Yahoo to lose four board members in wake of Jerry Yang’s departure

Yahoo bids adieu to four more board members today, including the board’s current chair, Roy Bostock.

Other departing members include Vyomesh Joshi, an executive vice president at HP; investor and professional board member Gary Wilson; and Arthur Kern, an investor who had held his seat at the Yahoo boardroom table since 1996.

In an open letter to Yahoo shareholders, Bostock writes,

“The board has concluded that in order to accelerate the Company’s transformation, the combination of a new Chief Executive Officer with an enhanced team of independent directors would provide Yahoo with the expertise and perspectives necessary to drive innovation and growth going forward. Therefore, Mr. Joshi, Mr. Kern, Mr. Wilson and I have volunteered not to stand for re-election at the next shareholders’ meeting.

“Furthermore, the board today elected two highly qualified independent directors, Alfred Amoroso and Maynard Webb, Jr. Mr. Amoroso served as President and CEO of Rovi Corporation until December 2011… Mr. Webb, the Chairman of LiveOps, Inc., served as that company’s CEO until July 2011. Prior to that, Mr. Webb was Chief Operating Officer of eBay and Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Gateway, Inc., in addition to management, leadership and board positions at several other companies spanning his 30-year career.

The board continues its search for additional independent directors.”

The inimitable Kara Swisher reports on AllThingsD that the mass departure had been rumored since at least last month, when unnamed sources said this specific quartet of executives would be following Jerry Yang.

Yang himself left the Yahoo board and all his roles at Yahoo on January 17. In departing, Yang wrote a letter to Bostock, saying, “The time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo. As I leave the company I co-founded nearly 17 years ago, I am enthusiastic about the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer and his ability, along with the entire Yahoo leadership team, to guide Yahoo into an exciting and successful future.”

The entire leadership team, that is, except for Joshi, Wilson, Kern, and Bostock himself, apparently.

For those who needed a reminder, Yahoo has had a particularly turbulent period of executive turnover. After firing former CEO Carol Bartz, the company was leader-less for months.

Finally, at the beginning on 2012, the board named nerd extraordinaire Scott Thompson to the CEO position.

The company has also been dodging unsolicited acquisition offers and simultaneously trying to trade its stake in Asian giants Alibaba and Softbank for a little cash and a lot of focus on domestic products.

Jerry Yang photo via Flickr/Yodel Anecdotal