Yahoo replaces CEO with co-founder Jerry Yang

In a shake-up aimed at re-energizing Internet search giant Yahoo Inc., the company announced Monday that chief executive officer Terry Semel was stepping down and was being replaced by one of the firm’s founders, Jerry Yang, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.  The announcement came less than a week after Yahoo’s annual shareholder meeting where Semel answered questions from anxious and angry stockholders who questioned the direction of the company in general and Semel’s compensation in particular. Last year, Semel earned an estimated $71.7 million, more than virtually any other CEO at a publicly traded company.  Yang, a longtime board member, will be joined at the top by executive vice president Susan Decker, who was named as Yahoo’s president Monday. Decker, the former head of the Yahoo’s Advertiser and Publisher Group, had been considered a future replacement for Semel.  Yahoo has struggled to keep up with rival Google, whose stock has risen by 32 percent in the past year based largely on the strength of its online search advertising business.