Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and three longtime board members are stepping down, submitting to the demands of many frustrated shareholders who blame them for not fixing the problems dragging down the Internet company’s revenue and stock price.
Bostock announced the departures Tuesday in a letter to shareholders, describing the moves as part of Yahoo’s turnaround efforts.
“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,” Bostock said in the letter.
“Therefore, Mr. Joshi, Mr. Kern, Mr. Wilson and I have volunteered not to stand for re-election at the next shareholders’ meeting.”
Yahoo’s new CEO, hired last month, is Scott Thompson, the former president of EBay’s PayPal unit. Co-founder Jerry Yang resigned from the board and severed all other ties with the company, which he helped start in 1995.
Now Bostock is departing after four years as chairman. Many shareholders still blame him and Yang for squandering an opportunity to sell Yahoo to Microsoft Corp. in May 2008 for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share. Yahoo’s stock hasn’t traded above $20 in nearly 3 1/2 years. The shares closed Tuesday at $15.82, up by a penny.
