Yahoo's Yang: So Far, The $1.8-Billion Man

Jerry Yang is the $1.8 billion man. The stock market thinks Yahoo is worth that much more without Yang at the helm.

That’s approximately how much the market capitalization of Yahoo’s stock went up this morning, with the first trade after last night’s announcement that Yang would be stepping down as CEO. The shares were up nearly 12 percent in early morning trading. They opened at $11.94, compared to a close of $10.63 last night. (The $1.31 difference X 1.4 billion shares outstanding = $1.83 billion)

With Yang gone, the prospects of a renewed deal with Microsoft (MSFT) (at least on the search advertising front) are now greater. So are the prospects of finding someone who can take Yahoo, and hopefully its stock, in a new direction

The question is: Can Yahoo pick a CEO who will add more than that to Yahoo’s market cap? I guess Mark Cuban is out of the running.

[Ed. note: Just before 11AM ET Tuesday, Yahoo stock is now up 15.05%]

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Comments

[kris23:]

I think the MSFT deal remains to be seen, we havent had any inclination MSFT is still even interested. Irregardless, at least the company can head in a new direction now. Sentiment shot up for them this morning on the Yang news (predictwallstreet.com/...) and I think YHOO will be able to ride this out till at least the end of the week.

2008 Nov 18 02:07 PM