Yang's Yahoo No More
Nov 17 2008
Yahoo has started a search for a new chief executive as Yang is preparing to step down. Finally.
Jerry Yang, the embattled chief executive of the equally embattled search giant he helped found, will step down from his post as soon as Yahoo's board of directors is able to find a replacement.
Once his successor is in place, Yang will return to the post of Chief Yahoo he held before assuming chief executive title at the behest of the board of directors last summer.
In a memo to employees, complete with the omission of uppercase letters as is his email style, Yang said he "will always bleed purple," referring to the company's logo.
"since taking on the ceo role, i have had an ongoing dialogue with the board about succession timing. thanks in large measure to your tireless efforts, we have created a more open, competitive yahoo! and we believe the time is now right to transition to a new ceo who can take the company to the next level."Despite attempts by Yang and chairman Roy Bostock to spin Yang's tenure at the helm as a success, it is difficult to see this announcement as anything but an end to a very ugly chapter for the struggling internet giant. After snubbing an attempted takeover by Microsoft earlier this year for $34 per share, Yang presided over Yahoo as its stock plummeted to just $10 per share. Talks with Google over a search deal and with Time Warner over its AOL division ultimately ended in failure. Yahoo is being forced to cut costs, and employees are bracing for layoffs amounting to at least 10 percent of the workforce next month.
With Yang finally stepping down, all eyes will turn to his successor for hope that the company can either be rebuilt or attract a suitor like Microsoft again.
According to Kara Swisher at AllThingsD.com, inside sources speculate that the new chief executive will almost certainly be recruited from outside the company. Yahoo said it has retained Heidrick & Struggles for the search.
Some possible candidates Swisher proposes are News Corp.'s chief operating officer Peter Chernin, former AOL head Jon Miller, former eBay C.E.O. Meg Whitman, and former Yahoo C.O.O. Dan Rosensweig.
