Microsoft-Yahoo
Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang to step down
November 17, 2008: 8:47 PM ETBy Yi-Wyn Yen
At the Web 2.0 Summit two weeks ago, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang was asked if he was the right guy to lead the battered Internet portal. Yang dodged the question by defending his passion for the company he co-founded 13 years ago. "I didn't make the decision of being the CEO lightly," he said. "I wanted to make a change at Yahoo that I believe I can make....That's a dream that I felt I could achieve by being CEO and that's still the dream today."
That dream came to an end Monday when Yahoo announced that Yang, 40, will step down as CEO and return to his former role as "Chief Yahoo." The company's board said it has hired headhunter Heidrick & Struggles to find a replacement.
Yang has come under fire for his inability to turnaround the company in his past 17 months as CEO. During his short tenure, Yahoo (YHOO) has had two major rounds of layoffs and has seen its search market share shrink significantly while a series of reorganizations led to the departure of senior executives. Yang was heavily criticized by Wall Street and shareholders for failing to reach an agreement to sell the company to Microsoft (MSFT). But the final straw for Yang came when Google (GOOG) pulled out of a controversial ad agreement earlier this month that would have boosted Yahoo's revenues by hundreds of millions of dollars.
"When the board asked me to become CEO and lead the transformation of the company, I did so because it was important to re-envision the business for a different era to drive more effective growth," said Yang in a statement. "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."
When Yang took over, he was widely viewed as the right choice to replace Terry Semel, the previous CEO from Hollywood who spent six years molding Yahoo into a media company. Yang promised change in the first 100 days as CEO, declaring there would be "no sacred cows." But 100 days came and went. So did the next 400 days. Frustrated investors have seen Yahoo's shares drop 62% in value since Yang took over in mid-June 2007. While Semel never had Yang's geek cred, he did manage to drive Yahoo's stock price up to an eight-year peak of $43.21 in January 2006. Yahoo's shares closed at $10.63 on Monday.
Yang has admitted his legacy may forever linked to the debacle with the Microsoft takeover. Yahoo's board and management team quickly turned down Microsoft's original offer to acquire Yahoo for $31-a-share in February. The two parties spent six months trying to negotiate a deal. "As a CEO, my job is to find the right path for Yahoo," Yang said at the Web 2.0 conference. Not getting the deal done "is something that I'll be labeled with."
-
Yahoo back in the game
By Scott Moritz
Yahoo (YHOO) moves back to the deal market as its controversial advertising partnership with Google (GOOG) is now dead.
As Fortune's Legal Pad blogger Roger Parloff outlined last month, the legal footing was never very solid as the No.1 and No.2 Internet advertisers explored plans to work together on search advertising efforts.
The plan was first introduced in June as Yahoo was trying to fend off an unsolicited takeover bid from MORE
smoritz - Nov 5, 2008 12:55 PM ET -
Microsoft loves Yahoo, Microsoft hates Yahoo
By Yi-Wyn Yen
Microsoft needs to get its story straight.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told attendees at a tech research conference in Orlando on Thursday that a deal with Yahoo (YHOO) "makes sense for their shareholders and ours."
But within an hour of the news, Microsoft (MSFT) spokesman Frank Shaw issued an statement to retract Ballmer's comments. "Our position hasn't changed. Microsoft has no interest in acquiring Yahoo!; there are no discussions between the companies," MORE
yiwyn - Oct 16, 2008 5:02 PM ET -
The Google phone upclose and personal
By Scott Moritz
NEW YORK - A brief hands-on experience with the Google (GOOG) G1 phone gives the impression that after a slew of touchscreen duds from other telcos, Apple's (AAPL) iPhone finally has a worthy rival.
The highly-anticipated HTC phone for T-Mobile (DT) was unveiled in New York Tuesday, and kiosks with technical experts were set up so media people could run the first Android-powered phone through some tricks. T-Mobile will start MORE
smoritz - Sep 23, 2008 2:14 PM ET -
T-Mobile's Google phone may offer free e-mail
By Scott Moritz
Android lands at T-Mobile Tuesday, and as part of the effort to deliver the Google phone to the mobile market, T-Mobile is considering including free e-mail access.
The new Android-powered phone will have Google's (GOOG) Gmail service built in, and T-Mobile executives are considering offering access to Gmail free, without the need for a data plan, says one person close to the discussions.
The HTC-manufactured T-Mobile phone will be the first of the hotly-anticipated Android-operated handsets, and one MORE
smoritz - Sep 22, 2008 3:05 PM ETPosted in: Android, AOL, Apple, AT&T, BlackBerry, e-mail, Google, Hulu, Internet, iPhone, Microsoft, Microsoft-Yahoo, Mobile, Research in Motion, Samsung, Sidekick, Sony Ericsson, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, Virgin Mobile, Vodaphone, Yahoo -
Microsoft, HP dangle cash to investors
By Scott Moritz
Big tech is putting its cash to work to appease investors.
Microsoft and Hewlett Packard say they will throw weary shareholders a cash treat. Microsoft created a new five-year $40 billion share buyback plan and an 18% dividend boost. And HP has set aside $8 billion for share repurchases. The top PC maker had $3 billion of buyback money still in its budget under an $8 billion program it MORE
smoritz - Sep 22, 2008 9:44 AM ET -
Why Google may walk away from Yahoo deal
By Scott Moritz
The planned advertising partnership between Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO), which was devised during Microsoft's (MSFT) unsolicited bid for Yahoo, is headed for a federal antitrust challenge. And that could mean, according to one analyst, that Google could wind up walking away from the deal.
Two days after the Association of National Advertisers sent a letter to the Justice Department opposing the Google-Yahoo ad pact, antitrust regulators hired high-powered MORE
smoritz - Sep 9, 2008 12:14 PM ETPosted in: Advertising, Antitrust, Google, Hulu, Jerry Yang, Microsoft, Microsoft-Yahoo, Susan Decker, Time Warner, Yahoo -
Cisco buys into corporate e-mail
Pushing further into Microsoft's (MSFT) territory, Cisco (CSCO) announced Wednesday that it has signed a $215 million deal for business e-mail shop PostPath.
The move bolsters Cisco's strategy to expand into the office software market by adding e-mail and calendar services to its existing roster of so-called enterprise networking features. PostPath, based in Mountain View, Calif., develops Linux-based software that gives corporate customers an alternative to Microsoft's Exchange system. PostPath says its e-mail servers are compatible MORE
smoritz - Aug 27, 2008 9:59 AM ET -
All eyes on Yahoo's newest board members
By Yi-Wyn Yen
Former Viacom CEO Frank Biondi and former Nextel CEO John Chappel will join Carl Icahn as the newest additions to Yahoo's board.
All eyes are on Icahn and his gang. The three amigos will need to start making changes to placate shareholders soon because if they don't, it's likely that nobody on the board will. The three were part of Icahn's original proxy slate that ran under a campaign MORE
yiwyn - Aug 14, 2008 7:52 PM ET -
Yahoo's inevitable settlement with Icahn
By Yi-Wyn Yen
The only thing surprising about the resolution between Yahoo's board of directors and activist investor Carl Icahn was that it didn't happen sooner.
The proxy campaign that Icahn launched nearly three months ago to eliminate Yahoo's board and replace it with his own cronies at the Aug. 1 shareholder meeting came to an end Monday when the two sides finally agreed to a compromise. Proxy experts say they expected a MORE
yiwyn - Jul 21, 2008 8:46 PM ET
