Yet more executive departures at Yahoo!
by Steven Mostyn - Feb 8 2012, 15:50
Image: Yahoo.
The blustery winds of change are still blowing a gale over at Yahoo, where chairman of the board Roy Bostock and heavyweight directors Arthur Kern, Gary Wilson and Vyomesh Joshi have all announced their intention to step down.
With the departures expected to come into effect at Yahoo’s next shareholders’ meeting, two of the out-going directors are to be replaced by former Rovi chief executive Alfred Amoroso, and former LiveOps, eBay and Gateway executive Maynard Webb. Jr.
According to Yahoo, two further additions to the board of directors are still to be named, as is the long-term replacement for Mr. Bostock.
This latest violent swaying of branches atop the Yahoo tree comes after longstanding founder Jerry Yang recently resigned from the board, and former CEO Carol Bartz was replaced by PayPal bigwig Scott Thompson.
In his official written submission to the board, which was released on Tuesday, Mr. Bostock suggested the company is likely to sell part or all of its stakes in China’s Alibaba service and Yahoo Japan in order to stabilize the business.
He also pointed to the possible sale of part or all of the company via outside acquisition—although he insisted there have not yet been any worthwhile proposals made by interested parties.
We can only imagine that much of Yahoo’s board is kept awake at night by Yang’s contentious decision to resist Microsoft’s aggressive advances in 2008, back when Yahoo’s share price stood at around twice its current value.
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