Yang's out. Is Microsoft in?

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>> Hello I'm Sumi Das for ZDNet here with our senior editor, Sam Diaz. Sam thanks for being with us.

>> Sam: Sure thank you.

>> Big news out of Yahoo. Jerry Yang has stepped down and he of course is the CEO but you're not so surprised by this. Why?

>> Sam: Well no I'm actually not very surprised by this. Actually what does surprise me is that Jerry Yang didn't step down every sooner. You know after the Microsoft acquisition deal fell apart Jerry Yang very much became the whipping boy for all of Yahoo's woes. Shareholders were angry, they called for big changes, they said that the Microsoft deal should have happened, it would have been in the best interest of the company and the shareholders. But you know Jerry has sort of taken a lot of heat for that. Investors have called for his head and finally they've gotten it. In fact the bloggers were just calling out the Board saying, "What are you doing? We need big changes. The stock is in the tank and Jerry Yang has to go.

>> Sumi: What does this mean for the future of Yahoo and Microsoft if there is a future?

>> Sam: Well that's the big question--is there a future? Was Jerry Yang stepping down as CEO sort of like a symbolic gesture to Microsoft saying, "Hey, the for sale sign is back out again." Again, the stock is in the tank, the company still needs it; though Yahoo is still a very strong property. It's a great media company, it's got a lot of eyeballs hitting it everyday, big properties, finance, mail, those are very popular properties. Whether or not Steve Bommiter assumed spelling is willing to play ball again.

>> Sumi: They're playing it cool though aren't they?

>> Sam: They are playing it cool. The official word out of Redman assumed spelling is still we're not interested; that time has past, you know the economy has changed now. Maybe Microsoft isn't interested. I think it's still in their best interest but we'll see what happens out of Redman.

>> Sumi: And as you've said before Microsoft still doesn't have search.

>> Sam: Right Microsoft...well I mean they have search but it really, really trails back there and they need what Yahoo has to offer there as well as the media properties to bring users in to the MSN Network so I think it's still in the best interest for a deal to happen.

>> Sumi: Okay now that the top spot has been vacated, who's going to fill those shoes?

>> Sam: Well, if a Microsoft deal does happen, maybe you don't need anyone to fill those shoes. That could be a possibility as well. There's been mention of Yahoo President, Sue Decker, but I don't think that's very likely either. A couple of reasons--one if they were going to do that they would have done it when they announced Jerry was stepping down. They would have just put here into that position immediately instead of announcing the search. Two, Sue Decker was part of the entire Microsoft negotiation as well and there's still a very bitter taste about that so I don't know that anyone would be very happy with Sue running the show out there. It's a media property and so maybe it's time to bring a media person into here. Again, there's been talks about John Miller, former lead of AOL, and there's been talks about News Corp's Peter Churnin assumed spelling as well so it will be interesting to see who they're looking at and who they decide to bring in on this.

>> Sumi: A lot of people watching this one really closely.

>> Sam: That's right, absolutely.

>> Sumi: Including you.

>> Sam: Yes I am.

>> Sumi: Sam thanks so much.

>> Sam: Sure.

>> Sumi: We'll have all the latest on Yang's resignation at blogs.zdnet.com.

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