Yahoo have today announced that their much maligned founder Jerry Yang is to step down from his current role as CEO after 17 months in the position. He is set to remain on the board of directors and facilitate the process of appointing a new candidate in his place.
Roy Bostock, chairman of the process charged with finding a replacement, agreed with Yang in suggesting that the time had come for a new leader to take the company forward in a bid to reverse their ailing fortunes.
However, Yang earned many critics in his time as CEO, and was blamed for being the primary reason leading to the collapse of the deal with Microsoft that would have gone a long way to please investors. He has since admitted that this deal would have been the best way forward, seen by many as an admission of failure following the missed opportunity. The bid valued Yahoo! at $31 per share, a figure vastly higher than the current trading price of $10.63.
He had banked on a deal to come to fruition with Google that he hoped would have seen profits at Yahoo! soar as they tapped into the huge resources available to Google. However, this came to a halt following a ruling from the US Department of Justice declaring the deal to be against consumer interests.
Yang had remained quite adamant that he would not be stepping down and reaffirmed his position as ‘absolutely the right person’ to lead Yahoo! through a prolonged period of volatility. However, it is almost certain that a decision of this magnitude has not been taken lightly and therefore been in the pipeline for longer than we may realise.
Yang will return to his position of implementing global strategy as chief Yahoo! of the company he founded in 1995.