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Yahoo has gone through its share of leadership change over the last few years, and now it’s happening again.
The huge Web services provider revealed to the Wall Street Journal April 25 that the chairman of its board of directors, Fred Amoroso, has resigned his position but will continue to serve on the board through its June annual meeting.
Yahoo said Amoroso, who held the chairmanship for only one year, will be succeeded in the interim by Maynard Webb Jr. Webb, like Amoroso, has been a member of Yahoo’s board since February last year.
Webb is known as a key proponent of current CEO Marissa Mayer, who took over in July 2012.
Mayer, who has been overseeing employee cutbacks and repositioning of Yahoo’s products and services, is expected to stop the revolving door leading into the Yahoo CEO’s office, which has been the basis of the company’s leadership problem.
“Fred has been a wonderful chairman for Yahoo over the past year, and I’m personally grateful for his trust and guidance as I took on the role as Yahoo CEO,” Mayer said in a statement. “Fred’s mentorship and perspective has proved truly valuable to me in my first few months here at Yahoo.”
Amoroso joined Yahoo’s board of directors in February 2012. Before that, he served for six years as the chief executive officer of entertainment metadata analyst Rovi.
Prior to Mayer’s arrival from Google, Scott Thompson, who had a good track record as PayPal’s CEO, had replaced the deposed Carol Bartz, whom former board chairman Roy Bostock fired in a phone conversation in September 2011, after two years on the job.
Thompson lasted only four months, however, after it was discovered he had lied on his resume about attaining a computer science degree.
Since 2007, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company has had eight CEOs: former Warner Bros. Chairman and co-CEO Terry Semel (2001-2007), co-founder Jerry Yang (2007-2009), Bartz (2009-2011), interim Tim Morse, Thompson, interim Levinsohn, and now Mayer. Semel resigned in 2007, with Yang replacing him.
Tim Koogle (1995-2001) was the original Yahoo CEO.