announced an advertising partnership with Google Inc.

``People at Yahoo now are going to get on with trying to do better, or they are going to go to other places,'' said Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of the Web site Search Engine Land, which follows the industry.

Yahoo rose 7 cents to $23.54 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have advanced 1.2 percent this year.

Weiner was among the top 15 executives at Yahoo, according to the company's Web site. He took over the network division as part of a management shuffle in December 2006.

The executive was also responsible for Yahoo's shopping, local, finance, news, sports and entertainment sites. He oversaw corporate development from 2001 to 2002.

`Important Player'

``Jeffrey was a very important player,'' Sullivan said. ``He was one of the stars of search, not just for Yahoo, but one of the stars of search period.''

Yahoo spokeswoman Jennifer Stephens said Weiner will remain with the company through the end of the month to help President Sue Decker with the transition. Executives under Weiner will report directly to Decker and will determine who will assume his responsibilities over the next two weeks, Stephens said.

Weiner will divide his time equally between Accel and Greylock's offices, according to the statement. Facebook Inc. is among the Internet startups that Accel and Greylock have invested in.

Yahoo Chief Data Officer Usama Fayyad is also leaving, the New York Times reported last week, citing a person familiar with the situation. Yahoo spokeswoman Diana Wong declined to comment to Bloomberg News today.

Data Systems

Fayyad is in charge of Yahoo's data systems and research, according to his biography on Yahoo's Web site. He is responsible for using customer information to create and improve products.

Yahoo engineer Jeremy Zawodny announced on his blog last week that he planned to leave after more than eight years at the company. He started Yahoo's network of developers and worked on the company's search engine, according to his blog.

The departures follow the exit of Bradley Horowitz, head of Yahoo's internal startup unit, who left for Google in February. In April, Ian Rogers, a vice president in the video and media applications business, departed to join startup Topspin Media Inc.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Thaw in San Francisco at jthaw@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 16, 2008 17:56 EDT