Yang co-founded Yahoo in 1995 with David Filo and was the company's cheif executive officer from June 2007 to January 2009 - during which time he rejected Microsoft's US$44.6 billion takeover bid. His decision proved to be disastrous, from the point of view of Yahoo's shareholders, as since then its market cap has dropped to under US$20 billion.
In the hours after Yang announced his decision, Yahoo's share prices rose 3.7 per cent due in part to investors seeing Yang as a roadblock to a sale or any major division of the company's assets, reported the Wall Street Journal.
In a formal statement, Yang said that he was leaving the company to "pursue other interests outside Yahoo" and was "enthusiastic" about Thompson's appointment as CEO. Yang owns about 3.6 per cent of Yahoo's shares. He will be giving up his board seat at Yahoo and will also step down from the boards of the Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan.
According to the New York Times, analysts and company insiders say Yang's departure has "cleared the way for the sale of assets abroad".
In December, word broke that Yahoo's board was considering selling the bulk of the company's holdings in Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan's affiliate back to their majority owners, in a transaction valued at a rumoured US$17 billion. Sources speaking to New York Times' Dealbook implied that Yang was working against the deal.
“Everyone is going to assume this means a deal is more likely with the Asia counterparts,” Macquarie analyst Ben Schacter told business publication FirstPost. “The perception among shareholders was Jerry was more focused on trying to rebuild Yahoo, than on necessarily maximising near-term shareholder value.”
Brett Harriss, an analyst at Gabelli & Co, said: "This is clearly a positive. Yang has been viewed as a roadblock to a deal or even a restructuring. Hopefully it leads to new blood on the board. It provides a more objective and unemotional approach to strategic alternatives.
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