MUMBAI: Yahoo Inc. has appointed co-founder Jerry Yang as CEO. He replaces chairman and chief executive Terry Semel, after pressure from investors for a management shake-up.

Semel, a former Warner Brothers executive who took charge of Yahoo six years ago, had met with criticism of failing to meet the challenges posed by Google in web-search and advertising and more recently after the rise of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.

At the annual shareholders meeting last week, agitated investors called for a management overhaul and ballots representing a third of investors casting ballots opposed re-electing one or more directors. This built up pressure on Yahoo‘s board for changes in the management structure.

Analysts however say that the shake-up may only be a prelude to a more substantial corporate overhaul, which might include a merger or a sale.

Yang and Semel said that they had been considering changes for sometime and Semel notified the board that he wanted to step down sooner or later.

In an interview to International Herald Tribune, Yang said some of his primary functions would be reinvigorate the company and attract top talent, not to overhaul its strategy. "We have a very clear strategy in place and we are executing on it. I very much see the CEO role as something I plan to do for a while," he said.