Breaking: Semel out, Yang in as Yahoo! CEO, Decker President

Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang has replaced Terry Semel as CEO of Yahoo. Yang notes on the Yahoo blog:

Today also marks the close of a great chapter in my life with Terry Semel as my partner. Since coming on board in 2001, Terry has given Yahoo! six of its best years. He delivered great value to our users, advertisers and shareholders. Terry refocused the company on key strategic priorities, and in so doing, helped Yahoo! increase our revenues nearly nine-fold from $717 million in 2001 to $6.4 billion in 2006; boost our operating income from a loss in 2001 to nearly $1 billion last year; and create more than $30 billion in shareholder value during his tenure. He helped grow our audience from 170 million to more than 500 million users globally, and he oversaw the expansion of our base of talented employees from 3,500 to nearly 12,000.

This is obviously big news for a company whose employee morale has been pegged at an all-time low. The stock is up in after-hours trading.

Jerry ends with:

The time for me is right. The time is now. The Internet is still young, the opportunities ahead are tremendous, and I’m ready to rally our nearly 12,000 Yahoos around the world to help seize them.

I have said over and over that Yahoo is (was) in a perfect place and time to start kicking the Google butt. It's time, it's time, it's Yahoo's time! Or is it too late with all of the talent that has left over the past months? Of course, there is that German Flickr issue which appears to be continuing to pick up steam.

The official press release notes that Semel will remain on as a “non-executive Chairman” which means that in 6-12 months, he will depart. Yang has his work cut out for him as Yahoo is a very different place than it was in the 90s. Every word he says will be dissected. Every memo will be leaked and bloggers will post them.

More discussion at PaidContent.