Yahoo! names former PayPal President Scott Thompson as new CEO

Yahoo! names former PayPal President Scott Thompson as new CEO

2012-01-05 20:06:07 GMT+7 (ICT)

SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) -- Internet giant Yahoo!, Inc. on Wednesday named former PayPal President Scott Thompson as the company's new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Thompson's new position will become effective as of next Monday, at which time Tim Morse will resume his role as Chief Financial Officer. Morse had been working as the company's interim CEO.

"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," he added.

Thompson was also appointed to the company's Board of Directors, which in September fired former CEO Carol Bartz. Pressured by the success of social media giant Facebook and internet rival Google, Bartz was unable to increase Yahoo!'s revenue and was eventually let go.

"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," Thompson said, noting that he will be "diving deeply" into the company's products and services to learn more about the more than 700 million users' interests.

Last November, Yahoo!, Microsoft Corp. and AOL announced joint advertisement agreements to boost the process of buying and selling premium online display inventory in an effort to counterbalance Google's dominant internet presence.

Thompson served most recently as President of PayPal, a division of eBay, which under his leadership expanded 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 more than $4 billion in 2011.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-01-05