• stocks

    Why founders win

    Silicon Valley entrepreneurs like to talk about their hopes of "changing the world." Yes, of course: Changing the world from one in which they are poor to one in which they are fabulously wealthy. The question in the air is whether the founders of companies do a better job at creating wealth, for themselves and their investors, than professional managers. With Yahoo announcing Jerry Yang's plans to step down as CEO, it would seem like a losing time for founders. But Yang is an exceptional case; he took his hands off the steering wheel when Yahoo had a mere five employees, and never really ran anything until he stepped in as CEO last June. Most founders of successful startups eagerly seize power, and have to be forcibly dislodged from the driver's seat. The best never let go. Just take a long-term look at the stock market, and you'll see why. More »

    Feature

    11:20 AM on Tue Nov 18 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    3,128 views, 13 comments

    Most discussed TinaTyndareus: There's something to be said about being in the right place at the right time. No such thing as luck. more »

  • exits

    Jerry Yang out as Yahoo CEO

    Yahoo founder Jerry Yang is stepping down as CEO, and a search is underway for a replacement after a tumultuous 18 months on the job. Which is curious. In a recent interview, Yang had just told AllThingsD's Kara Swisher, "In this uncertain environment, I think I am absolutely the right person" to lead Yahoo. He must have changed his mind; Swisher reports that the decision was a "mutual" one made by Yang and Yahoo's board of directors. Either Yang was lying to Swisher, or he was deceived about the board's lack of support for him. Executive recruiter Heidrick & Struggles is conducting a search for Yang's replacement. Finding a successor to Yang will be difficult — not because Yang is irreplaceable, but because he has made such a mess of things that it will be hard to persuade a capable executive to risk their reputation fixing it. More »

    5:00 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    7,547 views, 18 comments

    Most discussed bittergreen: Jerry Yang reminds me of William Hung. more »

  • courtenay semel

    Ex-Yahoo CEO's daughter: "Google me"

    Terry Semel, the former Warner Bros. chief who used to run Yahoo, can't catch a break from wild-child daughter Courtenay, who continues to embarrass him. The latest, via celebrity blog TMZ: Testimony from a court case about an incident last August where Courtenay — who's now dating MySpace hottie Tila Tequila — got handcuffed after swearing at Jaroslaw Jarczok, a security guard at Pure, a Las Vegas nightclub. The line that did her in: "Do you even know who I am, f**king idiot?...Google me, you dumb f**k." You would think, if she had any respect for Daddy whatsoever, she'd have told Jarczok to search for her name on Yahoo.

    11:20 AM on Thu Oct 30 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    6,252 views, 13 comments

    Most discussed Hey_mikey: Terry is so fugly it's like an ironic comment on rat faced humans. more »

  • celebritards

    Lindsay Lohan denies coke-fueled affair with Terry Semel's daughter

    Former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel's daughter Courtenay told what reports call a "friend" that she and actress Lindsay Lohan met a party in the summer of 2006 and attending parties together "where they kissed and touched each other in the corner and did lines of cocaine in the toilet." Lohan denies the account: "No, that's not true." The friend says Courtenay thinks the drugs were Lohan's way of coping with a lesbian desires that she feared would ruin her career. More »

    12:00 PM on Tue Aug 26 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    3,854 views, 14 comments

    Latest by GarretAethra: 99%? Are you serious? I know from personal experience and friends that that's absolutely false. In fact I'd say more »

  • yahoo

    Terry Semel's daughter arrested after assaulting a security guard in Las Vegas

    Hollywood C-list scenester Courtenay Semel — former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel's daughter — left Pure nightclub last night with her MySpace and MTV famous girlfriend, the pseudo-bi Tila Tequila. Then she "smacked" a security guard in the back of the head. Security detained Semel until police arrived four hours later and issued her a citation for battery. Where was this kind of feistiness in papa Semel when Google started stomping all over Yahoo?(Photo by Getty)

    9:00 AM on Thu Aug 21 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    2,640 views, 16 comments

    Most discussed AnnoyingRegistration: this is a lame story, even for Valleywag...unless you have live pics, videos, or user generated content at the scene?! more »

  • geek love

    Terry Semel spawn Courtenay dating MySpace star Tila Tequila

    Plasticly popular MySpace personality Tila Tequila and Courtenay Semel, the daughter of ex-Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, attended a premiere together last night in Los Angeles. There, the pair confirmed a more successful merger than Semel senior ever managed. “I’d seen the show [A Shot at Love] and just needed to meet her and it just happened,” Semel told People magazine. “It’s true what they say about lesbians," said Tequila. "You meet and then the next day you move in together, because I can’t get rid of her. She pretty much lives at my house.” We think this is the only Yahoo-MySpace deal we'll see happen. (Photo by AP/Steinberg)

    1:00 PM on Tue Aug 12 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    8,249 views, 31 comments

    Latest by Migrant Blogger: 30 comments on a VW story ... isn't this a record? more »

  • nerdspotting

    Four moguls walk into a bar

    Google cofounder Larry Page, Yahoo president Sue Decker, ex-Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, and Legg Mason fund manager Bill Miller, who owns large stakes in Google and Yahoo, sat and talked at a corner table at the Sun Valley Lodge, the site of Allen & Co.'s power media conference in Idaho. Page and Miller reportedly dominated the conversation. [DealBook]

    1:00 PM on Thu Jul 10 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    831 views, 1 comment

    Latest by dingdongditch: Since when did Sue Decker become a mogul? more »

  • online video

    Lloyd Braun returns to Yahoo, extends reign of terror to Microsoft

    Hollywood's savvy hustlers have struck again, with Lloyd Braun and Gail Berman convincing Yahoo and Microsoft to hire BermanBraun to produce a content portal for MSN and a contentpole for Yahoo called "Lunacy Report," according to sources cited by All Things Digital. For the ADD-affected with long term memory issues, former Yahoo CEO and Tom Cruise BFF Terry Semel hired Braun to shepherd in Yahoo's reign as a media company, followed by Braun taking the fall for much of Semel's own lunacy before Semel himself was ousted. More »

    7:00 PM on Mon Jun 2 2008
    By Jackson West
    2,329 views, 10 comments

    Latest by princesscrap: idiots! more »

  • comebacks

    Terry Semel to bid $2 billion to $3 billion for talent and marketing agency IMG

    With money from Warner Bros., private equity firms, and the United Arab Emirates, former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel wants to buy talent and marketing agency IMG. Semel's plan: Turn the agency, currently owned by buyout guy Ted Forstmann, into a media and content company with a focus on digital distribution — more or less the same thing Semel wanted to do with Yahoo. The difference this time? No one on Wall Street will ask why Semel and IMG aren't throwing money at catching up with those pipsqueaks Larry and Sergey in search.

    8:00 AM on Mon Jun 2 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    595 views, 1 comment

    Latest by The Cooler: So in other words, he wants to take a successful business, turn it into something completely different, and destroy it. more »

  • quotable

    Meet the man Carl Icahn praised for fixing Yahoo: Terry Semel

    How good is corporate raider Carl Icahn's grip on what's wrong with Yahoo? Two years ago, when Icahn complained to the Financial Times about inept executives at Time Warner, he asked why couldn't they be more like then-Yahoo CEO Terry Semel?
    Google, obviously, is one of the great success stories of all time, but Yahoo has done a great job with Terry Semel, who incidentally, they threw out of Time Warner.
    (Photoillustration by Jackson West; photo of Icahn by AP/Mark Lennihan)

    8:20 AM on Mon May 19 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    557 views, Comment