Expect Yahoo’s share price to jump tomorrow – Jerry Yang will be stepping down as CEO of the company, a job that he took on an interim basis in June 2007.
Yang will return to his former role as Chief Yahoo, and will remain on the board of directors. The company has hired executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles to find the new CEO.
This was an unavoidable event, and in our opinion Yang took too long to step down. In May it was clear that Yang’s heart was no longer in it, and he reconfirmed that last month at the Web 2.0 Summit. Under his watch the company has lost tens of billions of dollars in market cap and thousands of former Yahoo employees (and hundreds of execs) are now gone.
How much of the downfall was his fault? It’s impossible to say, except that he takes full responsibility for mishandling the Microsoft acquisition offer last February. One thing you have to love is Yang’s tenacity in keeping Yahoo an independent company at any cost. But what shareholders and employees need is a leader with an actual plan.
Who will be the next CEO? We speculated back in June that Jeff Mallet or Dan Rosensweig were possible candidates. Mallet wouldn’t consider the job, we’ve heard. But Rosensweig would probably take it if offered.
Whoever ends up with the job, let’s just hope it’s an outsider. Yahoo is being clear that they are considering internal candidates. President Sue Decker is likely being considered. But ex-execs we’ve spoken with say she was a big part of the problem at Yahoo, and if she takes over as CEO it will likely be more of the same.
The press release:
Yahoo! Conducting Search for New CEO
Co-Founder Jerry Yang to Step Down Following Appointment of New CEO
and Return to Former Role as Chief Yahoo! and Board Member
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov 17, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) today announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a search for a new Chief Executive Officer. Jerry Yang, co-Founder of Yahoo!, has decided to return to his former role as Chief Yahoo! upon the appointment of his successor as CEO, and he will also continue to serve on the Board. Yang, 40, assumed the CEO role at the Board’s request in June 2007, and he has led Yahoo! through a strategic repositioning and transformation of its platform.
Chairman Roy Bostock, working with the independent directors and in consultation with Jerry Yang, is leading the process of assessing potential candidates and determining finalists for consideration. The search will encompass both internal and external candidates, and the Board has retained Heidrick & Struggles, a leading international executive search firm, to assist in the process.
“Over the past year and a half, despite extraordinary challenges and distractions, Jerry Yang has led the repositioning of Yahoo! on an open platform model as well as the improved alignment of costs and revenues,” said Roy Bostock. “Jerry and the Board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level. We are deeply grateful to Jerry for his many contributions as CEO over the past 18 months, and we are pleased that he plans to stay actively involved at Yahoo! as a key executive and member of the Board.”
“From founding this company to guiding its growth into a trusted global brand that is indispensible to millions of people, I have always sought to do what is best for our franchise,” said Jerry Yang. “When the Board asked me to become CEO and lead the transformation of the Company, I did so because it was important to re-envision the business for a different era to drive more effective growth. Having set Yahoo! on a new, more open path, the time is right for me to transition the CEO role and our global talent to a new leader. I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo! realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation.”
It was time …
nice run Jerry. you made it to the hall of fame in my book! it’s still a good choice to step down.
hall of SHAME
Fame? Famous for destroying shareholder value.
Hall of Shame for handing over Shi Tao’s emails to the Chinese Government.
Burn in Hell Jerry, along with the rest of you Yahoo appeasers.
Well at least now he will have to come off Cramer’s Wall of Shame. He was in the top spot.
you’re late…
already sent you guys an email on this!!
peace
Finally.
It was time? The time was the day the Microsoft deal fell through.
Well, better late than never…
Wow, I know everyone saw this coming but can’t believe it’s actually happening. Wish all the best to Yahoo and to Jerry Yang for whatever he does in the future.
Obama’s CTO perhaps??? haha
Peter Epstein
http://www.thewebwar.com
slow news day?
ok ok…best of luck Jerry Y.
yang is apparently returning to his former position…
peace
Shutup.
Peace
jas…
you really need some love.. try to find your dad.. your mom might know who he is…
peace…
Yahoo has done some extraordinary things over the past year – and yet, there’s alot that remains to be done. They definitely lost a golden opportunity in selling to Microsoft, but I’m happy it didn’t work out.
I wouldn’t have liked the market consolidation.
Yang wasn’t supposed to be the CEO for long anyways. It was more a replacement for his predecessor
what has yahoo really done in the past year that has really engaged the mass market? nothing. its been nothing but bad acquisitions and geeked-out technology that has no real application to average consumer…and that is where you get scale drive real revenue.
You meant extraordinarily stupid, yes?
Chief Yahoo!?
How about Chief of shareholder value loss.
ditto. finally
Later Yang. Don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya…
OMG, I’m in total shock. Who in rite mind would allow this to happen?
merry christmas jerry you’re out
Jerry, you should still be proud of what you built. Dude, leave the board and go out and enjoy your cash!
OK Yahoo, now what? What’s going to be different?
agree
Make me CEO muahaha the crazy socialist Canadian….after all the world is ending so what have they got to lose.. Where is the cowboy in all of you… Think about it… you have a former giant with all that infrastructure in place but it got lost when it started listening to the money hungry board.
Did any of you watch Dirty Harry between cans of coke while you were hacking away at your computer?
The next CEO of Yahoo has a chance to be legend, to be the next Steve Jobs…to bring a company out of the ashes and build it into something that would rival Google.
Every story needs a hero and Yahoo right now needs a hero….
sadly the damage is done. irreparable damage.
Now that makes me want to yodel. Yahooooooooooooooo!
With Carl Icahn and 2 more in favor of his views board members, broken Google deal and Yang as a CEO in extinct, Yahoo! is now a must have cheap deal for Microsoft.
i wish i had bought some stock last week.
I spoke with someone from Microsoft last week. I think the entire company would revolt if they went threw with the deal. No everyone loves Yahoo
Oh my goodness! I wonder what this means in terms of the impending layoffs. Are they still going through with the layoffs? What does this mean for the Microsoft deal… I’ve heard rumblings that Microsoft may be re-considering Yahoo!. I can’t wait to see how this all unfolds.
Regardless, this is great news. What a relief.
Yahoo! needs exactly what Apple needed back in 1997. A Steve Jobs clone.
And Microsoft…
as a yahoo employee I am praying that Sue Decker is not any list. She is a major source of the problems at yahoo and simply does not have the operational or product chops to run yahoo. I think she was a very good CFO, but it stops there.
Couldn’t agree more. She is not the answer. Bring Dan Rosensweig back!!
lol..you think dan rosenweig can do the job? you got to be kidding me. personally, i would hire anyone who has any association with terry semel to run the job.
i meant wouldn’t
In Dan’s particular case, you’d be wrong. He’s my top choice.
no one with a brain who worked with danr would advocate him for the position.
I am an ex-yahoo. I was in meetings with Dan. He is an old styled media guy who likes to shout at people to show his positon. He has no technology dna. Yahoo! doesnt need another stupid Terry Semel. That is what Dan is a deal maker not a Product-Technology internet visionary. Fcuk Dan will screw Y! all over again.
it was Sue Decker who fcuked Y! Search by saying we are #2 and happy being that. She is a good number cruncher, speaker, and PPT maker. CFO is fine. CEO would be a disaster.
With Yahoo trading at $10 a share and Apple supposedly trying to develop a search engine, why doesn’t Apple consider its own bid for Yahoo?
Seems like a weird time to step down. They are just starting YOS. He’s been so adamant about being the right person to lead Yahoo.
i don’t think it’s weird at all in my opinion. you cannot have the same ceo who rejected a 33 dollar offer accept an 18~22 dollar offer. It’s too much of an insult and disgrace for most ceo. yahoo will have to have a new ceo who’s option is priced at 11~12 to make the deal with microsoft.
This is an example of what’s wrong with our current publicly-traded-company system: a CEO is forced out, not because the company is unprofitable (last I heard Yahoo was still profitable) but because the shareholders are not getting the meteoric rise in stock price they would like so they can cash out with millions.
The lust for stock price increases has ruined, and is ruining, many a good company.
Tim- Yahoo is positioning themselves to continue to reduce revenue and profits for the foreseeable future. Public companies cannot attract shareholders with that strategy, they should go private if they want to do that.
Well, that’s the challenge in running a publicly listed company… but in a way I agree. It’s easy for us all to just talk in the comfort of our own home what Yang should’ve done, but its important to realise that being a CEO in an environment like this ain’t “easy”.
It takes extraordinary leadership that communicates fresh belief and vision into the company, which is what Yahoo needs at a time like this… and what Yang was not gifted at being able to do.
Search Group – Search Engine Marketing Australia
Yahoo became a failure quite some time ago. As a CEO Yang could have done a lot long ago. Now it was too late. Good riddance that moron is gone! Now I hope we can salvage some stock value out of the failed stocks. I hope Microsoft buys it and gives us investors some money back.
Why dont you move to some socialist haven and enjoy good companies! Thank heavens for the stock market which forces out such morons who dont know the B of business and P of profits.
It’s good step.
http://www.oxyshopping.com
Last I checked (admittedly over an hour ago), the stock price hasn’t spiked nearly as much as anticipated in after hours trading. Is everyone really THAT sure it’s coming tomorrow at/near the open?
Yahoo is one amazingly mismanaged company. Its funny that the exec search firm they are working with is called “Hei..&>>Struggles<<”. Ok that was probably lame. The new CEO will have an amazing deal. Heck anybody should be ready to take it on. Struggling company, doesnt matter what you do as CEO, run it into the ground and what is worst that can happen? They pay you like Terry Semel (30-50 million/year) and a golden parachute incase you are fired before contract expires.
Three cheers to exec compensation. The new dude will probably be another moron from hollywood or some flashy harvard MBA who did marketing or business and understands JACK about technology.
actually yahoo paid terry semel 100million a year for 5 years
well said. yahoo! management is filled with VPs and Directors who are loyalists, most arent visionaries — they just stuck around and got promoted by licking ass. They cant turn the company around and they cant go anywhere — coz no one will hire a bunch of jokers. Y! Search lost share for last 8 quarters still people go promoted. YOS has come out 3 years late yet people got promoted. Talented people left silently realizing they would be overlooked and unheard in a company that got too busy *feeling great about its past* and promoting dumb loyalists who would hurt the company further. Unless they find the right new leader who will cut through the crap — Y! is dead.
Note to Heidrick & Struggles: I am available… feel free to call my admin and set up a time to meet with me. And yes, I will take Google stock as compensation rather than cash / yahoo stock.
I disagree with the previous comment. I think executive compensation is well justified.
Ok fine, I’ll take the job.
Heidrick & Struggles – is that a real name??
Finally… the silence was deafening over there.
So is Jerry Yang officially the Jerry Levin of Yahoo, only his blunder was in the reverse of Levin’s?
To whomever replaces him, GOOD LUCK.
Well I was wrong about this one. Nice try, Jerry!
Poor Jerry.. I remember when Yahoo was still going good.
Now, Microsoft will probably gobble it up. All of Jerry’s work,
gone just like that. But one’s gotta give him props for putting
up such a long fight for what was his. It was a good ride.
Now, Jerry needs to hop off, let go of the stress, and enjoy.
Good luck to him and whoever takes his place.
I do hope Microsoft goes for Yahoo!. Seems like it’s a bargain basement blowout now. :-/
Looks like you never invested in Yahoo stock
and hence you say all these ‘nice nice’ things about the moron Yang.
one vote for Guy Kawasaki as new CEO
He’ll sell to Steve Jobs for $1. The guy is blind.
Now this is what I call “good news”
although this may be a little too late — damage has been done…and lots of missed opportunities too… all the neglect over the past 2 years especially.
Although only time will tell
Best,
Mike
would have been better 30$ a share ago
All I want is Yahoo Publisher Network to go international. Anyone with me?
“Expect Yahoo’s share price to jump tomorrow”
No fool.
Good riddance!! I just hope that the shareholders sue Yang for the unforgivable stupidity and loss of the stock value under his reign as CEO. It was so clear that Google played a shrewd business trick and came up with a ad-revenue sharing deal with Yahoo just to thwart Microsoft’s attempts to buy out Yahoo. Yang was so stupid that he could not see that anti-trust laws would somehow come up vis-a-vis partnering with Google. Maybe he is too dumb to realise that Google just used Yahoo to stall Microsoft.
As a stock holder I would have loved the value Microsoft was offering. This idiot Yang made big statements about how Yahoo will be this and that. Yahoo is now an irrelevant company where it comes to revenues, profits and all the things that matter for a business.
Yahoo was a fail since quite some time. What have they got which is so special? Except the Yahoo messenger, its all a fail!
Too late you fool. You should have stepped out long ago. Now stay out of Yahoo board too and go back to finger painting or something.
Stupid!
You must be stupid for investing in it then.
Next time choose a company that is run by someone you believe in.
Ding dong….
yahoo should really hire someone with an engineering backround. Dan Rosensweig would be an utter disaster since he doesn’t have a clue either.
Everyone’s so harsh! Yahoo (and Yang) have been the red-headed stepchild of the interweb. I agree Yang wasn’t doing anything good for Yahoo. However, Yahoo was still profitable, still a huge presence on the net, with a large infrastructure in place for improvement. I think selling out to MS would have been the smart business move _only for the short term_ . That would have consolidated the market and given us less competition and less choices. The EU likely would not have approved it anyways, making the whole deal a moot point. In hindsight, Yahoo should have sold it at the $33/share and bought it back now for half that at $17/share (it’s at $10.63 right now). Yahoo’s not dead, they just need new leadership.
No. Yang just collected a bunch of links, stuck them on a web page and presto Yahoo was born. Thats how Yahoo started. He is mediocre. Whereas Larry and Sergei came up with a world class unbeatable algorithm which created Google. Yahoo is nothing but average engineers with no innovative skills. Even their Yahoo Mail was purchased from RocketMail. Nothing cool or useful like Gmail.
Anyway, I am happy that this moron is out. He is responsible for such a erosion of stockholder value. I should never have invested in this stupid run company. Oh how sweet the 33$/share from MS would have been.
Boo Jerry!
Goodbye Jerry Yang, though I never knew you at all, you had the strength to hold yourself, while your stock price took a fall…
“you had the strength to hold yourself, while your stock price took a fall…”
Are you serious? How would you react if you had Yahoo stocks in your portfolio?
bad news, but lets see how yahoo rebounds from this
Not every one can pull off a Steve Jobs. Yang took his own sweet time to understand that.
I fail to see why we should “love Yang’s tenacity in keeping Yahoo an independent company at any cost.” That cost was shareholder value. He and Roy and the rest of the board blew it. Jerry isn’t the only one who should step down.
Out here most folks are ‘romantics’ about technology and companies. I too work in the valley, but have learnt long ago that it all comes down to ‘money’!
totally agree – the board is responsible for the downturn in Yahoo!, not just Yang
I wish the best to Yahoo. But they better have a few great CEO candidates lined up. Jerry’s departure is no surprise and any chance of making a rebound will require a top-notch CEO. I’m interested to see where this goes. Am I being optimistic or just nostalgic?
-John
http://www.worl...iscoverybox.com