Pretty big news coming out of Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, California headquarters today:

Yahoo! Inc, a leading global Internet company, today announced that the Board of Directors has appointed Jerry Yang, Yahoo! co-founder and long-time board member, as Chief Executive Officer. Terry Semel, current Yahoo! Chairman and CEO, will assume the position of non-executive Chairman and serve as an advisor and important resource for the company’s senior management team, while also working closely with the Board. The Board also named Susan Decker, formerly Executive Vice President and Head of Advertiser and Publisher Group, as President of the company. Source: Yahoo! press release

Terry Semel, who has been under increasing pressure from stockholders to step down for what many see as mismanagement of the company, is out. As the press release states, Semel will stay on in an advisory capacity (that I, for one, think is more to save face than anything). As of this writing, Yahoo’s stock was up about 3% in after hours trading.

So in a way, Yahoo is out with the old and in with the older (as far as management is concerned). I think this was a very wise move for the company. If nothing else, it should help cool the raging shareholders down for a while.

But only time will tell if the move pays off.