Yahoo! (YHOO) starts to defocus efforts on 'premium' services originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 28 Sep 2007 17:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: The faces of Yahoo

Susan Decker passed over for Yahoo! CEO role: Always the bridesmaid originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 18 Jun 2007 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Finally, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) has ditched its CEO Terry Semel, according to MarketWatch. And the new CEO is Jerry Yang, a co-founder of the company. Former CFO, Susan Decker was named president, positioning her for a chance to take over the top slot.

It is beyond me why Semel held onto his job for so long. He helped stabilize Yahoo after the dot-com crash but has stumbled from one incompetent quarter to the next for years. And he has taken home some truly outrageous pay -- a total of $452 million in salary, bonus and stock-option exercises since April 2001 [subscription] -- during which time Yahoo stock has risen four-fold.

However, in the last year the disconnect between Semel's pay and Yahoo's performance became too much to take. According to the New York Times, his total 2006 pay was $107.5 million during which time Yahoo's stock fell 35%. And directors concluded Yahoo was just not catching up fast enough with Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) so Semel had to go.

Susan Decker had been positioned to take over the company as CEO. But Yahoo's board probably decided that she was not yet ready. However, she is considered to have the inside track during the CEO search to replace Semel. So Yang's appointment could be just a temporary move that will help stabilize the company until she is ready.

Or, with the stock up 8% to $29.62 in after-hours trading, he might just sell it. It would make a nice morsel for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT).

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned in this post.

[See our live blog of the web cast in which Terry Semel discusses his resignation here.]

Yahoo dumps Semel. What took so long? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Very early in the morning, stock futures are mixed, albeit trending downward, pointing to a flat to positive start for the S&P 500 and a negative start for the Nasdaq.

Overseas, Asian market were positive, while European markets are flat to negative. The dollar strengthened somewhat against the pound and the euro, but not as much against the yen.

With little economic data today other than weakly crude inventories to be released at 10:30, and ahead of the all important and market impacting non-farm payroll to be reported Friday, the market will pay more attention to management shakeup and some leading, but struggling, companies such as Yahoo! and DaimlerChrysler.

First, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO). The buzz started yesterday in the afternoon that major shakeup and reorganization in the company are to come as Sarah Gilbert pointed out last night. YHOO stock has been struggling losing 30% YTD while competitor Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares are up over 17% YTD.

As part of the reorganization at Yahoo!, Chief Operating Officer Daniel Rosensweig and Media Group chief Lloyd Braun will leave the company, while Yahoo Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker will assume an even more prominent management role. Farzad Nazem, Yahoo's chief technology officer, will remain in that position. By all accounts, this positions Decker to succeed Semel as the CEO. YHOO shares are up half a percent in pre-market.

Joe Eberhardt, Chrysler Group's executive vice president of global sales, marketing and service, and No. 2 in DaimlerChrysler AG's (NYSE:DCX) Chrysler Group will leave the company to run his own Mercedes-Benz dealership. Apparently, a Mercedes dealership is still profitable despite falling sales in Chrysler.

Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) is sinking more than 8% in pre-market after reporting disappointed quarterly financial results yesterday. Revenue fell 15% to $244.9 million, compared to analysts forecast of $251.5 million. Novell also said it would likely incur $20 million to $25 million in restructuring charges.

Wall Street investment banks can breathe a little easier today as a federal appeals court rejected a securities class-action lawsuit accusing them of manipulating the prices of initial public offerings during the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s, according to The New York Times. The potential settlements could have amounted to billions with nearly all banks affected. The plaintiffs, however, could seek a review by the entire panel of the Second Circuit.

US Airways Group (NYSE:LCC) CEO Doug Parker said his company will drop its proposed takeover of Delta Air Lines (Other OTC:DALRQ) if Delta management remains unconvinced of the benefits, as he is not prepared to fight with management.

Before the bell 12-6-06: YHOO management restructuring in focus this morning originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 06 Dec 2006 07:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Yahoo! gets reorg, Rosensweig out, Susan Decker gets blessed originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 05 Dec 2006 21:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.