Jerry Yang’s Entire Memo to His Employees on Stepping Down as CEO
by Kara Swisher
Posted on November 17, 2008 at 4:58 PM PT
BoomTown has obtained the entire memo from Jerry Yang to his employees at Yahoo about his plans to step down as Yahoo CEO.
Yang, a truly nice man–which has been a plus and a minus for him–and an Internet visionary for sure, penned a classy note to the Yahoo (YHOO) troops. And BoomTown, feeling sentimental, will not even make fun of the lack of capitalization this time.
Here is the link to Yahoo’s official press release on Yang’s stepping down as CEO. And here is this blog’s scoop about the move.
And here’s the Yang memo to employees:
To: all yahoos
Fr: Jerry
Subject: updateyahoos -
i wanted to address all of you on the news we’ve just announced. the board of directors and I have agreed to initiate a succession process for the ceo role of yahoo!. roy bostock, our chairman of the board, is leading the effort to identify and assess potential candidates for consideration by the full board. the board will be evaluating and considering both internal and external candidates and has retained heidrick and struggles to help in this effort.
i will be participating in the search for my successor, and i will continue as ceo until the board selects a new ceo. once a successor is named, i will return to my previous role as chief yahoo and continue to serve as a director on the board.
last june, i accepted the board’s request that i assume the ceo role to restructure and reposition the company as a whole in order to more effectively meet the fast-changing needs of both users and partners. since taking on the ceo role, i have had an ongoing dialogue with the board about succession timing. thanks in large measure to your tireless efforts, we have created a more open, competitive yahoo! and we believe the time is now right to transition to a new ceo who can take the company to the next level.
despite the external environment we face, the fact remains that yahoo! is now a significantly different company that is stronger in many ways than it was just 18 months ago. this only makes it all the more essential that we manage this opportunity to leverage the progress up to this point as effectively as possible. i strongly believe that having transformed our platform and better aligned costs and revenues, we have a unique window for the right ceo to take ownership over the next wave of mission-critical decisions facing the company.
all of you know that I have always, and will always bleed purple. i will always do what I think is right for this great company. while this step will be an adjustment for all of us, i know it’s the right one. i look forward to updating you on this process as soon as the board has developments to share, and will continue to do everything i can to make yahoo! fulfill its full potential.
thank you,
jerry
Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.
Comments
Why in the world would Yang participate in searching for his succesor? Their is no worse CEO in the world then Yang so he should squirm back to chief Yahoo, go golf, finish is PhD., or do just about ANYTHING else but continue any role whatsoever at YHOO. He has been nothing short of a disaster, and can do nothing but spread his loser mentality around. He’s a loser and should just fade away.
Posted by Mike Kane at November 17th, 2008 at 7:41 pmhey jerry,
how about apologizing for screwing your shareholders? if you plan on bleeding purple, can you explain why didn’t have the honor to do the right thing and resign months ago before you blew msft and/or google and/or alibaba? i know that you think that you accomplished “most, if not all, you set out to do” so don’t you think one of those things should be apologizing for spending $73m on advisors that advised you to walk away from $50b? by all accounts you have been a miserbale failure, you have mislead your shareholders, you have been irresponsible with respect to acting in the best interest of the shareholders and you let your ego get in the way of the shareholders making a lot of money. can you at least apologize to us? you failed us miserably, so while kara may feel sentimental towards you today, i say that you should have been gone months and months ago since you are a disaster.
Posted by Mike Kane at November 17th, 2008 at 8:10 pmM:
What do you really think?
Posted by Kara Swisher at November 18th, 2008 at 12:40 amNot a serious comment, only the rage of a screwed shareholder.
Posted by fabio manoni at November 18th, 2008 at 2:37 amDespite it’s true Yang has got the role only to do one thing and he didn’t, that is to sell off the company, I don’t think the interests of the shareholders match the interests of the company at the time of Microsoft offer. If the company had no potential it would be out of business without an offer. If MSFT could stole Yahoo businesses sure it did. So it’s true for me that if a company like Yahoo can’t find any reason to exist (as indipendent entity) in its own business (that has contributed to invent when Microsoft and others had no idea) then it means not a single other independent new company or new idea can birth and survive in the Internet market, that is an absurd for me. Then I believe what Yang did consciously or inconsciously is to preserve its DNA and evolve without being prey for predators.
does this mean that the everybody should wear purple campaign is going to be put on hold now?
Posted by Thomas Hawk at November 18th, 2008 at 9:01 amwell they have until Midnight Arizona time to accept my offer. My open letter on my website at http://www.docmurdock.com/yahoo.htm calls for the board and management team to accept their failings in fiduciary to investors and step down effective immediately.
Am not holding my breath, but shareholders should then sue Yahoo for breach if they don’t.
Might be fun to watch. Yang helping search for successor…like PUTIN not wanting to be President again.
Show the guy the door and take his freaking badge away, and let security know that when he comes back, hold him and have him arrested for trespassing.
Same with the rest of the board members and management team.
Mike
Posted by Michael Murdock at December 31st, 2008 at 1:46 pmIt was delightful to see Bill and Steve sharing a stage and reminiscing about their stuff, but I was surprised that Bill (gadgets) and Steve (widgets) didn’t settle the debate about the original inventor of the widget.
One can never have too many widgets. Somebody codes something you never even dreamed of wanting – suddenly everybody
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