Earlier this week Jerry Yang, co-founder and onetime CEO of Yahoo! announced his resignation from the company.  Yang’s departure is shrouded with rumors that there is a rift between him and the newly appointed CEO Scott Thompson and that more members of Yahoo!’s board would be resigning soon.

Aside from the above rumors, AllThingsD reports that according to sources close to the matter, “Yahoo! has instituted a hiring freeze across the company and is considering a reduction-in-force in support units of the company.”  Sources say that the layoffs would be insignificant as the company would likely sort to not filling out vacant job positions to cut costs.

Yahoo! is set to have their fourth quarter earnings report next week, which is expected to show weakness in their key businesses and consumer usage, though the company has managed to improve the results in the last part of the quarter.

Yang’s departure from the company could possibly mean that Yahoo! as a whole or in part would finally be up for sale.  According to some analysts, Yang was the number one reason why Yahoo hasn’t been performing too well in the market, acting as an obstruction to necessary changes. Yang’s absence could also mean that Thompson would have freedom to fully take the reigns in his plan to restore Yahoo!’s iconic status by developing new mobile services as well as creating new products and services by mining the mountain of accumulated data from user visits to their popular sports, entertainment and financial sites.

Looking to Hollywood for redemption

And to show that Yang’s departure doesn’t put a cloud over the company, Yahoo! just opened their doors for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.  Powered by Yahoo! Screen, Yahoo’s video destination and home to the most comprehensive collection of premium video content, the general public will have access to 9 short films from this year’s Festival. Aside from this, viewers now have the chance to vote for their favorite film and get behind-the-scenes access to film and entertainment news, celebrities in attendance and the biggest stories of the festival through Yahoo! Movies, one of the top destinations online for movie fans with more than 26 million users per month, and omg!, the #1 most-visited celebrity news site on the Internet.

Starting today until January 27, the films can be accessed at Yahoo! Screen and on Saturday, January 28th — at the Festival’s Official Awards Ceremony — Yahoo! will present the winning filmmaker with the inaugural Yahoo! Audience Award and $5,000. Additionally, the winning film will be given prominent placement on Yahoo! while all of the additional featured films would remain accessible on Yahoo! Screen for six additional weeks.

“Yahoo! is the home for major entertainment events online and this year, we’re bringing film buffs with us to one of the world’s most significant film festivals,” said Mickie Rosen, senior vice president of Yahoo! Media Network. “We look forward to providing film lovers a role in Festival voting with our new Audience Award and keeping them connected with minute-by-minute reporting. Some of the best filmmakers started their careers developing short films and now our audience has the chance to pick what could be the next big name in the film industry.”