Yahoo and Twitter Get New Communications Heads From PayPal and Google

April 4, 2012

Big moves in the Internet PR biz, as Yahoo grabs Amanda Pires from eBay's PayPal unit and Twitter snatches Google communications exec Gabriel Stricker.

Pires, who is currently senior director of communications and brand at PayPal, worked with new Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson for many years when he ran the popular payments service. Sources at Yahoo said she would begin April 16, taking up the position of SVP of global communications that has been held by Eric Brown. He'll apparently be leaving the company.

The well-regarded Pires comes to Yahoo at a particularly dicey time, having just announced the firing of 2,000 employees today with more to come, along with an expected restructuring next week. The Silicon Valley Internet giant is also facing a noisy proxy fight with activist shareholder Third Point and is contemplating the sale of big parts of its business. (And then there's me, so I'll pay for lunch, Amanda!)

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