No one knows who will be the fourth CEO of Yahoo! in the past six years. But after firing Carol Bartz, who served two years at the post, on Sept. 6, 2011, Yahoo! is poised to join HP as one of only three Fortune 500 companies with that much turnover in the top position. Terry Semel guided the company from 2001 to 2007, but generated controversy for his high compensation, his decision to release confidential data about Yahoo! users in China to the Chinese government, and the company's poor performance. In 2007, he was replaced by company cofounder Jerry Yang, who was criticized for not improving Yahoo!’s performance. Ms. Bartz took over, but the company's share price did not move much during her tenure, given formidable competition from Google.
"When you have to do an unplanned external search for your CEO, that's where things can go awry," says Matt McGreal, principal in charge of the corporate governance practice at Crist Kolder Associates.
There's no indication who might replace her. There's one company, however, that beats Yahoo! and HP in CEO change. It's ...
