Yahoo co-founder and former CEO Jerry Yang ‘90 M.S. ‘90 resigned from his board position and broke ties completely with the company Tuesday, amid recent criticism about his leadership and failure to secure a buy-out deal with Microsoft. Yang resigned from all company positions, including the boards of Yahoo Japan Corporation and Alibaba Group Holding Limited.

 

“The time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo,” Yang said in a company statement.

 

Following the announcement Tuesday, the company’s stock price rose approximately 3.7 percent in after-hours trading. The company has faced recent turmoil, as former PayPal head Scott Thompson was only recently appointed as CEO, replacing Carol Bartz, who was fired in September.

 

Yang currently serves on the Stanford University Board of Trustees following his initial appointment in 2005, as last reported in the August 2011 Stanford Bulletin.

 

Yang and his wife, Akiko Yamazaki, pledged $75 million, the largest of several donations from the couple, to the University in 2007 for the construction of the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building (Y2E2) and the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge at the School of Medicine.

 

Yang co-founded Yahoo with fellow Stanford student David Filo in 1995.

 

-Margaret Rawson