Yahoo named PayPal President Scott Thompson as its
chief executive, taking over on January 9 from interim
CEO Tim Morse, who will resume his role as chief
financial officer.
Thompson has also been appointed to the Yahoo's board
of directors, effective January 9, 2012
Thompson served most recently as President of PayPal, a
division of eBay, where he continued his established
track record of growing businesses by driving customer
engagement built on strong technology platforms. Under
his leadership, PayPal solidified its lead as the
global online payment service, expanding its user base
from 50 million to more than 104 million active users
in 190 countries worldwide, increasing the number of
merchant partners to more than 8 million globally, and
growing revenues from $1.8 billion to $4+ billion in
2011.
"Scott brings to Yahoo! a proven record of building on
a solid foundation of existing assets and resources to
reignite innovation and drive growth, precisely the
formula we need at Yahoo!," said Roy Bostock, Chairman
of the Yahoo! Board. "His deep understanding of online
businesses combined with his team building and
operational capabilities will restore the energy,
focus, and momentum necessary to grow the core business
and deliver increased value for our shareholders. The
search committee and the entire Board concluded that he
is the right leader to return the core business to a
path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation."
"Yahoo! is an industry icon and I am very excited about
the prospect of working with one of the great teams in
the online world to deliver Yahoo!'s next era of
success," Mr. Thompson said. "Yahoo! has a rich history
and a solid foundation to build on, and its continued
user engagement is one of the many reasons for my
enthusiasm. With the ultimate goal of delivering the
value our shareholders expect, my immediate focus will
be on getting to know the entire team and hearing more
from all Yahoo!s, working closely with the engineers
and product teams, and diving deeply into our products
and services to learn more about what our more than 700
million users find most engaging and useful. I will
also be working directly with our region leaders and
sales teams globally to get a clearer understanding of
the needs of our advertisers and publishers. Clearly,
speed is important but we will attack both the
opportunity ahead and the competitive challenges with
an appropriate balance of urgency and thoughtfulness. I
cannot wait to get started."
"Scott's primary focus will be on the core business,
and as CEO and director, he will work closely with the
Board as we continue the strategic review process to
identify the best approaches for the Company and its
shareholders. As part of this process, Yahoo! is
considering a wide range of opportunities for the
Company's business, as well as specific investments or
dispositions of assets," added Bostock.
Thompson's appointment comes five months after the
firing of former CEO Carol Bartz as former Web
powerhouse Yahoo struggles to compete with newer
heavyweights Google and Facebook.
Yahoo recently has been discussing slashing its stakes
in China's Alibaba Group and its Japanese affiliate as
part of a share deal worth about $17 billion, according
to sources familiar with the situation.
Analysts said one of the first tasks for a new Yahoo
CEO would likely be to oversee the sale of its Asian
assets.