Yahoo! CEO to resign over credentials flap: Reports

May 14, 2012 |

San Francisco

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Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson is expected to step down following controversy surrounding his allegedly inflated resume, in the latest blow to the struggling Internet giant, according to reports on Sunday.

Technology news website All Things Digital and the New York Times cited insiders as saying Thompson will leave for nebulous "personal reasons" after becoming a target in a proxy battle waged by activist investor Daniel Loeb.

Yahoo! is also reportedly working on a truce with Loeb that could include giving him and two of his picks -- Michael Wolf and Harry Wilson -- seats on the board at the Sunnyvale, California-based firm.

Thompson will likely be replaced by Yahoo! global media head Ross Levinsohn, who recently ran the company's Americas unit including advertising sales.

Yahoo! last week created a special committee look into a charge leveled by Loeb that Thompson's misstated academic credentials by claiming on his CV a computer science degree that he never earned.

Amid stepped up pressure from a hedge fund called the Third Point, which is a major investor in Yahoo!, the company's board announced that the committee would review Thompson's academic background as well as how much was known by those who hired him.

Third Point, which has demanded that Thompson be fired for misrepresenting his educational background, has called for the release of documents about the recruitment of Thompson in a scathing filing with regulators.

Yahoo! has acknowledged an 'inadvertent error' in the CEO's online bio.

The special committee is chaired by Alfred Amoroso, an independent director of Yahoo! who is expected to become head of the company's reconstituted board.

Five board member members who were to stay until the annual meeting of shareholders could leave immediately under the terms of the deal with Third Point. No date has been announced for the meeting of shareholders.

Third Point, which owns 5.8 per cent of the struggling tech giant, filed its slate of candidates for the Yahoo! board, ensuring a proxy battle, as it stepped up its attack on management.

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