David Pogue, veteran non-reporter, alleged wife-attacker, and lover of publicists, is leaving the mothership for Marissa Mayer. It may or may not have to do with everyone at the Times hating him.

Relations between Dave and his coworkers at the paper have been steadily deteriorating since his hideous divorce, dubious paid speaking engagements, allegations of using his phone as a weapon, bloated paycheck, and constant stream of non-stories made many question why he was still around. He had come close to the chopping block before today.

But even a lame brand name is a brand name—Pogue is synonymous with banal high-traffic posts about how to tame your new smartphone or record perfect home videos. Golden fodder for confused inlaws. It's just the sort of lukewarm broth that will do well at Yahoo.

Here's the full memo sent to Times staffers this morning:

David Pogue, who has written reviews for the “State of the Art” column
for 13 years, is leaving to help launch a consumer-tech site at Yahoo.

David picked up “State of the Art” duty from Peter H. Lewis in 2000,
when the column appeared in the erstwhile stand-alone Circuits
section. In 2006, the column moved to the BizDay section front. David
has also been blogging for our technology page, and he has made
regular video appearances.

David has been a valued member of our technology team, and his columns
have been a delight to read. We thank him for a great run, and wish
him well in his new adventure.

— Dean Murphy and Suzanne Spector

Read Pogue's letter about the move right here.