Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang Exits

Jerry Yang

Embattled YAHOO! Chief Executive JERRY YANG has agreed to give up his position, leaving the struggling Internet giant without a clear leader and increasing the possibility an acquirer might seek to buy it, reports CNN MONEY. YAHOO!, which earlier this year was the target of a $47.5 billion unsolicited takeover attempt by MICROSOFT, said MONDAY it had hired a search firm to look for a successor to YANG, who co-founded the 13-year-old company while he was a graduate student at STANFORD UNIVERSITY.

YAHOO! said it would consider internal and external candidates for the job. YAHOO! Pres. SUE DECKER is one of the candidates under consideration, a person familiar with the situation said. It wasn't clear why the company hadn't immediately appointed her as chief executive or why YANG's resignation was announced without a successor already chosen.

Reaction to the news, first reported by THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, was quick. YAHOO! shares, which had fallen 1.8% to $10.63 during the regular session, jumped to $11.10 in after-hours trading. Three months ago, YAHOO! shares were trading at twice that level.

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