Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) Tuesday announced a shakeup of its board of directors, naming Alfred Amoroso and Maynard Webb Jr. as independent directors in a bid to impress investors that the internet giant is serious on regaining its eminence in a dynamic market place.
In a statement to shareholders, Yahoo! Chairman Roy Bostock also said that he, as well as board members Joshi, Kern, and Wilson, will not stand for re-election at the next shareholders' meeting.
Amoroso served as the president and CEO of digital entertainment technology solutions company Rovi Corp. until December 2011 and, earlier held top positions at META Group Inc. and CrossWorlds Software Inc., and also as a member of the world-wide management committee of IBM Corp.
Webb, the chairman of LiveOps Inc., served as the CEO until July 2011. Previously, Webb was chief operating officer at eBay and senior vice president for Gateway Inc.
Chairman Boystock said the board shakeup would add more firepower to Yahoo! that is hoping to leap forward under its new CEO Scott Thompson.
Boystock said, "Finally, the board has concluded that in order to accelerate the Company's transformation, the combination of a new Chief Executive Officer with an enhanced team of independent directors would provide Yahoo! with the expertise and perspectives necessary to drive innovation and growth going forward..."
He also said the board continues its search for additional independent directors.
Yahoo continues to lose search market share to Google Inc. (GOOG) and hasn't been able to increase revenues even as the Internet ad market expands by more than 20 percent annually.
Yahoo! has been employing a three pronged strategy to propel growth, including hiring a new CEO, seeking strategic alternatives, and now a board makeover.
Around mid-January 2012, Yahoo!'s co-founder and former Chief Jerry Yang resigned from its board and all other positions with the company, ending a not-so-sweet tenure. Yang was censured for having allegedly spurned a sweetened $47.5 billion offer from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) in May 2008. He had also been criticized by investors for not increasing revenues and the company's stock price.
Yang handed over the CEO role to former Autodesk Inc. CEO Carol Bartz in January 2009 and regained his former position as Chief Yahoo. Bartz meanwhile was fired by the Yahoo board last September and in January found a new CEO in PayPal President Scott Thompson.
Media reports had been wafting about possible bids for Yahoo after the company embarked on a strategic review. Yahoo has again been approached by Microsoft and other potential bidders such as private equities Silver Lake Partners, Blackstone Group (BX), TPG Capital, KKR & Co. (KKR), Bain Capital, and Carlyle Group, among others.
Yahoo! Chairman Boystock confirmed that the company has pursued a wide range of discussions with potential partners, though no attractive proposals have emerged. The company is also in discussions with partners in Asia regarding the possibility of restructuring the holdings in Alibaba Group and Yahoo! Japan.
YHOO closed Tuesday on the Nasdaq at $15.83, up $0.01 or 0.06%, on a volume of about 13.5 million shares. In after hours, the stock dropped $0.03 or 0.19%.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.