Yahoo chairman resigns

Fred Amoroso is the latest casualty as the web firm struggles to reverse its fortunes

Yahoo has announced the resignation of chairman Fred Amoroso after just 11 months in the post.

Amoroso has stepped down and will not seek re-election at the company's annual shareholders meeting in June, Yahoo said, although he will remain in post until then. His departure is just the latest of many to take place during a turbulent period at the top of the web company, which saw CEO Marissa Mayer poached from rival Google last July. It leaves Sue James, with a tenure of three years, as the longest serving director.

Amoroso became chairman after the previous incumbent, Ray Bostock, departed along with directors Vyomesh Joshi, Arthur Kern and Gary Wilson last year, continuing a management exodus that started with co-founder Jerry Yang a month earlier, and which later saw Intuit chief, Brad D. Smith, and Weather Channel head, David Kenny, step down from the board.

On Amoroso's watch Mayer was hired to replace the disgraced Scott Thompson, who in May 2012 admitted to lying about his qualifications on his CV. However, she was not his first choice for CEO. Sources inside Yahoo told BusinessInsider that following Thompson's departure Amoroso had nominated Ross Levinsohn as both interim CEO, which he became, and also permanent CEO, which he did not. When Yahoo hired Mayer as permanent CEO Levinsohn left the company.

While there is speculation that his failure to back Mayer ultimately led to his departure, Amoroso insisted that he had only been brought on board for the short term.

"When I took the position as chairman, I told the board that my intention was to serve for one year, in order to help Yahoo during a critical time of transformation," he said in a statement.

"In that time, Yahoo hired a great new CEO, brought on a fantastic management team, revitalised the employee base, and has begun to release top-notch new products. With Marissa at the helm and the leadership team in place, this is a natural time for me to transition off the board, consistent with what I said a year ago."

Yahoo has appointed another director, Maynard Webb Jr, to handle the chair's duties on an interim basis.

The continued shake-up at the top is indicative not only of the changing market conditions that have led to Yahoo's decline since 2008 in terms of it's share of online advertising revenues, but also perhaps of the new board members' determination to turn the company around.

Yahoo's share value has grown roughly 60 per cent since Mayer's appointment but prices were down eight cents to $25.12 (£16.26) in afterhours trading yesterday.