Changing of the guard at Yahoo
Jerry Yang, the chief executive of Yahoo, will step down from his role as soon as the board finds a replacement, the company said.
“The company is in desperate need of change and this is clearly one way to do it,” said Ross Sandler, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.
Sandler said he expects the shares to move higher as investors speculate that Microsoft might make another play for the company, with Yang gone.
“Jerry was the roadblock for the last deal getting done,” he said.
Not everyone believes Yang’s departure bodes well for the beleaguered Internet company.
“I’ve been recommending them as a short. They should have taken the Microsoft deal, and Microsoft probably feels lucky that they didn’t… I don’t see anything there worth buying,” said Jeff Embersits, CIO of Shareholder Value Management. “For me it’s just a business in trouble.
What impact will Yang’s departure have on Yahoo?
