Following a tumultuous year and a half at the forefront of one of web’s biggest properties, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang is stepping down from his chief executive role as soon as the board of directors appoints a replacement for him. Yang failed to bring either a viable merger partner or a strong revenue-generating deal in his short tenure as Yahoo CEO, so his resignation doesn’t come as much of a surprise.

Earlier this year, Yahoo rejected a $33 per share buyout offer from Microsoft and decided to focus on a search advertising partnership with Google instead. The move was met with disapproval by many share-holders and since then the company’s stock share price has plunged incessantly – reaching $13 earlier this month when Yahoo’s planned deal with Google also fell apart.

Once its successor as CEO is appointed, Yang will remain as a Yahoo board member and resume his previous role as “Chief Yahoo” – whatever that means. His impending step down leaves much unresolved for the Internet company, which has been struggling to remain independent for months, but could perhaps pave the way for a deal of sorts with Microsoft.