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Two Now Vie for the Most Exciting Job in Business: CEO of Yahoo! (YHOO)

July 6, 2012 9:34 AM EDT
What can Hulu do for you-lu?

If you're Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO), than Hulu might provide you with a competent, truthful CEO.

Reported late Thursday by AllThingsD, word on the Street is that Yahoo! might be eying Hulu CEO Jason Kilar for its top spot. Kilar is a "killer" CEO, moving from Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) to Hulu in 2008 and growing the streaming media service to 2 million paid subs.

Of course, taking the CEO role at Yahoo! isn't unlike being the featured athlete on the cover of a Madden NFL video game; usually, it's bad news. Since Jerry Yang was succeeded in 2009 by Carol Bartz, Yahoo! is on its fifth CEO in less than three years. Yahoo!'s current CEO, Ross Levinsohn, was appointed when Scott Thompson left in May.

Levinsohn was promoted as Interim CEO from his prior role as Head of Global Media and Executive Vice President. He also previously worked at News Corp. (Nasdaq: NWSA) for its Fox Sports Interactive Media division.

So, the race comes down to Levinsohn and Kilar, really. Levinsohn has at least one ally in Yahoo! Chairman Fred Amoroso, who assumed the Chairman role in May following the exit of Roy Bostock. In addition, Levinsohn also booted many of Thompson's appointees following his appointment, in an effort to gain support for the permanent CEO, no doubt.

Recently, Yahoo! also turned to Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) for its new ad revenue chief, Michael Barrett.

Investors might want to keep an eye out for Third Point's Dan Loeb, who was key in making several changes atop the hierarchy at Yahoo! and is a very outspoken activist investor.

Shares of Yahoo! are lower Friday morning.


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