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The battle for Yahoo's soul

Yahoo CEO and founder Jerry Yang "bleeds purple." Microsoft wanted to take control of his purple blood in its quest to compete with Google. Carl Icahn may want a plain old bloodletting. The corporate raider could send Yang packing or confine him to the boardroom if he continues with his effort to get a dissident slate elected to Yahoo's board of directors at an upcoming shareholder meeting.

Thursday, Yang took a stand, announcing talks with Microsoft about any kind of transaction have concluded and inking a non-exclusive search deal with Google. If Icahn's was intent on … Read more

Yahoo president's salary up, overall pay down

Yahoo President Sue Decker saw her salary, bonus, and incentive play payment increase from $1.35 million in 2006 to $1.76 million in 2007, but factoring in stock and options, her overall compensation declined, the company said in regulatory filing Tuesday.

Decker's stock and stock option compensation, as valued by Yahoo, dropped from $14.6 million in 2006 to $13 million in 2007, the company said.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Jerry Yang, who took over the top executive post from Terry Semel in June, got a $1 salary and no stock or new options. That figure is unchanged … Read more

What Yahoo's board did wrong

Fear is a human emotion. It's part of our survival mechanism--the adrenaline fight or flight response. In ancient times when a caveman felt fear, he ran and hid or readied himself for battle. Those who paid attention to their fear survived; those who didn't, well, let's just say their descendants probably aren't around to read this.

Having courage does not mean ignoring fear. It means facing fear head-on and doing the right thing anyway. At least that's my definition. If you fail to face fear and act appropriately you're not necessarily a coward, but you're not the best you can be either.

The most successful people on the planet are the ones who face the cold, hard truth of reality and act accordingly. They don't surround themselves with "yes men" and they don't view the world through rose-colored glasses.… Read more

Yahoo: Terry Semel off the board

The Terry Semel era at Yahoo is officially over.

The former Yahoo CEO, who left that position last summer but remained as non-executive chairman of the board, is now out of the company altogether.

Yahoo announced Thursday afternoon that Semel will immediately relinquish his spot on the board.

According to a company statement, Semel began talking with other board members several months ago about stepping down and "targeted the time of the January board meeting for his departure."

Whether that's true or not is something we will likely never know, but one thing's for sure: there … Read more

Investor activist who targeted Yahoo is at it again

Eric Jackson helped lead an investor revolt at Yahoo that presaged last month's resignation of former CEO Terry Semel. Don't look now corporate America, but Jackson is again poised to launch his own brand of Web-powered investor activism on a new target.

The CEO of a Naples, Fla.,-based consulting company, Jackson is not ready to disclose which company he's setting his sites on next, but he said Tuesday he plans to announce the name in coming weeks. This much is certain: The man, who challenged Semel during a recent stockholder meeting by asking him to apologize … Read more

Say what? Yang's right as Yahoo's CTO, Semel says

When word came Monday that Jerry Yang was replacing the embattled Terry Semel as CEO of Yahoo, we couldn't help flashing back all the way to last week to the company's annual shareholders meeting.

It couldn't have been a happy occasion for Semel, who was on the spot to defend Yahoo's performance, its executive pay packages (that is, his own very generous compensation), the unexpected departure of Chief Technology Officer Farzad Nazem, and on and on.

On that date, Yang was serving as the interim CTO, so one shareholder asked whether the Yahoo co-founder--long known as … Read more

Yahoo CEO Semel steps down, Yang takes over

Yahoo Chief Executive Terry Semel is stepping down, and co-founder Jerry Yang will become the new chief executive, the company announced Monday. Semel will assume the position of nonexecutive chairman and serve as an adviser to the management team and board of directors. Sue Decker, former chief financial officer and head of the advertiser group, has been named president.

"This is the time for new executive leadership, with different skills and strengths, to step in and drive the company to realize its full potential--it is the right thing to do, and the right time is now," Semel said in a statement. … Read more

Yahoo shareholders reject censorship, executive pay proposals

Yahoo shareholders on Tuesday rejected proposals that link executive pay with the company?s financial performance; oppose Internet censorship demands from China; and establish a human rights committee.

Shareholders also re-elected all the board members, snubbing a request by three proxy advisory firms to protest Yahoo Chief Executive Terry Semel's $70 million compensation package by kicking several members off the board.

The company is struggling in the face of formidable competition from Google in the search advertising business. Yahoo also has been sued over the jailing of a Chinese journalist who was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in … Read more

Yahoo's Semel 'tremendously overpaid,' says expert

A few proxy advisory firms are urging shareholders to protest Yahoo Chief Executive Terry Semel's $71 million salary package by voting against re-election of three members of the board at Tuesday's annual meeting, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

Yahoo is struggling to get its ship back on course. After a company reorganization late last year and disappointing first-quarter results, some analysts have speculated that this year may be Semel's last. Last year, the company's revenue growth slowed, its net income slid 60 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the same period in 2005, … Read more

Yahoo CEO arrives on Microsoft's turf

SEATTLE--Yahoo CEO Terry Semel kicked off his speech at a Microsoft conference without any direct mention of the company that hosted him and is rumored to be considering acquiring Yahoo.

Instead, Semel launched into a presentation of how Internet advertising is moving beyond just the PC to wireless devices and IPTV.

"It's really more and more about those three screens and how those things happen," Semel said, launching into a discussion of how more people outside the U.S. access the Internet via cell phone and how TV was also moving toward being delivered via Internet Protocol. … Read more