Yahoo hires the man from Paypal as its new boss
Yahoo has chosen the president of PayPal, Scott Thompson, as its chief executive. He replaces replace Carol Bartz, who was fired in September.
Yahoo gets a new boss
Thompson has been running PayPal, the online payments unit of eBay, since early 2008. He was previously its chief technology officer.
Yahoo, still an online giant, has been "undergoing a strategic review as it struggles to compete with newer heavyweights Google and Facebook," according to the New York Times .
It has been run by Tim Morse since Ms. Bartz left. He will resume his former role as chief financial officer.
Thompson is a respected name in Internet circles. “It makes the sale of the entire company to someone like Microsoft less likely,” said Brett Harriss, an analyst at Gabelli & Company. “He’s certainly a competent manager and he’s certainly been successful at PayPal.”
Yahoo, as the Drum reported, has been discussing cutting its stakes in China’s Alibaba Group and in Japanese Yahoo as part of a deal worth about $17 billion.
Analysts said Thompson's first job would most likely be handling the sale of the Asian assets.
Alibaba has indicated it could make a bid for all of Yahoo if the talks to unwind their Asian partnership fail.
In 2008, Yahoo rejected a bid from Microsoft worth about $44 billion. Its current market value is about $20 billion.