…current and former Yahoo employees believe that Yang will act as chief executive on an interim basis until the company gets back on track or until Decker is ready to take over.
Decker may be the "strategic powerhouse" and "financial wizard" that Semel said she is during a conference call discussing the changes, but Yang brings the technological know-how that neither Semel nor Decker have, observers noted.
Plus, Yang is beloved by the employees, close to engineers and, having served as the face of Yahoo since its inception, he's part of the brand, they said.
"The combination of Sue and Jerry is pretty smart. I think of Jerry as a visionary who helped create the commercial internet," said Rob Solomon, chief executive of travel website SideStep and former vice president and general manager of Yahoo's commerce unit. "Sue is one of the best managers in the world," he added, noting that she serves on the boards of Costco, Intel and Berkshire Hathaway.
"I think Jerry has a good rapport with people at the company and is more tech savvy," said Greg Morrow, former director of product strategy at Yahoo Music and founder of viral video site Pure Video.
"To Terry's credit, he brought some discipline and structure to the company that was much needed at the time and created a monetisation strategy," he said. "Now they just need to bolster their product credibility vis-a-vis some of the up and comers and Google... This changing of the guard will help."
Semel, recruited from Warner Bros in 2001 where he was chief executive, was criticised at last week's shareholder meeting for the company's lacklustre financial results of late. A proposal to link his compensation — totalling about $70m (£35m) despite his $1 annual salary, making him one of the highest paid chief executives in America — with the financial performance of the company received a relatively large number of votes, representing more than 30 percent support by shareholders. Meanwhile, shareholders re-elected the board with only 66 percent approval, far less than the typical 80 to 90 percent approval rating.
Maybe Yang has learned some management skills from Semel during his tenure. He said during the conference call that Semel was his "role model" and "mentor". "I've learned how to become a better leader and a better person," a choked up Yang said.
He said he was honoured to be appointed chief executive and that he was ready for the challenge. "I know the business and market dynamics well," he said, adding that he had worked over the years to drive the strategy at Yahoo.
Whether Yang will be able to get Yahoo back on course, and regain the credibility, market share and leadership it lost when Google raced by is unknown.
"They still have real issues to solve," said Sterling. But Yahoo has to "regain their momentum and this is a first step in a longer process".
Stefanie Olsen of CNET News.com contributed to this report.
