Yahoo! yesterday announced that their CEO, Jerry Yang, was stepping down from the top job at the web firm.
Investment types have become increasingly critical of Yahoo! co-founder Yang this year after he knocked back a takeover approach from Microsoft that some shareholders supported, and then failed to complete an advertising partnership deal with Google, who pulled out of the deal after US competition regulators expressed concerns that a Yahoo!/Google alliance would be anti-competitive.
Yahoo! chairman Roy Bostock announced last night that Yang would step down as soon as a successor could be found. He told reporters: "Jerry and the board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO. We are pleased that he plans to stay actively involved at Yahoo as a key executive and member of the board".
One of the early internet success stories, Yahoo! has struggled in recent years amid rising competition from new web platforms like MySpace and the increasing dominance of Google. Some reckon Yahoo!'s future would be best safeguarded by a merger, with Microsoft or AOL, but that's something Yang seemed unwilling to consider. His removal may now mean some kind of merger will be more proactively considered at Yahoo! - a Yahoo!/AOL merger is currently favourite among many of those who think about these things.