BIZCHINA / Biz Who

Yahoo names Jerry Yang new CEO

(AP)
Updated: 2007-06-19 08:39

SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc. Chairman Terry Semel stepped down as chief
executive in a surprise move Monday, ending his increasingly ineffectual
pursuit of online search leader Google Inc.-- a a losing battle that had
demoralized Yahoo's shareholders and employees.

Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang gestures at a philanthropy party in Beijing
in this April 13, 2004 file photo. [Sina.com.cn]

The Sunnyvale-based company appointed co-founder Jerry Yang as its new
CEO and named Susan Decker as its president. Decker, who had been touted
as Semel's heir apparent, was recently promoted from Yahoo's chief
financial officer to oversee the company's advertising operations.

Semel, 64, will remain chairman in a non-executive role after spending
the past six years running the company.

"I saw myself as more of a coach than a player going forward," Semel told
analysts and media during a Monday conference call.

Signaling Semel's decision was voluntary, Yahoo said he will not receive
a severance package. The former movie studio executive already has made a
fortune since joining Yahoo in May 2001, having realized nearly $450
million in gains by exercising some of the stock options that he received
during his tenure.

Despite Yahoo's recent struggles, Semel received another big bundle of
stock options last year that boosted the value of his 2006 compensation
package to $71.7 million. That was more than any other CEO among 386
publicly held companies covered in an Associated Press analysis of
executive compensation using new rules dictated by the Securities and
Exchange Commission.

In Monday's conference call, an emotional Yang hailed Semel as "a role
model and mentor" and then sought to defuse recent speculation that Yahoo
might be sold to Microsoft Corp. or another suitor hoping to exploit the
recent turmoil at the company.

"I am totally excited and energized about assuming the leadership of this
great company," Yang said. "We have a long and prosperous future if we
execute correctly."

Yang, 38, still owns a 4 percent stake in the company. Fellow co-founder
David Filo, who is helping to run Yahoo's technology group after the
sudden retirement of the department's leader earlier this month, owns a 6
percent stake.

Yahoo! co-founders Jerry Yang (C) and David Filo (R) pose with chief
executive Terry Semel in front of the NASDAQ MarketSite in Times Square
in New York after ringing the opening bell at NASDAQ in this March 2,
2005 file photo. Following investor pressure for a management CEO Semel
is stepping aside and will be replaced as CEO by Yang, Yahoo said on June
18, 2007. [Reuters]

Monday's shake-up unfolded less than a week after Semel faced off with
shareholders disillusioned with a nearly 30 percent drop in Yahoo's stock
price during the past 18 months as its financial growth fell further
behind Google's torrid pace.

Mountain View-based Google now makes more money in a single quarter than
Yahoo does in an entire year. The contrast represents a startling
comedown for Yahoo, which was the larger of the two companies when Google
went public in August 2004.

Since then, Google has steadily expanded upon the Internet's largest
advertising network to create nearly $140 billion in shareholder wealth
as its stock price increased by more than six-fold. Yahoo's stock,
meanwhile, is worth a little bit less than when Google went public.

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