Product Code Database
Jerry Chih-Yuan Yang (p=Yáng Zhìyuǎn; born Yang Chih-Yuan; November 6, 1968) is a Taiwanese-born American billionaire computer programmer, internet entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc. and founding partner of AME Cloud Ventures. Yang has a net worth of $3.1 billion.
During his time at San Jose, Yang attended Ruskin Elementary School, Sierramont Middle, and Piedmont Hills High School. He graduated from Piedmont Hills High School and went on to earn both a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in electrical engineering from Stanford University in four years. He met David Filo at Stanford in 1989, and the two went to Japan in 1992 for a six-month exchange program, where he met his future wife, Akiko Yamazaki, also participating in the exchange program.
In 2005, under Yang's direction but before he took over as CEO in 2007, Yahoo! purchased a 40% stake in Alibaba for $1 billion plus the assets of Yahoo! China, valued at $700 million. In 2012, Yahoo! sold a portion of its stake in Alibaba for $7.6 billion. The company made an additional $9.4 billion in Alibaba's 2014 IPO. Eric Jackson, the founder of hedge fund Ironfire Capital, called Yahoo!'s investment in Alibaba "the best investment an American company has ever made in China," and stated, "Jerry deserves enormous credit for that."
Yang justified the action, stating: "To be doing business in China or anywhere else in the world, we have to comply with local laws." Yang and Yahoo! were heavily criticized, and Reporters Without Borders called Yahoo! "a Chinese police informant."Reporters Without Borders. September 6, 2005 Information supplied by Yahoo ! helped journalist Shi Tao get 10 years in prison.Editors of The Washington Post. September 18, 2005 Editorial: Obeying Orders
In April 2007, Wang Xiaoning and other journalists brought a civil suit against Yahoo! for allegedly aiding and abetting the Chinese government which, it was claimed, resulted in torture that included beatings and imprisonment.Miguel Helft for The New York Times April 19, 2007 Chinese Political Prisoner Sues in U.S. Court, Saying Yahoo Helped Identify Dissidents
In early November 2007, Yang faced questions from a Congressional committee with respect to Yahoo!'s role in the arrests of Tao and other journalists in China. During the hearings he apologized to Tao's mother, who was also at the hearing. Yahoo summoned to Washington over Chinese arrests, c/net news blog, October 16, 2007Associated Press in The New York Times. November 7, 2007 Yahoo Criticized in Case of Jailed Dissident
A week later, Yahoo! agreed to settle with the affected Chinese dissidents, paying them undisclosed compensation. Yang stated, "After meeting with the families, it was clear to me what we had to do to make this right for them, for Yahoo, and for the future."Corey Boles and Scott Morrison for The Wall Street Journal. November 14, 2007 Yahoo Settles Suit Over Jailed Chinese Dissidents That week, Yang established the Yahoo! Human Rights Fund, a fund to provide "humanitarian and legal support" to online dissidents.
In February 2008, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that she raised issues about jailed Chinese journalists with her Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi; she cited a letter from Jerry Yang requesting her assistance in freeing the jailed dissidents. Late in 2008, the Laogai Museum opened; the museum was run by noted Chinese dissident Harry Wu and showcased China's laogai penal system. It was funded by the Yahoo! Human Rights Fund.
On September 2, 2020, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of Chinese activist Ning Xianhua against past Yahoo! executives, including Yang and Semel. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court in San Jose, California. It alleges that Yahoo! provided Xianhua's private emails to the Chinese government in exchange for commercial access to more Chinese internet users.
Yang's response to the Microsoft takeover was to make a commercial search advertising arrangement with Google but they ended negotiation after U.S. authorities voiced concerns regarding the effect on competition in the market.
In January 2012, Yahoo! announced that Yang was leaving the company and would be resigning from the board and all other positions at the company. The company also announced his resignation from the boards of Yahoo! Japan and Alibaba Group Yahoo announces resignation of Jerry Yang, Marketwatch News, January 17, 2012
In late 2012 and early 2013, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco exhibited selections from the Chinese calligraphy collection belonging to Yang and his wife. He began the collection in the late 1990s; it contains about 250 pieces. These selections also appeared at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 2014 exhibition "Out of Character: Decoding Chinese Calligraphy."
In September 2017, Yang and Yamazaki pledged $25 million to the Asian Art Museum, the largest donation in the museum's history.
A new pavilion at the museum, funded by Yang and Yamazaki's donation and named in their honor, opened in 2020.
Yang and Yamazaki loaned more than 50 Chinese ink paintings to Stanford's Cantor Arts Center in summer 2018 for its "Ink Worlds" exhibition.
Yang was featured in Asian Americans, a PBS documentary series on Asian American history, in 2020.
In 2021, he was among the co-founders of The Asian American Foundation, a $250 million initiative to address racism against Asian Americans and provide services to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Yang sits on the board of the foundation, described by its organizers as the largest-ever philanthropic effort to support the AAPI community.
Yang and Yamakazi were among the awardees at the 2023 Asia Game Changer Awards.
Career
Yang founded Yahoo! in 1994 and was CEO from 2007 to 2009. He left Yahoo! in 2012. He founded a venture capital firm called AME Cloud Ventures and, as of 2015, is on several corporate boards. According to Rob Solomon, a venture capitalist at Accel Partners, Yang was "a great founder, evangelist, strategist and mentor," having "created the blueprint for what is possible on the Internet."
1994–2012: Yahoo! years
While studying at Stanford in 1994, Yang and David Filo co-created an Internet website called "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web," which consisted of a directory of other websites. As it grew in popularity they renamed it "Yahoo! Inc." Yahoo! received around 100,000 unique visitors by the fall of 1994. In April 1995, Yahoo! received a $2 million investment from Sequoia Capital, Tim Koogle was hired as CEO, and Yang and Filo were each appointed "Chief Yahoo." Yahoo! received a second round of funding in the Fall of 1995 from Reuters and Softbank. It went public in April 1996 with 49 employees. Yahoo! Inc. – Company History. yhoo.client.shareholder.comHal Plotkin for Metro. April 11, 1996 MetroActive: A Couple of Yahoos In 1999, Yang was named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35. Terry Semel, who replaced Tim Koogle as CEO after the dot-com bubble crash, was CEO until 2007 when the rise of Google led the board to fire him and appoint Yang as interim CEO.
Alibaba
Yang met Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma in 1997 during Yang's first trip to China. Ma, a government-employed tour guide and former English teacher, gave Yang a tour of the Great Wall of China. The two hit it off and discussed the growth of the Web. Ma created Alibaba several months later. A 1997 photo of Yang and Ma at the Great Wall still hangs on the wall in Alibaba's Hangzhou office.
Chinese government controversies
In the fall 2005, a month after the Alibaba investment, news broke that Yahoo! had cooperated with Chinese authorities in the arrest of Chinese journalist Shi Tao in November 2004.Joseph Kahn for The New York Times. September 8, 2005 Yahoo Role Documented in Chinese Trial Shi had used a Yahoo email address to anonymously notify a pro-democracy website in the US that the Chinese government had ordered the Chinese media not to cover the fifteenth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 on June 4. Yahoo! provided the Chinese security agencies with the of the senders, the recipients and the time of the message. Shi was subsequently convicted for "divulging state secrets abroad."
Microsoft negotiations
In February 2008, Microsoft made an unsolicited offer to buy Yahoo! for $44.6 billion; at the time Yahoo! was still struggling to catch up to Google, while Microsoft was still seeking an internet search strategy. The offer was a 62% premium to Yahoo!'s market value at the time. The negotiations were difficult, as Yang had no desire to sell Yahoo! and would not make a counter offer. Once the negotiations ended in failure in May 2008, Yahoo!'s stock price plunged. Yang and board chairman Roy Bostock were strongly criticized by investors for their handling of negotiations, which later led to several shareholder lawsuits and a proxy fight led by Carl Icahn, which was settled in July 2008.Rob Hof for Bloomberg BusinessWeek TechBeat July 21, 2008 Yahoo Settles Proxy Fight With Icahn; What's Next?
Resignation as CEO to departure
On November 17, 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported Yang would step down as CEO as soon as the company found a replacement. Yang to Step Down as Yahoo CEO, The Wall Street Journal, November 18, 2008 He was CEO until 2009, when Yahoo! named Carol Bartz as CEO. Yahoo names new chief executive, BBC News, January 14, 2009 He regained his former position as "Chief Yahoo" and remained on Yahoo's board of directors.
AME Cloud Ventures
After leaving Yahoo! he became a mentor to technology startups and an investor through his firm, AME Cloud Ventures. "Jerry Yang Is Back (And Investing More Than Ever)," Wall Street Journal, March 19, 2013 "Jerry Yang's Next Act: Startup Investor and Mentor," Mashable, March 5, 2013 AME (pronounced "ah-meh") invests primarily in companies that work with data and has provided funding to more than 50 startups, including Tango, Evernote, Wattpad, Wish, Zoom and Vectra Networks Inc., and Chinese travel site Shijiebang. "Ame" means "rain" in Japanese, a nod to Yang's interest in cloud computing.
Board seats
Personal life
Yang is married to Japan-born Akiko Yamazaki, who was raised in Costa Rica. They met in 1992 during a 6-month Stanford exchange program. Yamazaki graduated from Stanford University with a degree in industrial engineering and is a director with the Wildlife Conservation Network.Stanford University Press Release. February 15, 2007 Alumni couple Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo!, and Akiko Yamazaki pledge $75 million to alma mater Yang currently lives in Los Altos Hills, California. Profile of Jerry Yang. Forbes.com (March 29, 2011). Retrieved on January 9, 2012.
Philanthropy and impact
In February 2007, Yang and his wife gave $75 million to Stanford University, their alma mater, $50 million of which went to building the "Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building", a multi-disciplinary research, teaching and lab building designed with sustainable architecture principles.Stanford Report, March 3, 2008 Y2E2: New building sets sustainability standards for Stanford
See also
External links
Categories: 1968 Births, 20th-century American Businesspeople, 21st-century American Businesspeople, American Art Collectors, American Billionaires, American Computer Businesspeople, American Computer Programmers, American Technology Chief Executives, American Technology Company Founders, American Venture Capitalists, Business Duos, Businesspeople From San Jose, California, Businesspeople From Taipei, Businesspeople In Information Technology, Directors Of Yahoo, Living People, Members Of The Committee Of 100, People From Los Altos Hills, California, Stanford University Alumni, Stanford University Trustees, Taiwanese Emigrants To The United States, Yahoo! Employees
|
|
