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Yang Steps Down as Yahoo C.E.O.   First Bytes: Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, ...
Nov 18 2008 1:19AM EST

Yang Is Done

Kevin Maney writes: Two weeks ago, Yahoo's Jerry Yang submitted to an interview on stage at the Web 2.0 Summit. If you watch the video, you'll probably come to the same conclusion most of us did at the conference. Yang seemed down, uncomfortable, and unable to make the audience believe he was leading a Yahoo comeback. So his decision to step down from the CEO job comes as little surprise. It seemed like a job that did not suit him.

Yang for most of Yahoo's history has been more effective as the company's spiritual leader -- or "chief Yahoo," which is his official title. He'll go back to that, and help the board find a replacement CEO. Kara Swisher got hold of Yang's memo about the change to employees, and as Yang says (writing, as usual for him, without capitalization), "i will always do what i think is right for this great company."

It seems like he did do what's right for Yahoo by stepping down. Hat's off to Jerry. Not every company founder is that self-aware. Now Yahoo has to hope that Yang and the board do a better job finding an appropriate CEO than they did the last time, when they hired Terry Semel.

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