It was the head of Yahoo research (http://allthingsd.com/20120304/exclusive-yahoo-labs-head-rag...) and it seems likely that he left because Thompson will be making deep cuts to the research department

Several execs have left. I think people at Yahoo have made peace with the situation or have a strong reason for staying there. I know some people who are there because they feel that the tech/scale they work on won't be possible at any other company. Others because they just like the team/people they hang out with, etc.

So no, I don't expect an exodus because of this. I do think that this will cause major hiring issues, even more than before. Not because employees have a moral stance against patents but this move signals desperation. Folks can 'smell' that this is different than when Apple uses patents offensively and that this isn't something a healthy company should do.

> I think people at Yahoo have made peace with the situation or have a strong reason for staying there.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: The ones with a "strong reason" to stay at Yahoo would be those on H1B work visas in the green card sponsorship queue. Because if they find a job elsewhere, the whole process restarts. A strong reason, sure, but IMO not a good reason to stay.

Current Yahoo here. I love working for Yahoo. Fun & unique challenges to solve, compensated well, and is a nice environment.

Think what you will, but there are plenty more that are like me. My current team is full of some of the best people in the industry at what they do and the average tenure of them at Y! is ~6 years. So, there's plenty of very talented people left at Yahoo who are here because they want to be.

Ex-Yahoo here as well. I think most of the people who grew tired of this sort of flailing have already left.