News Report: Jerry Yang, ‘Chief Yahoo,’ Steps Down From Board

Jerry Yang; Photo Credit: Reuters

Credit: The New York Times

Jerry Yang has left Yahoo, the stumbling Internet company he co-founded 17 years ago, the company announced Tuesday.

In a statement, Roy Bostock, Yahoo’s chairman, said Mr. Yang would immediately give up his board seat at Yahoo and step down from the boards of the Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan.

Mr. Yang did not give a reason for his departure, but it occurred as the company undergoes a strategic review under a new chief executive, Scott Thompson, on whether the company should sell off its Asian interests and focus on its media assets. Yahoo owns a 40 percent stake in Alibaba and a 35 percent stake in Yahoo Japan.

Mr. Yang’s departure comes less than two weeks after the board named Mr. Thompson, an eBay executive running its PayPal unit, as chief executive.

Mr. Yang, who co-founded the company in 1995, also had the official title of “chief Yahoo” and was the face of the company’s rise and its decline. He stood in the way of a 2008 takeover attempt by Microsoft that valued the company at $47.5 billion. Shareholder dismay with that decision — and Yahoo’s subsequent inability to find its way — has left the company with a market value of less than half that today.

“Yahoo is losing the last piece of what was viewed by many as a stumbling organization,” says Allen Weiner, a Gartner analyst.

Yahoo analysts and company insiders say that Mr. Yang’s departure has cleared the way for the sale of its assets abroad. The company has been in negotiations with Alibaba and Softbank — a potential acquirer of Yahoo’s share in Yahoo Japan — on a proposed sale of its stakes valued at approximately $17 billion. “Arguably Jerry Yang is the person best known and associated with Yahoo,” says Scott Kessler, an analyst at Standard and Poor’s. “It is fair to say that, whether in terms of reality or perception, he has detracted from the company’s ability to realize shareholder value.”

Mr. Yang played a heavy hand in discussions about Yahoo’s future, according to people close to the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were private. At times, Mr. Yang’s opinions seemed to diverge from the board’s consensus, these people said, creating a tense — and occasionally confusing — backdrop for negotiations.

Mr. Yang, along with other board members, also faced mounting pressure from activist investors, like Daniel Loeb of Third Point, who has called for the dismissal of both Mr. Yang and Mr. Bostock. Two other people close to board, who requested anonymity in order to maintain business relationships, said that the board was discussing the addition of new directors and several current board members are expected to depart. Yahoo refused to comment.

Shares of Yahoo gained more than 3 percent in after-hours trading after the announcement Tuesday.