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December - 2008 - issue > Tech Tracker
Chief Yahoo! Bows Out of His CEO Position
Eureka Bharali
Monday, December 1, 2008
Plummeting shares and botched negotiations with Microsoft and Google that swayed Yahoo!’s steady existence have forced the Internet portal’s CEO Jerry Yang to bow out of his high position in the company. Yang, who claims to ‘bleed purple’, the color of the company’s logo, will continue to advise the company as ‘chief Yahoo!’ once a new CEO replaces him in the next six months.

The move did not come much of a surprise, in fact it seems to be an awaited decision as once the resignation news spread, Yahoo!’s shares soared. The investors felt the CEO’s exit will spark a new prospect in terms of merger talks with companies like Microsoft and Google. However, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer’s immediate rebuttal of further merger talks with Yahoo! brought the portal’s share crashing down.

Hence, as a replacement for Yang, analysts consider a mergers-and-acquisitions specialist who might broker a deal with Microsoft or another partner, a buttoned-down operations expert who could bolster up Yahoo!'s existing strategy and a bold visionary to be the best fit. However, for Yahoo! the new CEO will be with prior CEO experience who's got both operational and strategic skills, someone experienced in technology, and somebody energetic and young, which apparently means that he or she should be in the 40s or early 50s. So, the company Chairman Roy Bostock has clicked the search tab with the help of the recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles by supposedly short listing candidates like Yahoo! President Susan Decker, former Yahoo! COO Dan Rosensweig, former Viacom CEO Frank Biondi, Yahoo! Director Maggie Wilderotter, and former Nextel Chief John Chapple. But the company’s cauldron is yet to churn out the right one who may fortify the Internet portal’s base through innovations on all lines.


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