It’s been a long drawn out melodrama but word is that it’s official – Jerry Yang has called it quits by resigning from Yahoo’s Board of Directors and any other positions that he held within the company. Not only that but he has resigned from the Boards of Yahoo Japan Corporation and Alibaba Group Holding Limited.

Using the old excuse of “he’s off to pursue other interests” it really shouldn’t come as any surprise that Yang has exited stage left now that Yahoo has hired Scott Thompson as CEO and rumors of the company looking for buyers are being floated throughout the tech blogosphere.

Here is the press release from Yahoo announcing his resignation:

Yahoo! Announces Resignation of Jerry Yang

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), the premier digital media company, today announced that Jerry Yang has resigned from its Board of Directors and all other positions with the company, effective today. In addition, Yang resigned from the Boards of Yahoo Japan Corporation and Alibaba Group Holding Limited, effective today.

In a letter to the Yahoo! Board Chairman Roy Bostock, Yang wrote:

“My time at Yahoo!, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life. However, the time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo! As I leave the company I co-founded nearly 17 years ago, I am enthusiastic about the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer and his ability, along with the entire Yahoo! leadership team, to guide Yahoo! into an exciting and successful future.”

Yang co-founded Yahoo! Inc. in 1995 with David Filo and served as a member of the Board of Directors since March 1995 and as Chief Executive Officer from June 2007 to January 2009. The Company went public in 1996.

“Jerry Yang is a visionary and a pioneer, who has contributed enormously to Yahoo! during his many years of service,” said Roy Bostock, Chairman of the Yahoo! Board. “It has been a pleasure to work with Jerry. His unique strategic insights have been invaluable. He has always remained focused on the best interests of Yahoo!’s stakeholders, including shareholders, employees and more than 700 million users. And while I and the entire Board respect his decision, we will miss his remarkable perspective, vision and wise counsel. On behalf of the Board, we thank Jerry and wish him all the very best in his future endeavors.”

Bostock concluded, “We appreciate Jerry’s comments and share his enthusiasm for the company’s prospects. With Scott Thompson leading an outstanding team of Yahoos to deliver innovative products and an engaging customer experience, Yahoo!’s future is bright.”

“I am grateful for the warm welcome and support Jerry provided me during my early days here,” said Scott Thompson, Yahoo!’s Chief Executive Officer. “Jerry leaves behind a legacy of innovation and customer focus for this iconic brand, having shaped our culture by fostering a spirit of innovation that began 17 years ago and continues to grow even stronger today. Jerry has great confidence in the future of Yahoo!, and I share his confidence in the enormous potential of Yahoo! in the days ahead.”

Good luck Jerry and maybe it’s time to take a real vacation eh.

via Engadget

Jerry Yang calls it quits at Yahoo and Alibaba – we have the press release is a post from: The Inquisitr

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has been fired and like a bad relationship between two high school kids she was told of the break-up over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board Roy Bostock.

According to Bartz:

“I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board.”

The termination comes after Chairman Roy Bostock and co-founder Jerry Yang finally decided 30 months of steady declines was enough. During her time at Yahoo the site has failed miserably to break into the mainstream video streaming arena and has watched market share continually shrink against Google and the relatively new Bing.com search engine.

Throw in awful financial results, a near complete lack of innovation and declining advertiser interest and it’s easy to see why the company would toss Bartz to the side, even without naming a new CEO or interim-CEO to helm the organization.

In the meantime rumors are escalating that several big investors and equity firms are interested in forming some type of deal with the former #1 search engine, possibly leading to a takeover in the near future.

After news that Bartz was fired shares at Yahoo were up by 6% in after-hours trading.

Do you think Yahoo made the right decision in firing Carol Bartz? I personally don’t think they could do much worse and some new, hopefully more innovated blood could help the company find a sustainable focus.

You know who won’t be calling Carol Bartz to offer their condolences? Michael Arrington.

Yahoo Finally Fires Carol Bartz After Years Of Declines is a post from: The Inquisitr

I was going to write up something earlier today when the news was first breaking about Carol Bartz being rumoured to be the next Yahoo CEO, but I figured it would be more interesting to watch the story develop. So now we know that Bartz did indeed get offered the job and accepted. This was quickly followed up on with the news that Sue Decker would be leaving – couldn’t happen soon enough in my opinion. It has also been interesting reading much of the punditry that has been flowing for the better part of the day; and will likely continue for sometime. There’s nothing like fresh meat on the block to get bloggers of all stripes salivating – no more echo … for a couple of days anyway.

While everyone was centering around the actual news of the hiring there were more than a few bloggers that questioned whether or not this was actually the right choice given the lack of knowledge about the web that people say Bartz is lacking. Duh! like that is really some great mystery – give it a rest will ya. The web is a business just like any other business. Just because it is suppose to have this magical quality to be world changing doesn’t change the fact that the idea is to make money. Does the fact that Bartz led a multi-million dollar company into being a Billion dollar company not suggest that she has enough smarts to possible do what Yang, Decker and Semel couldn’t do – not on your life.

More than a few people have suggested that she immediately hire some really smart web people to try and turn around the company. Did we forget that this is the company that was suppose to have some of the smartest web people working for them as the company tumbled into the basement. Maybe what Yahoo really needs is [web] business smart people – you know those people who actually have an understanding that to be a successful web company you have to be first a successful company.

Sound like a misnomer? Well not really if you think about it for two seconds. The fact that Bartz is a successful tech business person with more guts than a lot of us have (remember this woman fought breast cancer at the same time she was changing the corporate culture at Autodesk). If anything her first priority will be to get the rank and file in the company to once again believe in themselves and Yahoo. The best way to do this? Start swinging the axe at those entrenched corporate bureaucrats that have destroyed the company.

As Susan Mernit said in her post today about the news

The rank and file is hangin’ in there, but they are pretty damned fried. Yahoo! is a sweet deal for certain sorts of front end engineer and product developer types, but even the most stalwart (survived 3 layoffs) are starting to look around.

Last time, the old guard won. Mostly, it’s the old-timers–not the social media kids, the Microsofties, or the start-up animals–who are still there. And they protect their buddies, and their turf. So, remember, they’ve survived LOTS of re-orgs and, like moss, they’re still growing there.

and really if anyone of the talking heads speak from any real knowledge on this it is Susan as she was once the Director of Global Product at Yahoo Personals.

Yahoo has needed a really big shakeup for sometime now but from the top down. The company has been decimated in its recent battles to stave of Microsoft and in its attempts to prostitute itself to Google. I have seen more than a few people from Yahoo on places like Twitter and Friendfeed and these are smart web people and I hope Bartz does turn it around but it is going to take more than just the empty platitudes. Perhaps the exiting stage left by Decker is a real signal of the changes to come. I hope they are deep and leave  the executive bathrooms full of people shitting bricks about losing their jobs – because they should.

Myself .. well if I had the money I’d be buying Yahoo stock right now because I think there is going to be some surprises in the air and the rank and file along with Yahoo users are going to be the winners.

Yahoo – but is there anything really to cheer about? is a post from: The Inquisitr

The company announced it’ll now anonymize all collected user information after three months, down from a previous timespan of 13 months. Google, in comparison, masks user info after nine months — a recent change from its previous 18 month cycle. Microsoft is still sitting at the 18-month mark but has said it would consider shortening it to a six-month industry standard.

As for Yahoo’s shift, the new three month limit will include all search log data, page view and page count collections, and ad view/ad click records. The plan goes into place in January, though it won’t be fully effective until midway through 2010.

Both remaining Yahoo users were said to be excited about the change.

Yahoo: We’ll Only Keep Your Data For 3 Months is a post from: The Inquisitr

Navigating to the page at Yahoo’s “Yodel Anecdotal” site returns a fairly frequent “error 999,” which seems to be Yahoo’s generalized “catch-all” error. As of the time of this posting, I get the error about half of the time. The page loads normally the other half.

Putting the hilarity of that perfectly timed blooper aside, though, here is the complete entry — which, naturally, barely hints at the immense failures Yahoo has seen under Yang’s leadership and the real reasons for his departure.

As you’ve no doubt already read, I’ve decided that I will step down from my role as Chief Executive Officer after my successor has been selected.

Ever since founding Yahoo! with David Filo 13 years ago, I’ve been passionate about this company, its brand, its employees, and the millions of people around the world who consider it their online home. That’s why I accepted the Board’s request to become CEO in June 2007, taking on the challenge of transforming Yahoo! at a time when the industry was evolving quickly and we needed to rethink and restructure our business.

And despite the tough external environment that we face, I truly believe we’ve made tangible progress in bringing our strategic vision to life. Most significantly, we’ve rewired our entire network to create a Yahoo! that has opened its doors to outside publishers and developers. We’ve launched an advertising platform that we think will transform how ads are bought and sold online. And we’ve continued to grow our audience — standing first or second in more than 20 product categories and demonstrating that Yahoo! is the place users turn for major events like the Olympics and the Elections.

And now I believe the time is right for us to bring in a new leader — someone who will build on the important pillars we’ve put in place and who will take the reins on the critical decisions our company faces. As for me, I’ll be returning to my role as Chief Yahoo and board member once my successor is named. I’ll go back to focusing on our global strategy, product excellence, technology innovation, and working with the Board and our executive team to help Yahoo! realize its full potential.

It’s been an extraordinary year here at Yahoo! — for all of us. I’m really proud of the determination and resilience of Yahoos around the world who are so committed to giving you the best Internet experience possible. It is for them, and for you, that I will always bleed purple.

Jerry Yang
Chief Yahoo and CEO

Jerry Yang’s Goodbye Blog Experiencing Errors is a post from: The Inquisitr