4. Jerry Yang: Rejected Microsoft’s Acquisition Offer
Before Google introduced its innovative search engine technology, Yahoo! was once the king on Internet with its huge website directory. Yahoo slowly went into decline due to failure to respond to latest changes in the World Wide Web. In 2008, Microsoft offered to purchase Yahoo! Inc. for $47 billion, but Yang rejected the offer formally, stating that it wasn’t in the interest of shareholders and Microsoft undervalued the company significantly. Major Yahoo! investors and shareholders scrambled to patch things up and end the standoff. But unfortunately, Microsoft had enough and it created Bing instead.
Jerry Yang was ousted in a boardroom coup, after Yahoo’s market capitalization plunged to less than $18 billion and it entered a round of massive layouts.