Yang steps down as Yahoo CEO
- Added:
- Nov 18, 2008
Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang is stepping down from his CEO role at the company, after failing to secure deals with either Google or Microsoft.
Following the announcement, Yahoo has begun searching for a new boss. Headhunting firm Heidrick and Struggles has been hired to look at internal and external candidates.
Yang, who became CEO in June 2007, will reassume his former title of "Chief Yahoo" once a successor is found and will also remain on the company's board.
Yang has faced increasing pressure from shareholders since February, when Microsoft offered $45 billion (amounting to $33 a share) to buy Yahoo, which Yang rejected as too low. Yahoo is currently trading at $11 a share.
Further discussions with News Coporation and Time Warner also collapsed, while a recent ad deal with Google fell apart following opposition from the US Department of Justice.
In a statement last night, Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock said: “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."
Bostock will lead the search for a new chief executive, and said that the board and Yang had had constant discussions about succession planning.
Commenting on his decision to step down, Yang said: "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."