SunTrust's Bob Peck Highlights Top 10 Candidates To Be Yahoo's Next CEO

Courtesy of Benzinga.

• Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) shares are down 35 percent year-to-date, slipping below the $50 mark on January 9 and declining steadily after that.
• SunTrust Robinson Humphrey’s Robert S. Peck maintained a Buy rating for the company, with a price target of $40.
• Levinsohn, Rosensweig and Sandberg are among the top 10 suggested candidates for the company’s CEO, Peck said.

Several media reports have been speculating on the stability of Yahoo’s senior management, in particular that of its current CEO Marissa Mayer.

Based on talks with industry participants and investors, analyst Robert Peck cited 5 key attributes that a potential candidate for the company’s CEO could be evaluated on:

1. Public CEO experience
2. Familiarity with Yahoo, its core business, unique challenges and opportunities
3. Media background
4. Technology experience
5. Turnaround executions or strong operational experience.

“While this is not an exhaustive list, we agree with investors centering around these themes,” Peck wrote.

Based on the 5 key attributed, a list of about 40 potential candidates was made. The Top 10 most cited, albeit in no particular order, were:

1. Ross Levinsohn
2. Dan Rosensweig
3. Sheryl Sandberg
4. Jim Lanzone
5. David Rosenblatt
6. Margo Georgiadis
7. Susan Wojiki
8. Beth Comstock
9. Linda Yaccarino
10. Jason Killar

Peck pointed out that there was no clarity on what the board and CEO might do, and that the list is merely to address investor questions around the possible candidates.

“As for next catalysts, we would expect to potentially hear from the company on: the convertible bond notice, a “will” letter from Skadden Arps, and potentially a response to Starboard’s letter. Given the overwhelming likelihood that the Aabaco spin is treated as tax-free, we maintain Buy rating and $40 PT that is based on sum of the parts using 5x 2017 EBITDA,” the SunTrust report stated.

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