Business | Technology
Channel Sponsor
Yahoo shares up as CEO resigns
Yahoo! Inc, owner of the second-largest US Internet-search engine, rose as much as 18 per cent in German trading after Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang agreed to step down, opening the door for a fresh Microsoft Corp bid.
- Bloomberg
- Published: 23:40 November 18, 2008
San Francisco: Yahoo! Inc, owner of the second-largest US Internet-search engine, rose as much as 18 per cent in German trading after Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang agreed to step down, opening the door for a fresh Microsoft Corp bid.
Yahoo shares added as much as $1.91 to the equivalent of $12.54 in Frankfurt from the close of $10.63 in US trading Monday.
The Sunnyvale, California-based company's market value has fallen by more than $20 billion (Dh73.45 billion) since Yang took over as CEO last year as discussions with Microsoft failed, an ad partnership with Google Inc collapsed and talks with Time Warner Inc's AOL stalled.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc said the resignation may fuel speculation of renewed talks with Microsoft or another suitor.
"The strategic necessity here is for this company to merge with Microsoft," Larry Haverty, a fund manager at Gamco Investors Inc in Rye, New York, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. Gamco manages about $24 billion, including Yahoo shares.
Candidates
Microsoft and Yahoo trail Google, which controls more than 60 per cent of the Internet-search market in the US Microsoft has said that while it's open to a search-ad deal with Yahoo, it isn't interested in buying the company outright. Microsoft bid as much as $33 a share for Yahoo this year, and Yahoo now trades at less than a third of that value. Microsoft may end up paying between $15 and $18 for Yahoo, Haverty said.
Yahoo President Susan Decker is a candidate for Yang's job, said Brad Williams, a spokesman for Yahoo. Yang, 40, will stay on the board and remain CEO until Yahoo finds a replacement, Yahoo said yesterday. He took the top job at the 13-year-old Internet company in June 2007.
"He played one too many poker hands up there and got caught," said Pat Becker of Becker Capital Management in Portland, Oregon. His firm owns Micro-soft shares but not Yahoo. The Redmond, Washington-based company will hold its annual meeting for shareholders on Thursday.
There isn't a timeframe on finding a replacement for Yang, Yahoo's Williams said. Yang had been in discussions with the board about seeking a replacement for "some time." He will return to his position of Chief Yahoo when a successor is found.
Yahoo hired Heidrick & Struggles International Inc to help find a new CEO.
Share this article
More from Technology
More from Business
Popular in Business
-
Budget travel
Airlines in the region
Take a pictorial look at some of the budget airlines in GCC
Business Editor's choice
-
Credit swaps... a fair trade
Would you swap an unbuilt unit at the Lagoons for an apartment at JBR?
-
New face of safety
Volvo reveals a sleeker S60, ready to hit the roads early next year
-
When the Web lives worldwide
Cutting-edge firms are building massive data facilities all over the globe
