Jerry Yang leaves Yahoo!

Jerry Yang, Yahoo!’s co-founder, has stepped down from his position on the company’s board after 16 years.

Roy Bostock, the chairman of the board, said: “It has been a pleasure to work with Jerry. His unique strategic insights have been invaluable. He has always remained focused on the best interests of Yahoo!’s stakeholders, including shareholders, employees and more than 700 million users. And while I and the entire Board respect his decision, we will miss his remarkable perspective, vision and wise counsel.”

Yang controversially turned down a $44.6 billion (£29.1 billion) takeover offer from Microsoft in February 2008, which priced the company at a 50% premium on its share price at the time. Yahoo!’s revenues peaked in Q4 2007, before Facebook’s global domination. (Facebook had 50 million active users in October 2007, rising to 100 million in August 2008. In July 2011, that figure was up to 750 million).

Yang still owns around 47 million Yahoo! shares, which at today’s stock price of $15.43 amounts to roughly $725 million.

Read the full MediaGuardian article here.