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Yahoo! chief executive Terry Semel has stepped down after losing the lead in internet advertising sales to Google.
The company named co-founder Jerry Yang CEO and said Semel would be chairman. Susan Decker, an executive vice-president, will become president, Yahoo! said yesterday.
Semel, 64, who joined Yahoo! as CEO in 2001, failed to keep up with the growth of Google, which now has more than twice the sales of Yahoo! Initially hailed for overhauling the sales force and buying companies such as Overture Services to move into internet search ads, Semel faced calls for his dismissal amid a slide in the stock last year.
"Terry Semel lost the confidence of the board, he lost the confidence of the shareholders and to some extent he lost the confidence of the employees," said Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research.
Under Semel's watch, California-based Yahoo!'s shares rose from a low of US$4.06 in 2001 after the internet bubble burst, to over US$29 yesterday.
Semel was paid US$39.8 million ($52.8 million) last year. Before Yahoo!, Semel spent more than two decades at Warner Bros, where he was known for backing big-budget movies such as Batman. Among his Hollywood friends are Tom Cruise, who appeared on stage with him last year at a convention in Las Vegas. Yahoo! rose US$1.12 to US$29.24.
-BLOOMBERG
