Investors Clash With Yahoo CEO

Semel leaves post as tempers flare over poor performance— and sky-high pay

(NEWSER) - Yahoo CEO Terry Semel is out. In a surprise announcement, Yahoo said today that co-founder Jerry Yang will take over from Semel as CEO, who will step down immediately. The embattled Semel, who's been the target of recent shareholder ire, will stick around as non-executive chairman; Susan Decker, former head of advertising, is set to become Yahoo's new prez. More»

(NEWSER) - Yahoo today restated its opinion that Microsoft’s $44.6 billion buyout bid underestimates the online giant’s “combination of unique assets,” but for the first time stated publicly the strengths it would bring to the Microsoft merger, MarketWatch reports. In an investor presentation for the SEC, the company argued it would take Microsoft "from sub-scale position to strong positions in search and display." More»

Some speculate it's retaliation for giving Dalai Lama the Congressional Medal

(NEWSER) - Chinese searchers trying to visit Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Live Search are being redirected to the Chinese search engine Baidu, according to tech news sources. Speculation has it that the Chinese government is blocking the American engines because officials are angry that the US awarded the Dalai Lama the Congressional Gold Medal this week. More»

As top sites are banned, web surfers rail against 'Great Firewall'

(NEWSER) - Frustration with government curbs on the Internet is growing among China's 140M web users. Wikipedia has been banned, and the censors recently shuttered photo-sharing web site Flickr, after a user uploaded a picture of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Tens of thousands of human monitors and an elaborate filter system keep watch over China's browsers. More»

Yahoo will sell back up to half its 40% stake in Chinese company

(NEWSER) - It's a resolution for what All Things Digital's Kara Swisher calls "perhaps the longest running global cat fight in Internet history": In a $7.1 billion deal, Yahoo is selling back up to half its 40% stake in China's Alibaba , the Wall Street Journal reports. For the US internet giant, that means $6.3 billion cash and $800 million in preferred Alibaba stock. Most of the $4 billion Yahoo ultimately takes home after taxes will go to shareholders, many of whom are still smarting over Yahoo's 2008 rejection of Microsoft's bid to acquire the company for $33 per share, reports the AP . Yahoo's sagging stock traded at $15.42 on Friday. More»