Stock market shares in search engine specialist Yahoo! rose by eight per cent after the resignation of its chief executive officer (CEO) Jerry Yang, it has emerged.

An uncomfortable 17-month period for Yahoo!, which included several failed mergers and partnerships with companies including a failed deal with Microsoft six months ago, resulted in the 40-year-old co-founder resigning from his post.

By the end of Tuesday, stock had risen by eight per cent after the takeover by Yang had seen share values dropping by 60 per cent.

In a statement about Mr Yang's departure this week, chairman of Yahoo! Roy Bostock said: "Jerry and the board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level."

Mr Yang and his friend David Filo, both graduates from America's Stanford University, founded Yahoo! in February 1994 as a way to keep track of their personal interests.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent).