• The New York Times, Monday, June 16, 2008 11:30 AM

The New York Times' Joe Nocera writes a scathing memo to Yahoo's Jerry Yang, essentially telling shareholders that the company's co-founder should be ousted as CEO. Rarely do you see a respected publication like the Times take such a defined position, but Nocera is clear in his castigation of Yang's handling of the Microhoo saga, claiming that he acted more like a protective father than a responsible CEO.

However, Yahoo is no longer Yang's baby. It's a public company now, which means it belongs to shareholders. As such, the CEO reports to these shareholders, and his actions are accountable to them. In that light, Nocera claims that Yang acted selfishly, staving off a Microsoft acquisition at $33 per share (Yahoo is currently trading at around $21 per share) because he and co-founder David Filo "loath and fear the Evil Empire" as Microsoft has been called.

Of course, Yang could say that Microsoft that walked away from a deal, but Nocera points out that it was Yang's pie-in-the-sky valuation of his "baby" plus an expensive employee severance plan that prompted to Microsoft to walk away. As the software giant itself pointed out, Microsoft pursued this deal for three-four years, but Yahoo consistently refused to sell. And in each case, the stock price plunged after receiving the offer.

Read the whole story at The New York Times »