History of Yahoo

See also: Timeline of Yahoo!

Yahoo! was founded in January 1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo, who were electrical engineering graduates at Stanford University[1] when they created a website named "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web". The Guide was a directory of other websites, organized in a hierarchy, as opposed to a searchable index of pages. In April 1994, Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web was renamed "Yahoo!".[2][3] The word "YAHOO" is a backronym for "Yet Another Hierarchically Organized Oracle"[4] or "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle."[5] The yahoo.com domain was created on January 18, 1995.[6]

Yahoo! grew rapidly through 1990–1999 and diversified into a web portal, followed by numerous high-profile acquisitions. The company's stock price rose rapidly during the dot-com bubble and closed at an all-time high of US$118.75 in 2000.[7] However, after the dot-com bubble burst, it reached an all-time low of $8.11 in 2001.[8] Yahoo! formally rejected an acquisition bid from the Microsoft Corporation in 2008.[9] In early 2012, Yahoo laid off 2,000 employees (14 percent of the workforce). This was the largest layoff in Yahoo!'s history.[10]

Carol Bartz replaced co-founder Yang as chief executive officer in January 2009,[11] but was fired by the board of directors in September 2011. Tim Morse was appointed as interim CEO following Bartz's departure.[12] Former PayPal president Scott Thompson became CEO in January 2012 and after he resigned was replaced by Ross Levinsohn as the company's interim CEO on May 13, 2012. On July 16, former Google executive Marissa Mayer became the CEO of the company.[13]

Mayer resigned as CEO of Yahoo in 2017, when it sold to Verizon for $4.48 billion, following Yahoo's disclosure of security breaches.[14] Guru Gowrappan was CEO of Yahoo from 2018-2021.

Jim Lanzone is the current CEO of Yahoo, appointed September 2021.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ David G. Thomson (2006). Blueprint to a Billion. Wiley-Interscience. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-471-77918-6.
  3. ^ Ethan Trex. "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web becomes "Yahoo!"". Blogs.static.mentalfloss.com. Archived from the original on January 2, 2012. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
  4. ^ Gaffin, Adam (September 11, 1995). "Hello, Is Anyone Out There?". Network World. Archived from the original on April 21, 2024. Retrieved June 8, 2018.
  5. ^ "The History of Yahoo! – How It All Started..." Yahoo! Media Relations. 2005. Archived from the original on April 2, 2013. Retrieved July 7, 2012.
  6. ^ "WHOIS information for: yahoo.com". networksolutions.com. Archived from the original on February 23, 2014. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
  7. ^ Simon Holland (July 2012). "Yahoo: An 18-year timeline of events". PerformanceIN. Archived from the original on August 10, 2017. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
  8. ^ Linder, Karen (2012). The Women of Berkshire Hathaway. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. p. 199. ISBN 9781118182628. Archived from the original on April 21, 2024. Retrieved May 27, 2013. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, on September 26, 2001, Yahoo!'s stock hit its all-time low of $8.11.
  9. ^ "Yahoo rejects Microsoft approach". BBC News Online. February 11, 2008. Archived from the original on February 14, 2008. Retrieved February 17, 2008.
  10. ^ "Yahoo lays off 2,000 employees". Reuters. April 4, 2012. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
  11. ^ "Job cuts help Yahoo profits surge". BBC News. October 21, 2009. Archived from the original on May 11, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2010.
  12. ^ AP (September 16, 2011). "Tim Morse, Interim Yahoo CEO, Gets 25 Percent Raise To $750,000". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on April 21, 2024. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
  13. ^ ANDREW ROSS SORKIN; EVELYN M. RUSLI (July 16, 2012). "A Yahoo Search Calls Up a Chief From Google". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 20, 2012. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
  14. ^ "Marissa Mayer". Forbes. Retrieved June 19, 2024.