Home › News › Industry News
Jerry Yang resigns from all his positions at Yahoo
Yahoo’s co-founder and former CEO Jerry Yang has announced he is resigning from all his posts at the company to pursue other interests.
"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 wrote in a letter to board chairman, Roy Bostock.
Yang was instrumental in the internet firms rise during the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, but has been widely criticized for his refusal of Microsoft’s purchase offer of $33 a share, instead siding with internal projections that suggested the company would outgrow the value the Redmond-based software giant was prepared to pay. Many view that ill-fated decision as the starting point of the once dominant company’s downfall.
"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," Yang wrote.
Scott Thompson, former president of PayPal who was hired by the firm last year has been appointed as Yahoo’s new CEO. "I am grateful for the warm welcome and support Jerry provided me during my early days here," Thompson said. "Jerry has great confidence in the future of Yahoo, and I share his confidence in the enormous potential of Yahoo in the days ahead."
"We appreciate Jerry's comments and share his enthusiasm for the company's prospects," said Board Chairman, Roy Bostock. "With Scott Thompson leading an outstanding team of Yahoos to deliver innovative products and an engaging customer experience, Yahoo's future is bright."
With Yang’s departure the company is likely trying to send the message of a fresh start, hoping to rejuvenate the brand and distance itself from the past decisions by its co-founder as much as possible.
If this is really the case it is quite possible other senior staff and board members may well walk the same path in the near future as they face mounting criticism from shareholders and financial analysts for the company’s troubles. Yahoo has declined requests for more information regarding Yang's announcement.
Related Stories
User Comments (8)
Post a comment|
slh28
on January 18, 2012 9:48 AM |
If only he walked away and sold his shares 12 years ago... would have been like 10 times richer lol. |
|
Guest
on January 18, 2012 10:44 AM |
..ya who...? |
|
Guest
on January 18, 2012 10:45 AM |
I am always surprised to see Yahoo still around, quite a useless company tbh. |
|
tonylukac
on January 18, 2012 7:30 PM |
Everyone with att dsl internet uses yahoo email. |
|
blueskull85
on January 18, 2012 7:52 PM |
att overprices and give crappy internet in return. |
|
Guest
on January 18, 2012 8:20 PM |
Yahoo is actually very dominant in Asia so I don't see it going away anytime soon. Not only that, it seems to do very well over there. Over here... I'm still kind of upset that they closed geocities. Geocities in Asia is still up. |
|
Burty117
on January 19, 2012 6:35 AM |
Why is it company's such as RIM and Yahoo are still popular in Asia? |
|
Guest
on January 19, 2012 4:30 PM |
@ Burty117 Have you tried Yahoo! for Asia countries? There's an article about it: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/yahoo-search-partners-wit Especially in Japan, Yahoo! is well integrated with many of the other things they do online. "Yahoo Japan and its “Social Media” search with integrated blogs and tagging is a way of life here in Japan, Yahoo is the Japanese Life Engine. Why? For one reason Japan is crazy about blogging, with nearly 10 million blogs (9,437,813 at press time) indexed in Ask Jeeves Japan Bloglines search engine (again, I'll have Yahoo's blog stats tomorrow). Yahoo Blogs is the premier interface for bloggers in Japan, with most blogs being personal and a large percentage of the active bloggers are females (moms and housewives), connecting via the Yahoo Japan community. If a Japanese user blogs on Yahoo Japan, shops on Yahoo Japan, bids on Yahoo Japan Auctions, and finds local shops via Yahoo Japan Local, roots for the Fukuoka Hawks baseball team which plays in the Yahoo Dome, and has Yahoo BB as their ISP, chances are they will highly enjoy having Yahoo Japan as their default search engine in the Firefox browser." So although the article is old (2005) and there are a lot of shits to other blogging sites and platforms, Yahoo! still remain integrated with many other things they usually do online. It's just like how over here Google is everywhere. |
Most Popular
| Trending | Featured |
-
iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak tool released, supports 4S, iPad 3
-
After five days, Facebook ranks as worst IPO flop of the decade
-
Rumor: AMD "Piledriver" FX CPU production to begin Q3 2012
-
Is Apple's USB wall adapter really worth $29?
-
Google warns users infected with DNSChanger malware, provides help
Editors' Monitor Picks
Subscribe to TechSpot
Get free exclusive content, learn about new features and tech breaking news.
