Yahoo's Yang Years

(Newser) - Yahoo will cut as many as 1,500 California employees from its ranks tomorrow, Mediabistro reports. Employees learned of the layoffs in an email yesterday from outgoing CEO Jerry Yang, according to an inside source. The layoffs follow Yang's November announcement that the search giant would have to sack as much as 10% of its staff worldwide. More »

(Newser) - After months of advising both Microsoft and Yahoo on a failed deal, former AOL chief Jonathan Miller is trying to put together a bid for Yahoo himself. The venture capitalist is asking private investors to help him amass the $30 billion needed to acquire the struggling, $10-a-share search engine group, down $20 since February, reports the Wall Street Journal. More »

(Newser) - A report that Microsoft will buy Yahoo's search business and give two Internet execs a 30% share is "total fiction," one of the execs tells Kara Swisher at AllThingsDigital. Swisher agrees that the $20 billion deal, reported by the London Times , is likely non-existent. After all, board member Carl Icahn would know about it—and his recent purchase of nearly seven million Yahoo shares "would smack of insider trading" if the purchase went through. More »

(Newser) - Corporate raider Carl Icahn bought about $65 million in Yahoo shares this week, sparking AllThingsD blogger Kara Swisher to speculate that an "Icahn-friendly" CEO is on the way. Icahn's purchase, likely an attempt to recoup the $900 million he lost on his Yahoo stake this year, points to two former executives Icahn brought to the Yahoo board as probable replacements for Jerry Yang, Swisher writes. More »

(Newser) - Steve Ballmer quashed the rumor that Microsoft would make another offer to buy Yahoo now that Jerry Yang has quit as CEO, CNET reports. “We are done with all acquisition discussions with Yahoo,” the chief executive said today. “We did our best; we’ve moved on.” More »

(Newser) - Yahoo’s successor to CEO Jerry Yang could come from outside the Internet industry, as long as he has a strong operations background and the decisiveness to break the company’s culture of indecision, reports the Wall Street Journal . But even before hiring a CEO, the company needs to decide whether it wants to remain independent or go with a partner, reports the New York Times . More »