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Top 10 Interesting Facts About Jerry Yang

A photo of Jerry Yang. Photographed by JD Lasica.

Born on November 6, 1968, in Taipei, Taiwan, Jerry Yuan Yang is a Taiwanese-American billionaire. Jerry Yang is an internet entrepreneur, computer programmer and the co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc.

Yang鈥檚 mother was a professor of English and drama. In 1978, they moved to San Jose California where his grandmother took care of him together with his brother while his mother taught English to the other migrants in San Jose California.

When Yang鈥檚 family moved to America, he took the name, Jerry. Jerry graduated from Piedmont Hills High School and earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University in four years.

Let鈥檚 learn the top 10 Interesting Facts About Jerry Yang:

1. Only Knew One English Name When They Moved To America

Jerry with Harry Wu and Nancy Pelosi. Photo Sourced from

Despite his mother’s career as a professor in English and drama, Jerry Yang was only aware of one word 鈥榮hoe鈥� by the time they were moving from Taiwan to America. But within three years he became proficient in English.

2. He was Among The Listed Managers Of 2008

Jerry Yang, co-founder and CEO of Yahoo!, was on stage during Tuesday’s keynote address.
Photo by: JD Lasica.

In the year 2008 Yahoo! Company’s shares dropped to 14 dollars per share which made him listed among the worst-performing CEO of 2008 by the business week of 2008. Jerry Yang was replaced as the CEO of Yahoo! By Carol Bartz but he assumed his previous responsibilities as Chief Yahoo! And a member of the Board of Directors.

In 2012 Yahoo! Campany announced that Jerry Yang would leave the company with all his responsibilities in the company.

3.  Rejected Close To 45 billion dollars Acquisition Offer From Microsoft

Jerry Yang 2010.Yahoo from Sunnyvale, California, USA. Photo Sourced from

In the year 2008, Microsoft, the software giant offered close to $45 billion for Yahoo! At a time both campaniles were facing a hard time in internet search and the market which was then ruled by Google.

Microsoft company thought by joining hands with Yahoo!, The two would have been able to create a stronger competitor, but Yahoo! Under the instructions of the then CEO Jerry Yang declined the offer. Three months later Microsoft added another $5 billion to the previous offer but still Yahoo! Declined it once again.

4. He Met His Wife while Attending a Six Month Stanford Program

Photo of Jerry Yang. Sourced from

Jerry Yang Met his wife Akiko Yamazaki, a Japanese woman raised in Costa Rica, in the year 1992 during a six-month Stanford university exchange program but at that time they were still students.
Akiko Yamazaki later graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering.

5. Jerry Yang First Met Jack Ma During His First Visit To China

Jerry Yang Met Alibaba founder Jack Ma on his first visit to China.

Jack Ma then a government employer as a tour guide and a former English teacher, gave Jerry a guided tour while visiting the Great wall of China. While on the trip the two discussed the growth of the Yahoo web.

Three months later Jack Ma founded Alibaba. In the year 2005, under the instructions of Jerry Yang, Yahoo purchased a 40% stake in Alibaba.

6. Jerry Yang Collaborated with Chinese Government Controversies

In the year 2005, a month after Yahoo! Investment in Alibaba, news broke out about Yahoo! corporation with the Chinese government which led to the arrest of Chinese journalist Shi Tao in November 2004.

Shi used a Yahoo email address to notify a pro-democracy website in the US that the government had authorized the Chinese media not to broadcast the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989. Yahoo! Helped the Chinese security agencies with the IP addresses of the senders, the recipients and the time of the message. This led to the conviction of Shi for 鈥渄ivulging state secrets abroad.

7.  Ventured In AME Cloud ventures After Leaving Yahoo!

Jerry Yang. Photographed by Steve Jurvetson.

After Jerry Yang resigned from Yahoo! He decided to become a mentor in technology startups and he invested through his technological firm, AME Cloud Ventures. AME invests mainly in companies that deal with data, and companies that have provided financial assistance to more than 50 startups, including. Tango, Evernote, Wattpad, Wish, Zoom.

8. Jerry Yang Is Among The Co-founder Of The Asian American Foundation

Jerry Yang among other co-founders started The Asian American Foundation in the year 2021. The $250 million initiative was started to address the increased racism against Asian Americans and to help in providing services to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Yang is among the members of the board of the foundation which is described by its organizers as the best philanthropic effort to help the communities.

9. Jerry Yang And His Wife like Donating

Jerry, Liam ^ and David celebrate the new Yahoo^ Mail – Flickr. Photo Sourced from

Yang and his wife Yamazaki donated $75 million to Stanford University, and $50 million University helped in building “Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building”, a research and teaching lab building.
Yang and Yamazaki also donated $25 million in September 2017, to the Asian Art Museum, this donation was the largest in the museum’s history.

They loaned more than 59 Chinese ink paintings to Stanford鈥檚 cantor Arts centre in the summer. This was during the 2018 Stanford鈥檚 ink world exhibition.

10. Yahoo! Was Initially Know As 鈥淛erry And David鈥檚 Guide To The World Wide Web鈥�

Yahoo!, includes features like, a search engine, an e-mail service, a directory, and a news branch, started as a simple Web site. It was initially called 鈥淛erry and David鈥檚 Guide to the World Wide Web,鈥� But as the website gained more popularity, it was renamed Yahoo! Which means, 鈥淵et Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.鈥� in 1995.

Jerry Yang serves as a good example to many people around the world, sending a message that everything can be achieved when one is dedicated to doing it. His great success is also a huge mentoring to young dreamers.