Yahoo Announces Resignation of Jerry Yang

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I don't think "fixing" Yahoo ought to be as difficult as people make it seem. It's still a well regarded brand, and many millions rely on it for email and as a homepage. It's finance section remains extremely popular. They purchased Sportacular, the app I use to keep track of games. Theyve just been very poorly managed. They acquired companies like delicious and Flickr, one they let wilted and the other they never really integrated into their platform- Flickr just feels like a freestanding entity. They should cut out the garbage that doesnt get many users and should focus on their prized assets. They should push ahead in developing unique content for their viewers. It may be too late to get into the mobile OS game, but TV is still pretty wide open and Yahoo can really do something here, using their existing assets and by further developing or partnering with content providers. I'm hopeful.

Yahoo is usually talked about as if it's a joke or a failure. According to a cursory check (ahoy - I'm no finance king so I could be reading this wrong) it's worth $19 <i>billion</i>. If I could fail half as well, I'd be pretty happy.<p>Honest question: Am I missing something really obvious? Is Yahoo really falling apart (slowly I guess as the same has been said for the past decade)? Or is it a case of not fulfilling potential?

I'd be interested to learn about <i>his</i> views and opinions on Yahoo during these past 15+ years. From the various things I've read about him, he seems like he was just a nerd at heart who wasn't interested in the entire business side of Yahoo, and when Yahoo started exploding, he had that "Allen/Woz" mentality of missing the "good old days". I heard about the stories (fair or not) of him spending more time on the golf course than the board room. I also have to think back a few years to when he said "No" to Microsoft's offer for acquisition, a very foolish move looking back.<p>I guess what I'm really saying is I'd like to read his biography when it comes out.

17 years is a really long time at any company. Jerry has done an amazing job building Yahoo! from a startup to dominate player in the tech industry and has created 13,600 jobs.<p>Yahoo! already up 3.24% in after hours trading... so the market liked the decision.<p>Its a choice between shareholder value and wanting to hold onto the core culture of the company. An interesting discussion on the Microsoft offer: <a href="http://www.quora.com/Yahoo/Why-did-Jerry-Yang-pass-on-the-Microsoft-offer" rel="nofollow">http://www.quora.com/Yahoo/Why-did-Jerry-Yang-pass-on-the-Mi...</a>

Yahoo is lost as a brand.<p>My children don't know what Yahoo is.<p>It is one of the million insipid content destinations on the web.

Apparently this thread is full of people who are better at being CEO of a multi-billion dollar company than anyone at Yahoo in the last several years.

There are also sources reporting that four more board members may be following him: Roy Bostock, Arthur Kern, Vyomesh Joshi and Gary Wilson. <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20120117/sources-four-more-board-members-will-be-following-yang-out-the-door/?mod=tweet" rel="nofollow">http://allthingsd.com/20120117/sources-four-more-board-membe...</a><p>Still rumor at this point, but the Wall Street Journal has a pretty good track record overall.

Yahoo!'s new spinoff, HortonWorks, can become a billion dollar Hadoop company down the line if they carefully navigate around Cloudera and MapR. Not sure how/if that affects Yahoo shareholders.

I don't believe Yang did write that since he never (ever) used any capital letters in any of his communication.

Q. When does Microsoft announce the acquisition?

Does it mean Yahoo is on the verge of being brought?

Wonder if Yahoo! will get real shitty. Then, 10 years from now, Yang will come back, save the company and make it the most tech profitable company ever. Better buy some stock.<p>:-)