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If you haven't heard the news from another source, you probably could have guessed it by watching Yahoo's stock price.  Shares have risen about 12.6 percent in pre-market trading on the official announcement that the search for a new CEO is underway.

Yes, Jerry Yang will be stepping out of that role as soon as his shoes can be filled.  In the meantime, he'll be helping with the search, as the decision does appear at this point to have been mutual between Yang and Yahoo's board of directors.  And afterwards, Yang will hang around as Chief Yahoo and a member of the board.

 Jerry Yang

So what's next?  Kara Swisher's compiled a list ten possible job candidates.  Peter Chernin, News Corp's COO, is the leading name.  John Chapple, who recently joined Yahoo's board thanks to Carl Icahn's influence, is another strong option.  Sue Decker's chances of getting the position seem to be near zero.

As for matters that will have an immediate effect on more than a handful of people, Henry Blodget believes the arrival of a new CEO will be followed by a big round of cuts.  This makes sense, as many critics have called Yahoo bloated, and Jerry Yang was often accused of being too nice to do what was necessary.

We should note at this point that no transition dates have been named, though, and it recently took Google about 10 months to find a new CFO.  So whether replacing Yang will be a lightning-fast procedure or another drawn-out process has yet to be seen.