AllThingsD » stepping down

RealNetworks' Rob Glaser Talks About Giving the Internet a Voice and, Yes, Woolly Mammoths!

Kara Swisher — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:20:16 +0000

Rob Glaser (pictured here) called BoomTown when he landed in Washington, D.C., only a few hours after he announced Wednesday he was stepping down as longtime CEO of RealNetworks (RNWK).

Digital Daily reported there was some contention between Glaser and the Real board around his departure from the Seattle-based company he founded 16 years ago, a move that has actually been in the works for some time.

While Glaser did say that he had been through the “most intense two weeks of my life,” leading up to that, he declined to comment more about the specifics of his leaving.

That was fine with me, because–although execs come and go in various and sundry ways–you simply have to give Glaser credit for his pioneering work in bringing both audio and video to the Web.

So Glaser and I talked about this and more, from what he thinks are the key highlights of his Internet career until now to what he plans to do next.

First and foremost, Glaser did “give the Internet a voice,” as I wrote in a 1998 profile of him for The Wall Street Journal about his company’s introduction of its first RealAudio product:

“RealAudio was greeted with more than a little disdain from the Internet elite because it was a tinny and unsatisfying experience for most users. But it gave the Internet a voice, and Mr. Glaser kept plugging away, improving fidelity and striking deals with more content providers to use it on their Web sites.”

Glaser said that was the simple idea behind Real, to “turn the Web from text and static links to a dynamic media space for the mainstream to enjoy.”

That effort began in earnest in the mid-1990s, he noted, by selling “tech enablement,” which simply meant hawking servers and software to companies interested in adding audio and, later, video, to their Web sites.

So successful was Real then that many big companies tried to buy it for huge sums. But ever the aggressive entrepreneur, Glaser never sold–unlike Mark Cuban at Broadcast.com–although many wished he had.

But that was simply not his style, he said; plus, business was booming and it was “like selling pickaxes during the Gold Rush.”

It is an apt metaphor since the next major moment for the company came when the Web 1.0 bubble burst in 2000.

“A lot of great–and also not so great–companies just died,” he said.

To avoid that fate, “We pivoted in a hard way to consumer services and avoided the tailspin,” Glaser added. “It was kind of like when the woolly mammoth evolved into an elephant, while the pterodactyl did not turn into anything.”

That meant creating a variety of consumer-focused media offerings that used Real technology, such as its casual games business and its Rhapsody music service.

Real also shifted its tech licensing business to a carrier services model, Glaser said.

He regularly tangled with Microsoft (MSFT), where he started his career as a very brash 21-year-old. The software giant targeted Real’s business, but also cooperated with the company at times.

And, while the games unit and Rhapsody hit some major bumps, Real did score a whopping $761 million antitrust settlement in 2005 from Microsoft.

But that win was some time ago, and Real idled too much, as did its stock, in the following years, even as Glaser plugged away at creating a variety of new businesses and strategies.

Some were off limits, he said when I asked him why he did not come up with a service like YouTube, given Real’s advantages in video early on, noting that his public company could never had created a service that so antagonized Hollywood partners.

But Glaser did just that more recently with one such innovative idea for a “legal” DVD ripper, called RealDVD.

Though very interesting, RealDVD hit the skids quickly when a federal judge last week dismissed Real’s claims against Hollywood studios seeking to shut down the service before it could be widely distributed.

While that specific defeat was not the reason for his leaving RealNetworks, the idea that it was time to bring new blood to the company finally gained traction with investors, the board, employees and, yes, Glaser too.

What the notoriously hard-charging executive–“My intensity sometimes manifested itself in less positive ways,” Glaser conceded in my 1998 interview with him–will do next is anyone’s guess.

Including his own.

Glaser noted that he would remain chairman of Real, although his day-to-day engagement there is now over.

“It is a big transition for me, because I am closing a chapter I have been in for a very long time,” he said, adding that he would probably do more philanthropic and political work.

(That’s no surprise. After all, Real was once called Progressive Networks, after his liberal politics, and Glaser once had a newspaper column called “What’s Left” while at Yale University.)

Glaser said that on the flight to Washington he thought about the advice Lotus founder Mitch Kapor, one of Real’s earliest investors, gave him when he left Microsoft and was thinking about his next step:

You should take time to figure out what you want to do next and know why you want to do it. Because if it’s successful, once you get going you won’t have time to think through those issues as clearly as you can now.

That’s pretty much been Glaser’s modus operandi over his many years at Real and in the larger Internet space: He pushed his vision of a live Internet forth, he never cut and ran, he never sold, he kept pushing forward.

And you have to admire that kind of gumption, no matter the outcome.

In any case, it is likely Glaser will keep doing so in the years to come.

In fact, pointing out that the movement of entertainment and content online has “come a long way, but still has an even longer way to go,” Glaser started rattling off ideas about where the online media sector needs to go in exactly the same fashion I described a dozen years before.

I described Glaser then as: “speaking in staccato bursts and radiating so much intensity that his face resembles a clenched fist.”

In other words, for all the the lively entrepreneur has been part of as a key pioneer in the development of the Internet, some things will never ever change.

If you want to see Glaser in action, check out these three videos of him, two from the fifth D: All Things Digital conference and one of him talking to me about RealDVD when he introduced it at Demo:

Session interview at D5

[ See post to watch video ]

Demoing RealPlayer 11 at D5

[ See post to watch video ]

Talking about RealDVD

[ See post to watch video ]

European Head Toby Coppel Departs Yahoo

Kara Swisher — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 16:01:38 +0000

Yahoo is losing yet another top executive–Toby Coppel, its EVP and managing director of Europe and Canada, is set to announce today that he is stepping down.

The departure, which has been in the works for months, is not related to the recent news that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is also relinquishing his job as soon as the company completes its search for another CEO.

Coppel’s job covers the major Western European markets (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia), as well as Canada, for Yahoo (YHOO).

His successor will be Rich Riley, who is currently SVP of Europe’s Advertiser & Publisher Group, which put him in charge of all revenues for the division. Riley, who came to Yahoo a decade ago, was previously the head of Yahoo’s Small & Medium Business Group in the U.S.

Coppel, who came to Yahoo with former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel in 2001, has run European operations for Yahoo for 18 months. And most of his time has been spent restructuring and making massive cuts.

The unit will have about one-third of the people as when Coppel arrived by the first quarter, after the current round of layoffs. And, if you include Yahoo’s sale of the comparison-shopping site Kelkoo last week, the cuts total 45 percent of its former size.

Coppel also shepherded the move of Yahoo’s European HQ to Switzerland from higher-priced London. Most of its top managers are now located there, although London remains an important Yahoo outpost, since it is the largest online ad market in Europe.

Coppel will remain with Yahoo until the end of the first quarter to ensure a smooth transition. He told BoomTown in an interview that his future plans are undetermined, except to welcome his third child into the world very soon.

“I have been transitioning our European business, restructuring it and making it stronger, as Yahoo is moving to product development on a global platform,” said Coppel. “While there is more work, there is now a strong team in place, focused on going forward and it needs to spread its wings.”

Coppel noted, although a lot of his tenure was occupied by restructuring the European unit, that “we have taken display advertising market share from MSN, AOL and other competitors in almost every one of our European markets in 2008 and we grew our Canadian business over 50 percent this year.”

And, indeed, Yahoo’s online display advertising business is stronger in Europe, although subject to the same vicious economic downturn that has hit the U.S. market.

In addition, Yahoo–and everyone else–lags well behind Google (GOOG) in the more lucrative search business in Europe, even more so than in the U.S., forcing competitors like Yahoo to streamline to compete.

That has meant layoffs, but also re-architecting Yahoo’s product development toward a global model to cut costs and also getting rid of some noncore assets like Kelkoo.

It was revealed last week that Kelkoo was sold to a U.K.-based private equity firm called Jamplant, at a reported discount from what Yahoo paid for it–$576 million–in 2004.

Now that all these kinds of major changes were made, Coppel said, it seemed a good time for him to go too.

“My value add-was not what it was going forward,” said Coppel, who noted that several layers of management in Europe had been collapsed in his tenure. “If we are streamlining and we mean it, it has to also start at the top.”

The Entire Internal Yahoo Memo on European Head Toby Coppel's Departure

Kara Swisher — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 16:00:57 +0000

Here’s the internal Yahoo memo from President Sue Decker about the stepping down of Yahoo European head Toby Coppel, which BoomTown wrote about here.

Coppel’s job covers the major Western European markets (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia), as well as Canada, for Yahoo (YHOO).

His successor will be Rich Riley, who is currently SVP of Europe’s Advertiser & Publisher Group.

Here’s the memo:

From: Sue Decker
To: XXXX
Sent: Thu Nov 27 09:02:28 2008
Subject: Yahoo! Europe & Canada update

Yahoos,

I want to update you on our Get Fit initiatives in Europe and Canada and to announce a leadership change for Yahoo! Europe and Canada.

Over the past 18 months, under Toby’s leadership, the Agenda2010 strategy has resulted in greater discipline, focus and stronger operating performance in Europe and Canada. There have been a number of important accomplishments and milestones in this time specifically:

Market share gains in our display business in all markets over the past 12 months

Growth in the Canadian display business of over 50% in 2008

Shift towards a global development approach for Front Page, Search and Mail

Elimination or divestiture of underperforming or non-core businesses such as Kelkoo which was sold last week

Increased efficiency and higher margins, including reductions in headcount, travel & entertainment and marketing costs

Establishment of new Switzerland HQ for greater business efficiency

Higher performing sales organization including a Superstar Inside Sales Team

Reduction in the number of layers and increase in spans of control

Now that much of this foundation has been built, Toby and I agree it’s a logical time to transition to a more focused management team in Europe. Today I am announcing that Toby will be stepping down as MD Yahoo! Europe & Canada.

I am very pleased to tell you that effective immediately, Rich Riley will assume the position of SVP, Yahoo! Europe & Canada. Toby will work closely with Rich to ensure a smooth transition and will remain with Yahoo! until the end of Q1 2009.

Rich has been with Yahoo! for almost ten years, during which he has held a wide range of roles and ever increasing responsibilities. He joined Yahoo! when we acquired the startup he co-founded which ultimately invented the Yahoo! Toolbar. From there he played important roles in corporate and business development, building and leading our U.S. small and medium business division and most recently leading our Advertiser & Publisher Group in Europe. He has worked closely with Toby and the European and U.S. leadership teams to shape the strategy and has delivered powerful results to our European business. I’m confident that Rich will be a strong and successful leader for Yahoo! Europe and Canada.

Under Rich’s leadership, Europe will continue on the path it has been on for the last year. This transition is a continuation of the Agenda2010 work that is underway.

Please join me in welcoming Rich to this new role and thanking Toby for his leadership, passion and tireless contributions to Yahoo! over the past 7 years.

Sue

Yahoo Reaction: "You Can Kick This Dog, but It Still Barks"

Kara Swisher — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:24:29 +0000

Yesterday, after the news got out that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang was stepping down from his job and that a search was on for a new CEO, BoomTown got inundated with reaction from everyone from readers of this blog to Internet players to Yahoo employees.

In fact, my single favorite quote came from one Yahoo staffer, who noted that while the massive change that will come with the replacement of Yang–who co-founded the company in the mid-1990s–will involve even more turmoil than the beleaguered company has already gone through, Yahoo remains resilient.

“You can kick this dog, but it still barks,” said the exec.

Oh, there will be plenty of Yahoo-kicking still, but that sentiment is dead-on.

The employee meant that Yahoo (YHOO) is still one of the most trafficked sites on the Web, has some of the Internet’s most valuable digital properties (from the Flickr photo service to its massive communications assets to its leading content sites), was an important buy in online advertising and still makes more profits than most companies in the sector.

And, indeed, that is all true, although Yahoo has been howling, more than anything, over the last year as it has ricocheted from crisis to crisis–from the exodus of key employees to the botched-on-both-sides takeover attempt by Microsoft to the plummeting stock price to the collapsed deal to do a search advertising partnership with Google.

Here are three key points people have made over and over to me:

1. IT IS ALL JERRY YANG’S FAULT, BUT HE IS A NICE GUY

This thread centers around the lack of strong leadership by Yang, who took over at the company in June of 2007, after former CEO Terry Semel stepped down suddenly in the wake of a very bad annual meeting.

The major gripes: Yang should have sold to Microsoft (MSFT) at $31 a share when he had the chance; Yang should have not dawdled about making major changes and cost cuts; Yang should have made a merger deal with Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL faster; Yang should not have made a deal with Google (GOOG) so quickly; Yang and all of Yahoo cannot make a decision to save its life.

And, most of all, Yang was not the right CEO for Yahoo, even though his heart was in the right place and bled purple, Yahoo’s color.

“Jerry was in over his head,” said a source close to Yahoo’s board. “He is a really nice man and perhaps that is where the problems are.”

Now, all these points are valid ones–he did dawdle a lot–although Yang does have a defense for each of them.

Such as: Microsoft was never truly serious about a bid; the problems at Yahoo required a major overhaul and not a quick fix; the AOL deal has a lot of integration issues and pricing is hard with Yahoo’s stock in the basement; Google always does what Google wants and what’s good for Google.

By the way, Yang and Yahoo have always had a decision-making problem, and Yang is a nice guy. Not that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the latter, but the former is pretty much its biggest problem.

2. JERRY YANG IS TAKING THE FALL FOR SUE DECKER/ROY BOSTOCK/TERRY SEMEL/GLOBAL WARMING

A new favorite theory seems to center around the idea that Yang did not deserve this kind of criticism solely. While to my mind, the buck always stops with the CEO, President Sue Decker was the one in charge of all of Yahoo’s main initiatives, Bostock is Yang’s–well–boss as chairman of the board, and former CEO Semel did leave Yang with a lot of fires to put out.

Yang gets a pass on global warming, except that he should change his light bulbs to more efficient ones, but so should we all.

This thread also has some valid points–failure does have many fathers, the cliché notwithstanding. And there is plenty of blame to go around.

But Decker does work for Yang and, while she has had leadership issues and will likely as not leave, he is the one in charge of her. As for Semel, he was good for a while, not so good for a while and should have left sooner.

But that and also management problems have always ultimately been for the board to deal with, and Yahoo’s directors have been a spectacular failure all along in protecting shareholder value and making sure the company was on the right track.

I would single out Bostock in this regard–he was deeply involved in the Microsoft deal and has been slow to move and arrogant in tone. His performance at the annual meeting this year, treating shareholders like they were irksome teenagers for complaining, was appalling.

“I have really been critical about Yang’s and Decker’s performance,” said one large Yahoo investor. “But Bostock told me to my face he was going to do something about it more times than I can count.”

So if Yang has the guts to step down–and it does take guts–Bostock should man up and follow him right out of the board room.

3. YAHOO CAN STILL SHINE

This is entirely true. Yahoo is one of the few jewels of the Internet landscape and has plenty of juice left in it.

“It’s like the New York Yankees, they have a great team but might need a little pitching,” said one Internet player who closely follows Yahoo.

I am not so sure sports analogies are the best way to describe the hole of perception that Yahoo has to dig itself out of, but that’s pretty accurate.

As that great Yankee Yogi Berra (pictured above) once said: “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Yahoo's Peter (Chernin) Principle -- And Other CEO Choices

Kara Swisher — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:12:18 +0000

Obviously, the dream CEO for Yahoo is News Corp. President and COO Peter Chernin.

And, no surprise, he is the No. 1 choice of most inside and outside Yahoo (YHOO) in the wake of the news late yesterday that current CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang is stepping down.

And why not? Chernin has the right resume: Experienced at running large and complex organizations; savvier than most in media about the Internet; able to make the kinds of dramatic decisions needed; and, perhaps best of all, signaling–via the Los Angeles Times–just this past week that he was open to leaving the powerful media and entertainment conglomerate for something new.

Well, Yahoo would certainly be new for Chernin, in terms of a corporate cleanup challenge, especially compared to figuring out how to make bank on plush toys from “The Simpsons.”

And, while the risks are many, if Chernin (pictured here) managed to turn around Yahoo, he could make a huge fortune too, given Yahoo shares have languished of late, much in the same way they did when former CEO Terry Semel came to Yahoo from Hollywood in 2001.

But it’s not altogether clear whether Chernin would actually leave his powerful perch at News Corp. (NWS) — which owns Dow Jones and owns this Web site. He has been ensconced there for a dozen years, building a huge reputation as a sharp exec (No, Peter, I am not kissing up, as I think Yahoo would wear even you down very, very quickly).

That’s even though many note he is not likely to take over as CEO from its iconic leader, Rupert Murdoch. The media mogul is widely expected to favor one of his own children to lead News Corp. next.

And the 57-year-old Chernin already makes close to $30 million in his current job, which is definitely challenging.

And, although Chernin has been involved in the News Corp.-owned MySpace and has had success backing the Hulu online video site, it is not nearly as hard as the five-year turnaround quagmire (plus no fabulous media mogul perks either) that Yahoo could turn out to be.

In addition, privately to other News Corp. execs, Chernin has regularly pooh-poohed a move to a digital company, even though he is always on the short list for a lot of big Internet jobs — such as the long-unfilled post as digital head at Microsoft (MSFT) more recently.

So, who else to take over from Yang, who will return to his job as Chief Yahoo after stepping down from the company as soon a search for a replacement CEO is successful?

Well, here is BoomTown’s own shortish list, based on asking a wide range of people inside and outside Yahoo, all of whom are important digital players in their own right.

INSIDE YAHOO

Sue Decker:

The current president of Yahoo is certainly being “considered” for the job, which is a polite term for not really being considered at all. While Decker is an intelligent and thoughtful exec, like a politician with a record, she has had her hand on the operating tiller at Yahoo for too long not to get deservedly blamed for its current situation.

In addition, she is radioactive to big investors, who have told the Yahoo board in no uncertain terms that she is a nonstarter.

Maggie Wilderotter:

The former Microsoft exec, who has also been a public company CEO, is an interesting idea floated by some, who think the Yahoo board might turn to one of its own directors, as a short-term solution to stabilize Yahoo.

Wilderotter has been much focused, said several Yahoo execs, on cost-cutting at Yahoo and certainly is not as tarnished, being a more current board member. But she is a largely unknown quantity in the Internet space and, most importantly, at Yahoo.

John Chapple:

The former CEO of Nextel is one of the two board members (former media Frank Biondi Jr. is the other) recently picked by Carl Icahn, when the activist shareholder was admitted on the board as part of the proxy fight settlement.

Chapple has, sources said, been conducting chats with Yahoo execs lately, perhaps as a way to get a lay of the land. If he got the job, it would be clear Icahn had won his Pyrrhic victory (and personal financial defeat) against Yang.

OUTSIDE YAHOO

Dan Rosensweig:

The very funny, but brash, former Yahoo COO is definitely a favorite within Yahoo’s ranks, except for those who don’t like him. But it’s clear Rosensweig does know and love Yahoo, is close to Yang and, ironically, enjoys a tight relationship with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who also wanted him for the digital head job.

Also, Rosensweig, who does have operating chops, has gotten some much needed time away from Yahoo, as a partner at the tony media investment firm, the Quadrangle Group.

Meg Whitman:

Another dreamy CEO choice, except she has already been a big company CEO at eBay (EBAY), has proved her mettle in building it to a powerhouse–despite the online auction site’s currently harder times–and has the giant fortune to prove it.

And, oh yes, she is likely to be using that pile of cash to run for governor of California, on the Republican ticket.

Jon Miller/Ross Levinsohn:

The Bobbsey Twins of the Internet, the pair are now having a very good time running their own investment company, the Velocity Group.

But, aside from some questioning whether he can make the quick decisions needed at Yahoo, Miller (pictured here on the right), the former head of AOL, does not want to leave his New York home and cannot take any job anyway until his noncompete with Time Warner (TWX) runs out in March.

And former Fox Interactive Media head Levinsohn likes Los Angeles, and probably is too fast a personality for Yahoo (his going there would be a shock to its system, but would be endlessly entertaining to me personally).

Tim Armstrong:

The top ad exec at Google (GOOG) certainly is an interesting idea, although has little of the product experience needed to run Yahoo. But he is a well-respected advertising figure–where Yahoo needs to shine–and could do well with a lot of strong execs under him.

He is also not on a CEO path at Google–paging, Larry Page!–and could be interested in proving he could run a company on his own.

Kevin Johnson:

The former Microsoft exec was supposed to be running Yahoo, if he and Ballmer pulled off their takeover attempt earlier this year. They did not, and Johnson then left Microsoft to run Juniper Networks (JNPR) in Silicon Valley, right up the road from Yahoo, in fact.

But Johnson is likely subject to a noncompete by Microsoft and a strong contract at Juniper too. Still, a very sharp exec, he definitely has the operating, political, technological and digital skills to take on Yahoo. Also, ironically, he and Yang really get along well and like each other, despite the takeover battle.

Of course, there are a lot of other ideas: Disney (DIS) online exec Steve Wadsworth; the outside-the-box choice of former Procter & Gamble (PG) marketing wizard Jim Stengel; Microsoft digital exec Yusuf Mehdi; CBS (CBS) digital head Quincy Smith (whose hyperactive dealmaking would likely lead to a mutant merger between CBS and Yahoo); and former Cisco (CSCO) and current Joost CEO Mike Volpi.

Please post suggestions below or, better yet, send tips to me at here.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

BoomTown Scoop Confirmed: The Entire Yahoo Press Release on Yang Stepping Down as CEO

Kara Swisher — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:37:13 +0000

As BoomTown reported earlier today in an exclusive scoop, Yahoo (YHOO) has confirmed that CEO Jerry Yang will be stepping down and a search for his replacement is underway.

(Yang also penned a memo to Yahoo employees about the move.)

Here is the entire Yahoo press release about the development:

Yahoo! Conducting Search for New CEO

Co-Founder Jerry Yang to Step Down Following Appointment of New CEO and Return to Former Role as Chief Yahoo! and Board Member

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov 17, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) –

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) today announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a search for a new Chief Executive Officer. Jerry Yang, co-Founder of Yahoo!, has decided to return to his former role as Chief Yahoo! upon the appointment of his successor as CEO, and he will also continue to serve on the Board. Yang, 40, assumed the CEO role at the Board’s request in June 2007, and he has led Yahoo! through a strategic repositioning and transformation of its platform.

Chairman Roy Bostock, working with the independent directors and in consultation with Jerry Yang, is leading the process of assessing potential candidates and determining finalists for consideration. The search will encompass both internal and external candidates, and the Board has retained Heidrick & Struggles, a leading international executive search firm, to assist in the process.

“Over the past year and a half, despite extraordinary challenges and distractions, Jerry Yang has led the repositioning of Yahoo! on an open platform model as well as the improved alignment of costs and revenues,” said Roy Bostock. “Jerry and the Board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level. We are deeply grateful to Jerry for his many contributions as CEO over the past 18 months, and we are pleased that he plans to stay actively involved at Yahoo! as a key executive and member of the Board.”

“From founding this company to guiding its growth into a trusted global brand that is indispensible to millions of people, I have always sought to do what is best for our franchise,” said Jerry Yang. “When the Board asked me to become CEO and lead the transformation of the Company, I did so because it was important to re-envision the business for a different era to drive more effective growth. Having set Yahoo! on a new, more open path, the time is right for me to transition the CEO role and our global talent to a new leader. I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo! realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation.”

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Jerry Yang's Entire Memo to His Employees on Stepping Down as CEO

Kara Swisher — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:58:58 +0000

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: update

yahoos -

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.

Yahoo's Jerry Yang to Step Down, as a Search for New CEO Commences

Kara Swisher — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:50:01 +0000

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang will step down from his job as CEO as soon as the board finds a replacement for him, in what sources close to the situation call a joint decision by him and the company’s directors.

Yahoo (YHOO) will announce the move within the next hour. [UPDATED: Yahoo confirms the move in its official press release.]

But, in a memo to Yahoo’s employees, obtained by BoomTown, Yang confirmed the pending departure, writing: “…we believe the time is now right to transition to a new ceo who can take the company to the next level.”

Yahoo has hired Heidrick & Struggles, the well-known executive search firm, to evaluate candidates, both internally and externally.

After a replacement is found, which the company hopes will be quickly, sources said, Yang will resume his former title as Chief Yahoo and will also remain on the Yahoo board.

While did-he-walk-or-was-he-pushed speculation will no doubt run rampant, sources said Yang already has and will play an important role in the search for his replacement.

Sources close to the board expect the choice will end up being an outsider and is not likely to be current Yahoo President Sue Decker, although she is being considered for the job.

But both she and Yang have been closely affiliated with each other as the company has struggled to right itself after a tumultuous year and its stock price has plummeted.

Yahoo shares closed today at $10.63 after trading at historic lows for a while and giving the company a valuation of only $14.7 billion.

While Yahoo’s board has some execs in mind to become CEO, obvious candidates include News Corp. (NWS) COO Peter Chernin, as well as former AOL head Jon Miller, former eBay (EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman, Google (GOOG) ad exec Tim Armstrong, former Fox Interactive exec Ross Levinsohn and former Yahoo COO Dan Rosensweig (who is currently with the Quadrangle Group).

BoomTown would also throw in former Microsoft top exec Kevin Johnson, now CEO of Juniper Networks (JNPR), and who led the software giant’s abandoned takeover bid against Yahoo earlier this year.

According to sources, both Yang and the board have been discussing the move for months, although Yang has been saying quite explicitly in public that he was going to stay in place to see through the many changes he has made in his 16-month tenure.

In a recent interview with me, in fact, Yang said about his determination to lead:

“In this uncertain environment, I think I am absolutely the right person. Times like this require a leader who really understands this company and its customers, and I think I do. The world is a different place today than even a month ago and I think I am the best person to guide Yahoo through this volatile time.”

In fact, it has always been a volatile time for Yang at Yahoo. He took over suddenly last June from former CEO Terry Semel, whose departure also came after Yahoo’s struggles became increasingly apparent.

Things only got worse for Yang, due to both his own and previous management missteps and also massive external forces, including a hostile takeover attempt by Microsoft (MSFT), which was soon followed by a proxy fight by activist shareholder Carl Icahn.

The Microsoft bid–which was $31 a share–was abandoned, and Icahn dropped the proxy fight, with Icahn joining the board with two other directors he had handpicked.

And while Microsoft has been interested in a deal related to Yahoo’s search business, its CEO, Steve Ballmer, has categorically ruled out a renewed bid.

Yahoo also saw its search business decline in the face of dominance in the market by Google (GOOG), which had ironically started its then-nascent business on Yahoo as its search partner.

Worse still, Yahoo’s strong graphical ad business has suffered badly in the midst of the current economic meltdown.

There has also been an exodus of major executives over the last year, along with recently announced layoffs of 10 percent of the company, which are set to take place Dec. 10.

In addition, Yahoo’s controversial search ad deal with Google collapsed and its talks to merge with Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL have dragged on.

With all this, sources close to the company said that both Yang and the board felt the company needed another leader to take it to the next level and complete the turnaround efforts Yang has been trying to pull off.

“It was time for someone else,” said one source close to the board.

More, obviously, to come…

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.