YHOO Mgmnt Changes

YHOO announces mgmt changes after the close (Terry Semel stepping down and co-founder Jerry Yang named CEO; Sue Decker to be named President). Bottom line from around the Street: Semel's departure earlier than expected a positive, but guidance was brought to low-end of range as display is weakening; overall Street seems
relatively neutral on the announcement.
Highlights from the call...
• Yang says he thinks YHOO can capitalize on the emerging trends on the internet. Thinks YHOO will continue to benefit from ad dollars migrating online. Yang says they are starting to see slower growth in display advertising. Co continues in earnest its search for a new CFO.
• Re Panama – Yang says YHOO is pleased that "we are seeing financial performance above our earlier expectations"..."our outlook for the full year assumes double digit rev/search gains in H2 of the year - we are already seeing that in Q2"...."the market has been more responsive to changes in the algorithm than we had
anticipated. However - display advertising has been slower than anticipated...”
• We expect to deliver revs somewhere between the mid-point and low-end of the prior range for the Q – display weakness offsetting Panama upside
• "We are in this for the long haul....we think this can be a vibrant, independent company"...we think we are pursuing the right strategy
• Will have an update on the CTO search at the Q2 earnings call
• Mgmt on the call intimated it might ramp up its capex spending and could announce this during the June-Q earnings call (a la MSFT back in Apr '06 when it announced a major ramping of spending at MSN, which weighed heavily on the stock)