( CNN ) -- Yahoo ! announced Monday that the search is on for the Internet giant 's next CEO . Jerry Yang , Yahoo ! co-founder , speaks at an electronics show in Las Vegas in January . The new CEO will replace Yahoo ! co-founder , Jerry Yang , who assumed the position in June 2007 and has since come under fire for failing to turn around the company . Yang will step down when a replacement is selected . Just two weeks ago at the Web 2.0 Summit , Yang was asked if he was the right guy to lead the battered portal . Yang dodged the question by defending his passion for the company he co-founded 13 years ago . `` I did n't make the decision of being the CEO lightly , '' he said . `` I wanted to make a change at Yahoo ! that I believe I can make ... That 's a dream that I felt I could achieve by being CEO and that 's still the dream today . '' Now , Yang plans to return to his former role as `` Chief Yahoo '' and will still have a seat on the board , Yahoo ! said . During his short tenure , Yahoo ! has had two major rounds of layoffs and has seen its search market share shrink significantly while a series of reorganizations led to the departure of senior executives . Wall Street and shareholders criticized Yang for falling short of reaching an agreement to sell the company to Microsoft . Yang also was taken to task when Google pulled out of a controversial ad agreement earlier this month that would have boosted Yahoo 's revenues by hundreds of millions of dollars . Yahoo ! said the search for a new CEO will encompass both internal and external candidates . `` Over the past year and a half , despite extraordinary challenges and distractions , Jerry Yang has led the repositioning of Yahoo ! on an open platform model as well as the improved alignment of costs and revenues , '' said Chairman Roy Bostock . `` Jerry and the Board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing , and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level . ''
Jerry Yang plans to resume his former role as `` Chief Yahoo '' The Yahoo ! co-founder will still have a seat on the board . Yang criticized for not reaching deal to sell Yahoo ! to Microsoft . Yang took over as CEO in June 2007 .