Semel out as Yahoo CEO; Yang steps up

June 19, 2007 Terry Semel resigned under pressure Monday as CEO of Yahoo Inc. and the company handed the reins back to Jerry Yang, the billionaire co-founder of the search engine that became one of the Internet's earliest success stories. Yahoo said Semel has assumed the role of nonexecutive chairman and will serve as an adviser to Yang, named CEO, and Susan Decker, who was promoted to president and is considered a prime candidate for the CEO spot someday. Semel has been under scrutiny from shareholders who have expressed bewilderment at his generous pay packages while Yahoo stock has gone nowhere and rival Google Inc. widens its competitive lead.

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