Following the sudden ousting of Carol Bartz, rumors naturally and quickly swirled about who would be making the short list to replace her as Yahoo’s chief executive officer.
One potential candidate was former Akamai president and director David Kenny, who revealed his resignation when the web acceleration application development company announced earnings last week. Although he will continue to serve as a business strategy consultant at Akamai, his exit is fueled reports that Kenny is a prime candidate for the Yahoo CEO post.
However, now Kenny is denying any potential move up to the head of Yahoo and made that point fairly clear in a statement to Ad Age:
As a matter of policy, I do not comment on matters related to Yahoo as a Yahoo director. However, as a personal matter, I want to clarify that I believe Yahoo is a great company with enormous potential, but I am not — and will not be — a candidate for the CEO position. I look forward to my continued service on the Yahoo Board of Directors.
Already a Yahoo board member, Kenny said in prepared remarks last week, “While I now want to return to my first passion of pursuing emerging opportunities on the consumer Internet, I will miss the great people at Akamai and their relentless pursuit of excellence in everything they do.”
Although he hasn’t provided many specifics as to what he plans to do next besides the previous note and telling Ad Age that the “consumer Internet is a big place,” Kenny also argued that the timing of his departure from Akamai and an open job at Yahoo is just a coincidence, and “people should not draw conclusions about where I’m going next.”
So there you have it.
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