Rumor Mill: Yang To Leave Today

The rumor is running around that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang might be stepping down:

[from Rumor: Internal Yahoo memo suggests CEO Jerry Yang may be out by Matt Marshall]

Here’s the big caveat. On the one hand, this rumor is entirely consistent with the latest developments: Jerry Yang has failed entirely in his effort to give direction to Yahoo, and is under increasing pressure from shareholders to either do something or leave, and it’s widely known that Microsoft continues to mull a possible acquistion of Yahoo. However, on the other, there is so much speculation about this company that it could be that traders are trying to manipulate the stock. We’re trying to get more details on this one, and will update when possible.

Leaving aside whether it is true or not in its entirety, Yang should get pushed out buy the board for his flubbing the future. The newest set back is the announcement by Google today that it is dropping the proposed Yahoo ad partnership to avoid antitrust hassles.

Again, I still don’t see the match up as that good for Microsoft in anything but the short run (except for a few properties like Flickr). They can just stand back and let Yahoo fall to bits, but they may be judging it better to scoop Yahoo before Google or upstarts nibble away Yahoo’s market share.