Everything You Need To Know About Jerry Yang (YHOO)
Jerry emigrated from Taiwan in 1978, when he was 10, knowing one word of English - shoe. He became an instant millionaire in 1996. "He was very humble," and inspired loyalty among employees. But "he also had this country club aspect to him". He was happy to relegate the chief executive role to others. Now he is "done. Nobody will bring him at this level again."
Yahoo is not a corporate bully in any ways that I'm aware of. The notion that they'd risk anti-trust action on collusion charges with telephone calls to Google about a potential deal is absurd. My guess is that those calls were witnessed by their attorneys, recorded in court reporter style and documented formally... probably already with Justice. Note that Justice has confirmed that they were aware of the tests. I wasn't surprised when that was reported. I expected it before it was.
Too, it's not altogether impossible to suppose that Yahoo's stock would not have tanked as low as it did in the midst of the unfortunate China/dissident/Congressional hearings episode. I'm not making a case for e-x-a-c-t timing in that remark.
When Congress starts talking to CEOs about anything, it's certainly not good for their stock price, particularly with so hot a topic as human rights. None of that was Yang's fault or Yahoo's either. The boundaries that exist between the political structures of China and the West exist just as much in the containerized freight shipments off-loaded and stacked at U.S. docks as it does with any control Yang could possibly have over matters governed by the Chinese authorities.
If any of you think Yang was at fault, then look at the labels on what you buy and stop buying anything from China. That'd learn 'em, wouldn't it! O'course, you'd go nekkid and hungry for a while, while we were temporarily detoured into RE-ESTABLISHING AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL capability!
Maybe Yahoo deserved to trade so low last year, and maybe not. I'm not an analyst, but still I think the dissident situation helped push it to the lowest prices it hit.
And that Decker... she's no slack. She's a sharp cookie.
I don't think selling to Microsoft is the solution for Yahoo, founders, and Yahoo investors. I personally own shares in Yahoo and Microsoft. I support open form of competition and don't believe in monolopy.
Therefore, I am here to hold my support to Mr. Yang's and board decision to retent the company as independent.