David Filo

Filo is the largest individual shareholder of Yahoo, the publicly traded Internet company he co-founded with billionaire Jerry Yang in 1994. The Sunnyvale, California-based business owns a 15 percent stake in online marketplace Alibaba and agreed to sell its search engine and other internet properties to Verizon for $4.8 billion in July 2016. Why didn't he take the money? Yahoo chieftain saw his stock languish for years, then pop 45% after Microsoft tried to snatch company up for $44.6 billion to take on Google in search. Balked at hostile takeover attempt; shareholder activist Carl Icahn led proxy battle to replace board, oust Yang as chief executive. Settled weeks later; Icahn and 2 friends now on expanded board. Stock down 39% since original Microsoft offer. Met partner Jerry Yang in grad school at Stanford, turned Internet directory project into Web portal Yahoo. Left Ph.D. track 1995, took public a year later. Brought in professionals: Tim Koogle in 1995, former Warner Bros. boss Terry Semel 2001. Filo runs tech. Agreed to ad partnership with Google in June following Microsoft debacle; Yahoo will post Google ads alongside Yahoo's search results. Filo is the largest individual shareholder of Altaba, the successor to Yahoo, the Internet company he co-founded with billionaire Jerry Yang in 1994. The Sunnyvale, California-based business owns a 15 percent stake in online marketplace Alibaba and sold its search engine and other internet properties to Verizon for $4.5 billion in June 2017.