Yahoo investors want CEO search to review outsiders

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Nov 20: candidate. Yahoo has hired Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. to help find a new leader.

Chernin is a 2-to-1 favorite to succeed Yang, Irish bookmaker Paddy Power Plc said today in an e-mailed statement. Yahoo board member John Chapple’s odds are 4-to-1, and Rosensweig has a 9-to-2 chance, said the firm, the largest bookmaker in Ireland.

Microsoft backed away from a $47.5 billion takeover bid for Yahoo this year. Frank Shaw, a spokesman for the Redmond, Washington-based software maker, declined to comment.

“There’s no guarantee that Microsoft comes back,” said Clay Moran, an analyst at Stanford Group Co. in Boca Raton, Florida. “You’ve got to create a strategy based on the expectation of being a stand-alone company.”

Yang, 40, will return to his role as Chief Yahoo, overseeing strategy, partnerships and recruiting with co-founder David Filo. His successor will face a deteriorating market for online advertising, thanks to the global economic crisis and a US recession. Clients in the finance, travel, retail and automotive industries are cutting spending, Yang said last month.