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More changes at Yahoo as co-founder signs off

Amy Scott Jan 18, 2012

Adriene Hill: Now on today’s other big tech news. Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang is cutting ties with the company. He’s been dogged by his refusal to make bigger changes at the web giant.

Marketplace’s Amy Scott reports.


Amy Scott: As Jerry Yang leaves Yahoo’s board, the company is struggling to compete with rivals like Google and Facebook. It’s on its fourth CEO in less than five years. This month Yahoo hired its latest chief executive, former Paypal president Scott Thompson.

Laura Didio: His mandate is, get them back on top to where they were in the 90s. Whether or not that’s possible, it remains to be seen.

That’s analyst Laura Didio with ITIC. She says one strategy is to sell Yahoo’s stake in China’s Alibaba and Yahoo Japan.

The sale of those much healthier assets could bring in as much as $17 billion. Didio says Yahoo’s 700 million users won’t notice anything different — at first. A big cash infusion could pave the way for changes to the web portal.

I’m Amy Scott for Marketplace.

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