Recommended reading - Yahoo: Carol Bartz Live From Stanford Directors’ College, Barron's Tech Trader Daily Blog

Carol Bartz, the new CEO of Yahoo who has already managed to successfully defy predictions about her appointment to run Yahoo, offers a number of very useful ideas about the role of corporate board directors. Yesterday Eric Savitz posted a terrific piece on Barron’s Tech Trader Daily blog that examined Bartz’s Sunday keynote speech at the Stanford Director’s College. Anyone interested in corporate governance or the roles of board members must read the blog piece.

Recommended Reading - Yahoo's new CFO helped sell GE Plastics, The Deal.com

Carol Bartz, Yahoo’s new CEO, continues to mold the firm and make significant changes. Bartz’s latest appointment of Tim Morse as the firm’s new CFO, again illustrates the level of change Bartz is attempting to put in place at Yahoo. The Deal.com’s Corporate Dealmaker section had a piece on this latest appointment and what it might mean for Yahoo. Check it out.

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Yahoo CEO Speculation Continues Unabated

Yahoo’s CEO guessing game to replace Jerry Yang continues unabated.  First it was Jon Miller of AOL, then Arun Sarin, former CEO of VodaPhone, and on and on.  According to Nicholas Carlson of Silicon Alley Insider the latest name to resurface is John Chapple, the former Nextel CEO and ally of Carl Icahn.   According to Carlson,

Everyone we’ve talked to recently is betting on former Nextel CEO John Chapple, who joined the board with Carl Icahn in August. 

Unless Yahoo/board has a potential deal in place, I am skeptical of Chapple’s chances for the position.  I anticipate a surprise appointment.  Stay tuned.  

For more:  

Bloomberg  

India.com  

All Things Digital Boomtown   

Silicon Alley Insider  

Barron's Tech Trader  

Kara Swisher Examines Carl Icahn's Recent Acquisition of More Yahoo Shares

Kara Swisher in her Boom Town column for the The Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital today examined the surprising news (or is it?) that activist investor Carl Icahn has actually increased his shares of Yahoo stock.  Swisher concludes Icahn, who according to recent regulatory filing just bought 6.7 million additional shares of Yahoo stock, must think a new CEO is getting ready to be appointed at the struggling firm.  According to Swisher,

… my guess is that the choice of a new CEO is likely to be sooner than later and much more Icahn-friendly. 

That could point more clearly to perhaps one of two execs whom Icahn brought with him to the Yahoo (YHOO) board–either former media exec Frank Biondi Jr. or, more likely, former Nextel exec John Chapple.

Another theory is that Yahoo will pick a more low-key, tech-oriented outsider, an operational star who can get things turned around at Yahoo without a lot of fuss, similar to choices made for eBay (EBAY) in its pick of John Donahoe and Mark Hurd at Hewlett-Packard (HP) recently.

  Swisher contends Icahn is looking for a way to make back some of his losses from his early purchases of Yahoo that have declined so deeply.  I tend to believe Yahoo will go with the low-key CEO approach appointment as discussed above in her last option.  This approach seems to make the most sense for a potential turnaround over time at Yahoo.  The other possible appointments seem too risky and fraught with problems.   

Keep a close eye on possible news coming from Yahoo over the next few weeks.

Yang Exits, What's Next for Yahoo?

The tumultuous year and a half tenure for Jerry Yang at Yahoo (Yhoo) NASDAQ is about to come to an end.  Yang,  a co-founder of the once formidable Internet and search company, returned to Yahoo in July 2007.  He returned in what many considered as the “white knight” to replace former CEO, Terry Semel.  Semel, who was not a technologist, had tried to expand Yahoo into a media company as a way to compete with its prime competitor Google.  Semel’s efforts had been failing and Yahoo continued to lag and fall further behind Google.  Expectations on Yang’s return and leadership also failed to turn out as hoped.  During Yang’s short-lived tenure the firm has only seen its fortunes continue to decline.  According to a piece in CNN,

Things only got worse for Yang, due to both his own and previous management missteps and also external forces, including a hostile takeover attempt by Microsoft (MSFT), which was followed by a proxy fight by activist shareholder Carl Icahn.     

Yahoo also saw its search business decline and its strong graphical ad business suffer in the midst of the current economic meltdown.

There has also been an exodus of major executives over the last year, along with recently announced layoffs of 10 percent of the company, which are set to take place December 10.

In addition, Yahoo’s controversial search ad with Google (GOOG) recently collapsed, and its talks to merge with Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL have dragged on.  

Yahoo has initiated a CEO search with the help of executive search firm Heidrick and Struggles.  Many names are being bandied about as a possible successor to Yang.  A number of the names being suggested include a former Microsoft executive and current Microsoft executive who according to some analysts might help to increase the likelihood of a deal with Microsoft.  Two names being raised are Kevin Johnson and Brian McAndrews.  Johnson originally headed Microsoft’s first attempt to buy Yahoo.  He recently left Microsoft to become the CEO of Juniper Networks (see earlier blog).  It is difficult to imagine he would leave that position at this point to head up Yahoo.  McAndrews is with Microsoft and is currently SVP of the Advertising and Publishing Solutions Group.   Other individuals include Susan Decker, the current president of Yahoo and a close associate of Yang’s along with Peter Chernin of the News Corp., Jan Miller former AOL head, Meg Whitman former head of eBay and others. Whoever is chosen to replace Yang will be on the hot seat.    

My own guess is someone from the outside will be chosen and possibly a name not yet being floated.  It is nearly impossible to conceive of any successor who will be able to run Yahoo as an independent firm going forward.  Some kind of deal will need to be made.  For the moment, Microsoft will remain on the sidelines until a replacement for Yang is found.  Once this happens we will see whether Microsoft jumps back into the fray.  Stay tuned, this sure to be an interesting but bumpy ride.   

For more:  

MarketWatch

Wall Street Journal 

ZD Net  

Minyanville  

SeekingAlpha  

Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal 

Cnet (Yang Memo to staff)  

Silicon Alley Insider  

Deal.com  

CEO Watch - Jerry Yang, Yahoo

The rumors are beginning to fly now that Microsoft has walked away from Yahoo. Today Zachary Kouwe wrote a piece in the NY Post entitled, Investors May Yank Yang, Filo over Dough. According to the story,

Several hedge funds with large positions in Yahoo! have written letters to the board and to Yahoo! President Sue Decker explaining their displeasure at how Microsoft's hostile offer was mishandled, sources close to the funds said.

Shareholders are particularly irked that Yang and co-founder David Filo negotiated with Microsoft last weekend without any representative from the board or their advisers.

The dance is probably not over with Microsoft. For now, Yang will need to find ways to convince shareholders Yahoo can turn itself around, a tall order. According to an AP story on MSNBC Yang is still open to working out a deal with Microsoft.

If Microsoft returned with a “real offer and a real proposal,” Yang said, “we would be happy to listen.”

Yang figures to get an earful from irate shareholders at the annual meeting. Yahoo finally set the meeting for July 3 after indefinitely postponing it in early spring as part of its effort to foil a possible hostile takeover attempt by Microsoft.

Now it may be Yahoo’s shareholders who try to oust Yang and the rest of Yahoo’s board instead of Ballmer, who had threatened an attempt to dump the 10 directors if they didn’t accept Microsoft’s offer.

Reuters Deal Zone quotes The New York Times and Wall Street Journal,

“I am extremely angry at Jerry Yang and at the so-called independent board,” Crawford told the Times. ”I’m hoping that there is such an outpouring of outrage that the board is embarrassed into revisiting this thing … but I’m not optimistic about that.”

I don't think Yang is on the way out but we will just have to wait and see how this all plays out.

For more:

International Herald Tribune
Newsfactor

CEO Watch - Steve Ballmer, Microsoft, Update 1

Could last week's story on Ballmer's fate actually have legs?  Microsoft's withdrawal from the Yahoo takeover might put a bit more pressure on Ballmer.  Yesterday Valleywag put out a piece questioning his long-term status.  I remain skeptical but if interested check the story.

For more:

Bloomberg

Techconfidential

TechObserver Portfolio.com

Newsweek

The Globe and Mail

Another Online Marketing Firm Brings in New Leadership

Less than two weeks after revealing it is being probed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), ValueClick VCLK (NASDAQ) announced Wednesday that its board of directors elected Tom A. Vadnais as the Company’s new chief executive officer. Vadnais has been a member of the Company’s board of directors since October 2001 and has also held a number of senior management roles within ValueClick during this time, including his most recent role as president of U.S. operations. Vadnais succeeds James R. Zarley, who has served as ValueClick’s chief executive officer since 1999. Zarley has been named ValueClick’s executive chairman of the board of directors, focusing primarily on the Company’s strategic direction and the gradual management transition of the Company’s operations.

In a conference call, Zarley said the FTC investigation had nothing to do with the executive changes. He also said the selection of Vadnais as CEO is in no way related to the intense merger and acquisition activity in the online marketing industry.

"This is not something that's been a short-term process for Tom and I," said Zarley. "We discussed this and worked on it for at least a good year now, ever since Tom had taken over as president of U.S. operations... I plan on staying as a full-time employee so my status as a worker-bee is going to continue for whatever period of time Tom will have me around here."

Vadnais joined ValueClick in October 2001 through the Company’s acquisition of Mediaplex, where he was president, chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors. Mr. Vadnais became a member of the ValueClick board of directors in October 2001 and also has held general manager roles for the Company’s Mediaplex technology and Commission Junction affiliate marketing businesses. In June 2006, Vadnais was promoted to president of ValueClick’s U.S. operations. Mr. Vadnais’ experience prior to ValueClick includes positions as: president, chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors of Data Processing Resources Corporation; president and chief executive officer of Tascor, Inc.; a member of Norrell's board of directors; and a member of the board of directors of Traffic.com. Vadnais also had experience in other management positions. He was a vice president of operations, during his 23-years with IBM.

Vadnais takes on his new position at the same time online advertising and marketing firms are being gobbled up by big players, e.g., Google, Yahoo, Microsoft. Keep an eye on the company. Not exactly sure what Vadnais is actually bringing to the table with his newest appointment to run ValueClick.

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