“Jerry Yang continues to be Chief Yahoo and his role has always been dubious. It appears that Jerry wants to have the cake and eat it too. It is time that senior leadership develops some spine to tell Jerry that it is time for him to let go.” – Yahoo Employee (Sunnyvale, CA)

“Jerry Yang should never have been made CEO.” – Yahoo Product Manager (Sunnyvale, CA)

Glassdoor provides the following chart on approval rating among employees (for Yang and recently ousted Carol Bartz):

Here’s what a few employees have said about what could be improved about the company today:

“Multiple re-orgs can be tiring, but hopefully that’s behind Y! with the new CEO as of early 2012.” – Yahoo Employee (Sunnyvale, CA)

“Constant reorganization. Lack of clarity in company’s objectives. Selfish senior management (VP and up). Highly political.” – Yahoo Human Resources (Sunnyvale, CA)

At least some employees have apparently been impressed with new CEO Scott Thompson so far, but others are fearing layoffs.

Here’s what some people who tuned in to watch the interview had to say about it on Twitter:

Let us know what you thought of the interview in the comments.

Despite the big IPO, 2011 was something of a problematic year for the company, plagued with a number of controversies. In fact, Groupon even had to apologize for its Super Bowl commercial early in the year, as some were offended by it. Mason answers questions about a number of the criticisms the company has endured.

By the way, Mason says he doesn’t know how much of a threat Google is. He thinks there is plenty of room for competition. Google is probably glad to hear them say that, as other competitors are pushing for antitrust regulation against the company.

CBS News has provided an embed of the full interview:

Interviewer Lesley Stahl talks about how Mason is different from other tech founders she’s interviewed (Such as Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg and Paul Allen) in this “overtime” segment. He’s a “prankster” she says.

Well, there are a few Scott Thompson’s out there. One of them is Yahoo’s new CEO – Not to be confused with Scott Thompson from Kids In The Hall:

This Scott Thompson was the president of eBay’s PayPal. Before that, he was Senior Vice President and CTO at the company.

As President of PayPal, Thompson had overall responsibility for establishing PayPal as the leader in global online payments. As SVP and CTO, he oversaw information technology, product development and architecture for PayPal.

Before his time at PayPal, Thompson was Executive Vice President of technology solutions at Visa subsidiary Inovant, which was designed to oversee Visa’s global technology. Thopmson oversaw Visa’s global payment system.

Thompson was also Chief Information Officer of Barclays Global Investors. There, he is credited with implementing a new strategic technology platform and global infrastructure.

He’s also worked with Coopers and Lybrand to deliver IT solutions to financial services clients, including Wells Fargo.

Thompson received a bachelor’s in accounting and computer science from Stonehill College

He’s also on the board of directors for F5 Networks and Zuora Inc. The former is an IT architecture company and the latter is a subscription billing and payment solutions provider.

Last year, Thompson received an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award (though so did 9 others).

The most well-known of Page’s new products is Google+, a social networking endeavor that aims to chip away at the Goliath that is Facebook. Google+ now boasts over 62 million users and adds over half a million per day. They aim for 400 million by the end of 2012.

Another product Larry Page birthed at Google is Google Offers, which challenges Groupon, the time-sensitive commercial deal-of-the-day king. Google had attempted to buy Groupon outright, but was rebuffed. Google Offers is developing at pace, with deals offered in the San Francisco Bay area, New York, Portland, and fifteen other deal sites currently. More will be offered to other cities in the future as Google Offers shifts to challenge Groupon.

Page founded Google in 1998 with Sergey Brin. Page was CEO at the company’s initial launch, but they later hired Eric Schmidt to serve in that position. Page’s return to the CEO spot has streamlined how Google operates. No more must all three power-sharers at Google (Page/Brin/Schmidt) sign off on a project before it green-lights. Page’s leaner/meaner approach allows Google to brings products to users quickly.

One of the biggest – and most controversial – moves Page made in the past year was to begin acquisition of Motorola Mobility, the cellphone arm of Motorola, for $12.5 billion. That deal is so big that it is under review by the U.S. Department of Justice to determine how it could affect the overall mobile communications market in terms of anti-trust. The primary goal of the deal seems to be for Google to have many Motorola patents in its hands so as to avoid any legal issues in its future plans. Google’s current hardware partners like Samsung and HTC don’t appear to be concerned about the deal.

2012 sees Page and Google preparing to broaden the reach of Google+, finalize the Motorola deal, and launch an Android tablet to challenge the iPad.

In recognition of his 2011 accomplishments, Investor’s Business Daily has named Page its 2011 CEO Of the Year. Previous winners include Netflicks’ Reed Hastings (2010), Amazon’s Jeff Bezos (2009), Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt (2006), and a man that many thought should have won again this year, the late Steve Jobs (2007). IBD’s bypassing of Jobs in favor of Page has set off a flurry of thumbs-down comments from pundits.

It seems like an eternity ago that Yahoo ousted CEO Carol Bartz. In Internet time, it may as well have been that long, though it was really only September.

In that time, we’ve seen limitless specualtion and rumor about what the company would be doing. And that continues, though this might be a little bit more substantial.

Yahoo is reportedly considering a sale of its Asian assets. The New York Times’ Dealbook is reporting, citing “people briefed on the matter” that it’s considering the sale of its holdings in Alibaba group and its Japanese affiliate back to their majority owners in a $17 billion deal, and that the meetings are expected to go down tomorrow.

CNN Money says Yahoo’s entire market cap is just over $18 billion, and asks if this means if Yahoo itself is only worth around $1 billion. They added in an update, “Some readers have pointed out that Yahoo currently has $2.11 billion of cash sitting on its balance sheet. Does that somehow make the value of its U.S. assets negative? Something seems very wrong here…”

Beyond that, Kara Swisher is reporting that the company has “intensified” its search for a CEO, and that Hulu’s Jason Kilar is its “dream unicorn candidate”. She also mentions Google business lead Nikesh Arora, Juniper CEO Kevin Johnson, entrepreneur Brian McAndrews, and “others”.

In other Yahoo news, the company did release a new version of its LiveStand iPad app today. Included in that: a new recipe finder, local deals from Groupon, LivingSocial, Bloomspot, etc. , guest mode and Twitter integration. It also includes new publications like: Shine from Yahoo, Technology Review by MIT, The Ticket from Yahoo News, Minyanville, Victorian Christmas and Big Think.

Rometty is replacing Samuel J. Palmisano, but he will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board, a title he already holds in addition to President and CEO.

“Ginni Rometty has successfully led several of IBM’s most important businesses over the past decade – from the formation of IBM Global Business Services to the build-out of our Growth Markets,” says Palmisano.

“Ginni Rometty has successfully led several of IBM’s most important businesses over the past decade – from the formation of IBM Global Business Services to the build-out of our Growth Markets Unit,” he said. “But she is more than a superb operational executive. With every leadership role, she has strengthened our ability to integrate IBM’s capabilities for our clients. She has spurred us to keep pace with the needs and aspirations of our clients by deepening our expertise and industry knowledge. Ginni’s long-term strategic thinking and client focus are seen in our growth initiatives, from cloud computing and analytics to the commercialization of Watson. She brings to the role of CEO a unique combination of vision, client focus, unrelenting drive, and passion for IBMers and the company’s future. I know the board agrees with me that Ginni is the ideal CEO to lead IBM into its second century.”

“There is no greater privilege in business than to be asked to lead IBM, especially at this moment,” said Rometty. “Sam had the courage to transform the company based on his belief that computing technology, our industry, even world economies would shift in historic ways. All of that has come to pass. Today, IBM’s strategies and business model are correct. Our ability to execute and deliver consistent results for clients and shareholders is strong. This is due to Sam’s leadership, his discipline, and his unshakable belief in the ability of IBM and IBMers to lead into the future. Sam taught us, above all, that we must never stop reinventing IBM.”

Some noteworthy tweets about the news:

Palmisano has held the CEO position since 2002.

“The Board sees enormous growth opportunities on which Yahoo! can capitalize, and our primary objective is to leverage the Company’s leadership and current business assets and platforms to execute against these opportunities,” said Roy Bostock, Chairman of Yahoo’s Board, at the time. “We have talented teams and tremendous resources behind them and intend to return the Company to a path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation. We are committed to exploring and evaluating possibilities and opportunities that will put Yahoo! on a trajectory for growth and innovation and deliver value to shareholders.”

Today, Business Insider, whose own CEO Henry Blodget proposed that Yahoo buy his company and appoint it CEO, is reporting that former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is currently in control at Yahoo. A snippet from the report from Nicholas Carlson says:

Jerry Yang – who is at once a beloved cofounder and a hated former CEO – has reinserted himself at the top.

“How that’s even possible is bizarre after what he did to this company. How the board didn’t show him out is shocking.”

Carlson’s sources are also telling him that Yahoo board member and Akamai President David Kenny is campaigning for the Yahoo CEO job.

Despite all of the turbulence on the leadership side of things, Yahoo’s brand in general hasn’t seemed to have taken much of a hit. I’m not sure that’s the case in terms of the search industry, but Yahoo does keep talking about how seriously it’s taking search. They recently introduced some redesigned SERPs and put up a blog post about how they’re ready for a search fight.

Apotheker was tapped in September of last year to replace CEO Mark Hurd, after Hurd resigned his position amid a sexual harassment investigation. HP said that they found no sexual harassment violations as a result of the investigation, but did unearth violations of their “standards of business conduct.”

Of course, Meg Whitman had another high-profile CEO gig in past, as CEO of eBay. She also was a candidate for governor of California. Whitman is already a current HP board member, but now she is taking the reins as full-time President and CEO. This move had been expected.

Ray Lane has been appointed Executive Chairman, as he had this to say about Whitman in a release –

We are fortunate to have someone of Meg Whitman’s caliber and experience step up to lead HP. We are at a critical moment and we need renewed leadership to successfully implement our strategy and take advantage of the market opportunities ahead. Meg is a technology visionary with a proven track record of execution. She is a strong communicator who is customer focused with deep leadership capabilities. Furthermore, as a member of HP’s board of directors for the past eight months, Meg has a solid understanding of our products and markets.

Whitman inherits a company going through some tough times. Apotheker was ousted after HP stock fell over 40% this year. Last month, HP announced that they were spinning ff their PC business. And just seven weeks after the promising HP TouchPad tablet hit the shelves, they discontinued all webOS devices, which resulted in a $99 firesale of the TouchPad.

Whitman said that she is “honored and excited to lead HP. I believe HP matters – it matters to Silicon Valley, California, the country and the world.”

As you may know, Yahoo just fired CEO Carol Bartz. She had some choice words for the Board.

“For all the financial woes that forced CEO Carol Bartz to be fired on Tuesday, Yahoo still ranks high in the eyes of consumers, the spokesperson adds. “While the media focuses on Yahoo’s behind the scenes issues — dropping ad revenues, its Asian holdings, the flailing Microsoft search engine partnership — the public’s perception is clearly not fazed.”



”According to YouGov BrandIndex’s Index score tracking — the company’s main brand health indicator averaging measurements such as consumer perception of quality, value, impression, reputation, satisfaction and willingness to recommend — Yahoo has not only remained steady all year, but they are well ahead of Microsoft’s heavily-marketed Bing,” he explains. “While Yahoo’s Index score has been in the 40-41 range, Bing has been hovering around 8.8 to 11.”



By comparison, Google is well ahead in the perception race, clocking in in the upper 50′s score range,” he adds.

It will be quite interesting to see how brand perception continues into the future under the company’s new leadership. Currently, CFO Tim Morse is filling in while the company looks for a new permanent CEO.