Yahoo to Remove Co-founder Jerry Yang

The co-founder of Yahoo, Jerry Yang, finds himself at the receiving end of a job firing after being asked by the company shareholders to step down as the CEO.

Yang has reluctantly agreed to step down from his position, but insisted to remain as one of the board members. He will officially be replaced once a suitable replacement is found.

Jerry Yang replaced Terry Semel as the CEO in June 2007, and shortly after his appointment, Yahoo was approached by Microsoft for a takeover bid involving a staggering amount of US47.5 billion, more than tripled Yahoo’s market value.

Yang’s refusal to sell the company to Microsoft upset many of the company’s shareholders, with a number of them starting a revolt to remove him as the CEO. Microsoft’s CEO Steve Balmer has since withdrew their offer but some of the Yahoo shareholders still want to pursue with the deal, either by selling Yahoo entirely, or just the search engine, which has been overtaken by its bitter rival Google as the world’s largest search engine.

Yahoo has began an aggressive move to find a new CEO by engaging a number of major recruiters and headhunters. Jerry Yang is facing the same situation that hit Steve Job, the founder of Apple not long ago. Ten years after starting a small company and turning it into an award winning, multi-billion dollar company, Steve was fired as Apple CEO amid a disagreement with one of the top executives. Many years later, a management restructuring saw Steve rehired, and has been at the helm as CEO until today.

Yang co-founded Yahoo with partner David Filo in 1994 while the two were studying in Stanford University. The two were considered as one of the earliest internet billionaires in the world.

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Author's bio: Zul is the founder and principal contributor for the SKOR Career blog. He is the author of two books, The Malaysian Job Seeker's Dilemma and Buat Duit Tanpa Kerja Makan Gaji (How to Make Money Without a Job), available in major book stores nationwide. You can reach him at zulkiflimusa[at]gmail.com.