Yang steps aside as Yahoo CEO

California - Yahoo has announced its CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang will relinquish his position and move into a more strategic role at the under-fire online giant.

Yang, who took on the role of CEO in June 2007, will step down as soon as the Yahoo board finds a replacement. News of his departure sent the share pirce up 4% on hopes a deal with Microsoft may finally be resurrected.

Business for Yahoo has gone from bad to worse in the past few months, after negotiations for a US$47.5 billion sale to Microsoft collapsed. Google then abandoned a pending search deal with the Yahoo after regulatory concerns, and talks over a possible merger with Time Warner have failed to progress.

In a statement Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock said Yang and the board have had ongoing talks about succession timing.

"We all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level," Bostock said.

"We are deeply grateful to Jerry for his many contributions as CEO over the past 18 months, and we are pleased that he plans to stay actively involved at Yahoo as a key executive and member of the board."