Co-Founder Jerry Yang To Leave Yahoo!

Copyright © 2012 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Let's stay with Internet news for a moment. Yahoo is undergoing another big management shakeup. Yesterday, Jerry Yang, the co-founder and former CEO, said he is stepping down from the company's board of directors.

NPR's Steve Henn has more from Silicon Valley.

STEVE HENN, BYLINE: For months late last year, Yahoo's board of directors was mulling a deal that could have sold the Internet company or broken it apart.

CHARLENE LI: But the question always in the back of people's mind is would Jerry Yang, the founder of the company, be interested I going along with that.

HENN: Charlene Li follows the Yahoo at the Altimeter Group. Yang blocked Microsoft's bid to buy Yahoo back in 2008. That decision ultimately cost Yahoo's share holders billions. And in recent years, Yahoo has struggled to hold its grounds in the increasingly competitive Internet advertising market.

DAVID HALLERMAN: 2011, it didn't grow. It was down about 3 percent in the United States, which is the bulk of their market.

HENN: David Hallerman tracks Yahoo's ad sales at eMarketer. He says for many investors, Yahoo has lost its luster.

HALLERMAN: Because they're not going to be as strong as they were before.

HENN: But the board's decision earlier this month to hire former eBay executive Scott Thompson to run Yahoo signaled the company would remain intact. Still, Yahoo's under intense pressure from its largest shareholders to boost results.

Charlene Li says a shakeup on the board was overdue.

LI: Yahoo's board has been seen as being very much entrenched in the old way of thinking of what Yahoo was.

HENN: Yahoo still has 700 million users, but Li believes that what it needs is a clear vision for the future. With Yang now gone, more board resignations are expected.

Steve Henn, NPR News, Silicon Valley.

Copyright © 2012 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.