Yahoo: Why did co-founder Jerry Yang resign?

JERRY YANG, who co-founded Yahoo 18 years ago in his university days, yesterday resigned from the company's board of directors and gave up his honorary title of Yahoo Chief.
 
Yang, now worth about $1.1billion, told the chairman of the board, Roy Bostock, that the time had come for him to "pursue other interests outside of Yahoo". But commentators suggest there were other factors behind his decision.
 
Yahoo has reportedly been looking at selling all or part of the company and Yang was seen by some shareholders as a fierce opponent of a break-up, says Eric Savitz at Forbes.
 
While he was apparently popular among employees, Yang alienated shareholders when he turned down the chance to sell Yahoo to Microsoft Corp in May 2008 for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, during his two-year stint as CEO. Yahoo shares have not topped $20 for more than three years since – although, tellingly, they rose more than 3.5 percent to $15.99 shortly after his resignation was announced yesterday.
 
Savitz says Yang was viewed as "an obstructionist, stubbornly convinced that Yahoo should continue on as a stand-alone company". Last year, one investor Dan Loeb, from hedge fund Third Point, even threatened a proxy fight over the company's inability to find a suitable buyer and demanded Yang step down as a director.
 
Then two weeks ago Yahoo hired former PayPal executive Scott Thompson as its CEO, which appears to have been the last straw for Yang.
 
The co-founder's resignation has the "fingerprints of frustration on it", says Colin Gillis, a financial analyst at BGC. "It's one of those situations where it looks like [Yang] is losing the battle to control the company's direction and now he is saying, 'That's it, I'm out.'''
 
But Kara Swisher at All Things Digital believes Yang is not the only director who will quit. In a post titled 'Yahapocalypse Now?' Swisher predicts a "large exodus of board members" from the Silicon Valley company, including board chairman Bostock. ·