As I noted in ny previous post, the Street’s initial reaction was to bid up Yahoo shares. Why? Because Yang was viewed as an obstructionist, stubbornly convinced that Yahoo should continue on as a stand-alone company. He played a crucial role in the company’s decision to turn down Microsoft’s $33-a-share bid for the company in 2008 as too low, a move that ranks among the single most ill-considered corporate board decisions in history. And in recent months, as Yahoo has considered strategic options, there were reports that Yang again maintained the stance that the company should remain independent.
Yang, who had the position of “chief Yahoo,” was CEO from June 2007 to January 2009. After the Sunnyvale, California-based company rejected an acquisition offer from Microsoft for $47.5 billion, Yang was replaced by Bartz as CEO, who was fired by the company in September 2011.
Yahoo investor Third Point LLC late last year demanded two board seats and asked for Yang to step down as a director. Third Point CEO Daniel Loeb cited the “board’s inability -- or perhaps unwillingness -- to properly solicit true strategic alternative bids, let alone to negotiate them,” in a November statement. Third Point already had called for Chairman Roy Bostock to step down last year.
Yahoo shares fell less than 1 percent to $15.43 at the close in New York today. They jumped as high as $16.48 after the announcement. The stock declined 3 percent last year.
Born in Taiwan and raised in San Jose, about 10 miles south of Yahoo’s headquarters, Yang co-founded Yahoo as a Stanford University doctoral student. In 1996, Yang and Filo took the company public with CEO Timothy Koogle.
As traffic on the Web soared, so did advertising revenue, helping Yahoo’s stock market value surge to more than $100 billion. Then the market collapsed during the dot-com bust. After peaking in January 2000, Yahoo shares lost 97 percent of their value before bottoming out in September 2001. Today, the company is valued at about $19.1 billion.
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