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Yahoo co-founder resigns
By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
January 18th, 2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
January 18th, 2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
One of Yahoo's cofounders, 43-year-old Jerry Yang has announced his
resignation from the Internet Company. The announcement comes just two
weeks after former PayPal executive Scott Thompson was named the
company's new CEO. The troubled Internet search engine is struggling to
revive revenue growth and win over disgruntled shareholders under a new
leader.
On board since Yahoo's 1995 inception, Yang made his intentions clear in a letter to Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock. "My time at Yahoo, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life . However, the time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo."
Worth $1.1 billion, Yang doesn't need to work. He first began working on Yahoo in a trailer at Stanford University with fellow graduate student David Filo. He is also stepping down from the boards of China's Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan.
Currently, Yahoo is negotiating to sell its stakes in both of the Asian companies to satisfy investors. The deal could be worth as much as $17 billion, but still faces a series of potentially obstacles before it gets done.
In Addition to surrendering the board seats, Yang is giving up his position as "Chief Yahoo," an honorary title he held as he mingled among workers.
This is not necessarily bad news for Yahoo, BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis says. New CEO Thompson could have an easier time overhauling Yahoo without Yang looking over his shoulder and possibly second guessing his decisions. "This has the fingerprints of frustration on it," Gillis said. "It's one of those situations where it looks like he is losing the battle to control the company's direction and now he is saying, 'That's it, I'm out.'"
While well-liked by Yahoo employees, Yang had alienated the company's shareholders by turning down a chance to sell Yahoo in its entirety to Microsoft Corp. for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, in May 2008. The result has been that Yahoo shares haven't topped $20 for more than three years.
Investor anger over his handling of the Microsoft negotiations led to Yang's resignation as CEO in late 2008 and the hiring of Silicon Valley veteran Carol Bartz to replace him. Yang and the rest of Yahoo's board fired Bartz as CEO last September.
Yahoo has fallen further behind in the race to innovate and develop products that attract Web traffic. The majority of money for Internet advertising has been going to Internet search leader Google Inc. and Facebook's online social network.
In spite of this, Yahoo remains profitable and still boasts a worldwide audience of 700 million people.
© 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.