This week, Jerry Yang, the founder CEO of Yahoo! announced that he is going to leave the post of CEO. He is a Taiwanese American entrepreneur and the Co-founder, current CEO and Chief of Yahoo. Yahoo.com is the world’s number 1 website of the world, according to alexa ranking. As of 2008, his net worth is estimated to be US$2.3 billion and is ranked 524th among the richest people in the world according to Forbes. He established Yahoo as a web portal with his friend, David Filo, when he was an engineering graduate in Stanford University. Initially Yahoo was directory of websites on internet. It was given the name “Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web”.
Soon, he and Filo realized the potential of Yahoo and invested all their energies and efforts in its development. Due to their hard work, Yahoo which started off as a web portal with a web directory became biggest provider of extensive range of products and services for online activities, it is now one of the leading internet brands and has the most trafficked network on the internet. In a memorandum sent to the company’s staff Monday evening, he said he would hold the post until the board names his successor. His tenure has been marked by a precipitously declining prices of Yahoo shares and the high profile collapse of a $44.7 billion acquisition offer from Microsoft.

The following memo is from Jerry Yang to Yahoo employees.

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 it’s full potential.

thank you,

jerry

Source of this memo :: Reuters.