Yahoo Founder Resigns from Board
Yahoo announced on Tuesday that co-founder Jerry Yang, who launched the company in 1995 with David Filo, is stepping down from the board of directors and all other positions he holds with the company. Yang's departure, effective immediately, also applies to his positions with Yahoo Japan and Chinese Internet giant Alibaba, each of which Yahoo holds a minority stake in.
After its launch, Yahoo dominated web search until Google rose to prominence, but has struggled in recent years, abandoning search in 2009. More recently, the company's main source of revenue, display advertising, began to decline as the company began losing ground to relative newcomers Google and Facebook. Yang served as Yahoo's CEO from June 2007 to January 2009, then stepped down in response to shareholder ire after the company rejected a $47 billion buyout offer from Microsoft.
Yahoo's performance has declined steadily since it abandoned search. Carol Bartz, who served as CEO from January 2009 until last September, was fired as CEO by telephone. The company announced two weeks ago that former PayPal president Scott Thompson would take over the post of CEO, nearly four months after Bartz's departure. Yang's departure will be good news for Yahoo shareholders that want the company to be sold, as Yang had vehemently opposed the option. As a result of the news, Yahoo shares were up 3 percent in after-hours trading.
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