Jerry Yang, Yahoo Co-Founder, Leaving The Company

Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang announced on Tuesday that he is stepping down from his position on the Yahoo! Board of Directors, as well as his other positions on the boards of Yahoo Japan Corporation and Alibaba Group Holding Limited.

From Yang's letter to the Yahoo! Board Chairman Roy Bostock, per a press release:

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! As I leave the company I co-founded nearly 17 years ago, I am enthusiastic about the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer and his ability, along with the entire Yahoo! leadership team, to guide Yahoo! into an exciting and successful future.

Yang and David Filo founded the company in 1995. Yang has sat on the Yahoo board since March 1995 and served as CEO from June 2007 to January 2009, according to the press release.

On January 4 the struggling web giant appointed PayPal chief Scott Thompson as its new CEO, filling the void left when the company directors ousted Carol Bartz in September. According to the AP, Thompson is Yahoo's fourth CEO in less than five years.

Thompson praised Yang on Tuesday. "I am grateful for the warm welcome and support Jerry provided me during my early days here," said Thompson in a statement. "Jerry leaves behind a legacy of innovation and customer focus for this iconic brand, having shaped our culture by fostering a spirit of innovation that began 17 years ago and continues to grow even stronger today. Jerry has great confidence in the future of Yahoo!, and I share his confidence in the enormous potential of Yahoo! in the days ahead."

The New York Times refers to Yang's tenure as CEO as "turbulent." Writes the AP, "Although a popular figure among Yahoo employees, Yang had alienated the company's shareholders by turning down a $47.5 billion takeover offer from Microsoft Corp. in 2008."

AllThingsD's Kara Swisher speculates that more big changes may result if the company's Q4 earnings, to be announced on January 24, fall into the lower end of the projected range. She foresees a possible shakeup of the board, as well as the possibility of selling some of its shares back Alibaba Group and Softbank, Yahoo's major partners in Asia.

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[YRG]

06:52 PM on 01/18/2012

What a failure of a company. It's too bad-- it could have been like Apple in the early days. I remember how much promise it had to be a portal to the Web, but then it got caught up in the internet bubble and couldn't differentiate itself from the other search engine/portals of the time-- Lycos, Ask Jeeves, Alta Vista. Then Google came along with its minimalist interface, secret algorithm, and focus on search and silently changed the game. I'm sad for Jerry Yang, a technologist engineer without much vision.

[gew60]

04:50 PM on 01/18/2012

What was the scandal about PayPal?

[sking007]

01:43 PM on 01/18/2012

Well, with him out of they way, they can finally put some lipstick on this pig and find a suitor. Wouldn't it be funny if Fox made a play for it.

[stvinw]

12:45 PM on 01/18/2012

Yahoo! needs to dump the recent changes they made to subscriber profiles, and return to the previous format, or at least come up with a way for users to view recent posts and comments.

[jdoeremi]

12:44 PM on 01/18/2012

Tis sad to see this company deteriorate and fall so far behind a search engine company they preceded - Google. I used the search engine recently and the search results are not as good as Google and Bing. Bing has improved significantly and is giving Google a run for their money. The search results are roughly the same but Bing is more aesthetically pleasing perhaps deliberately by design but Microsoft probably hasn't monetized it as well Google. I don't know if it'll work but Google recently raised the bar with the inclusion of Google plus on search results. What's your next chess move, Bing? 'Wish Filo does something so Yahoo catches up with these 2 search engine behemonths and help maintain or foster search results integrity.

[SalingersGhost]

12:19 PM on 01/18/2012

Manka Bros. has already offered Jerry Yang a job - pretty much doing whatever he wants - except the online business.

http://mankabros.com/blogs/chairman/2012/01/17/jerry-yang-manka-bros-would-like-to-offer-you-a-job/

[Jay from Ottawa]

11:19 AM on 01/18/2012

... and take all of the fraudulent websites you host with you !!

Took me 5 minutes to find out the fraudulent emails I was getting were directing me to a phishing site hosted by yahoo, but it took me 3 hours to report it, and it took them a week to take it down.

[tennisguy]

11:06 AM on 01/18/2012

Were I a shareholder, I would be very, very, ticked that Yang turned down a purchase offer of $47.5 billion. Yahoo seems to be drifting downward in its business.

[dcol]

10:45 AM on 01/18/2012

He is probably leaving because he knows what Microsoft will do to Yahoo and he doesn't fit that plan.
I am sure his leaving is all part of the Microsoft deal. Yahoo will become a totally different company.

[ALECTRO]

10:44 AM on 01/18/2012

Yahoo is another example of corporate malfeasance. The executives ignore the owners' (shareholders) interests in favor of their personal interests. Shameful and should be illegal. Hope congress finally does something to fix this.

[ReinholdMcGillicutti]

10:40 AM on 01/18/2012

Great article re: Yahoo.
http://www.paulgraham.com/yahoo.html

[WomenOnGuard]

10:33 AM on 01/18/2012

Yahoo had it's time in history... Just as I'm sure someday, facebook will too.

[Ayesha Khan]

10:25 AM on 01/18/2012

I am sorry to hear that Mr Jerry left Yahoo, but i think that Yahoo did no mistake by refusing the offer by Microsoft. Yahoo has a great potential, and is loaded with professionals behind the screen. In fact Yahoo holds the Significance as the Pioneers of networking, and therefore their competence, and contribution cannot be under estimated. People forgot perhaps that in the late 90s, Yahoo was ruling the World, and provided immaculate services to the entire Globe via Yahoo Messenger, and MSN. Even today Yahoo retains its vital presence, in the field on information Technology. Its only that today Yahoo is confronted by great completion, but that doesn't mean they are less competent---------

[Nic the wonder puppy]

10:14 AM on 01/18/2012

That guy was harder to get rid of than flees in the summer

[Mondayboy]

09:59 AM on 01/18/2012

This arrogant turned down a $46 billion buy-out offer from Microsoft. He should have been shown the door immediately after he made that decision. Reminds me of Groupon's rejection of $6 Billion from Google.

[slyball]

11:23 AM on 01/18/2012

Surprisingly money isn't everything to some people (of course that's easy for Jerry to say when he's got almost a billion in stock waiting for him).

But really, I see it as bad for Yahoo employees and users. Maybe not shareholders, but Jerry was definitely an advocate for his employees and the people who use Yahoo. Those who remain care about one thing- Money.