After lying about his computer science degree on his Yahoo resume CEO Scott Thompson is said to be stepping down according to several sources close to the decision.
AllThingsD says Yahoo will list Thompson’s resignation as quitting for “personal reasons.”
Sources say Yahoo board members and shareholders are not happy with how Scott Thompson handled the discussion that followed his botched resume after it was first reported one week ago. The manager who hired Scott Thompson to run Yahoo has already been fired.
In the meantime it is believed that global media head Ross Levinsohn who most recently ran Yahoo’s Americas unit will step in as interim CEO.
While Scott Thompson resigning from his position is now a distinct possibility analysts point out that sweeping changes at the company need to be approved by Yahoo’s full board of directors.
The biggest victor from the situation could be Daniel Loeb of Third Point, a shareholder with Yahoo who discovered the fake resume and is working towards a settlement with the firm. The hedge fund investor is set to get three board seats on the company as part of a proposal in his proxy fight with Yahoo.
While Scott Thompson’s team has called the resume issues a simple “flub” in his record, Loeb and his team point out that the fake academic accomplishments not only affected the hiring of Scott Thompson but were also included in official regulatory filings for the company after he was hired in January 2012.
Thompson in the meantime used two employee meetings to explain away his resumes faults, blaming a headhunting firm for creating the mistake when he was hired for a job at eBay in the mid-2000s. That headhunting firm Heidrick and Struggles shot back, calling the claim “verifiably not true” in which the company says they have the original resume Scott Thompson had submitted to them in which it showcased his inaccurate computer science degree.
