Flickr Founder Fires Off A Funny Resignation Letter

Yahoo! is having a personnel problem, leading to a PR problem. In the last few days, three executive vice presidents, two senior vice presidents and handful of other well-regarded employees have publicly announced their intention to leave.

Some say it is due to President Sue Decker's restructuring plans, others say it is the affect of the failure of Yahoo! to strike a deal with Mircorosoft, still others say it is in protest over the ad deal struck with Google.

I say it might be coincidence, or just be tied to the ending of contractual agreements tied to the purchase of their companies by Yahoo! (Flickr was bought by Yahoo! a little over three years ago).

But, whatever the reason, the most interesting exit is coming from Flickr founder Stewart Butterfield.

In a long, wonrderfully rambling email to his Yahoo! boss, Butterfield wrote a terrific tongue-in-cheek message that was then posted on the Internet for all to see.

He described the company as a tin-smithing concern, humorously suggesting that his family had toiled in Yahoo!'s manufacturing facility for generations, and cited his own beginnings back in '21.

As ValleyWag says: Better this entertaining nonsense than some tired cliche of "bleeding purple," I suppose. I'm also told that this email is classic Butterfield, and that his employees at Flickr would stage dramatic readings of some of his better missives at Flickr's San Francisco headquarters, which will now be run officially by Kakul Srivastava, Flickr's longtime de facto chief.

The full email after the JUMP

More at The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times