AllThingsD » Heidrick & Struggles http://allthingsd.com Sun, 27 May 2012 01:54:58 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://allthingsd.com/theme/images/logo-rss.jpg All Things Digital http://allthingsd.com/ 144 22 Former CEO Thompson Might Be Gone, But Internal Investigation Into ResuMess Still a Hot Potato at Yahoo http://allthingsd.com/20120522/former-ceo-thompson-might-be-gone-but-investigation-into-resumess-still-a-hot-potato-at-yahoo/ http://allthingsd.com/20120522/former-ceo-thompson-might-be-gone-but-investigation-into-resumess-still-a-hot-potato-at-yahoo/#comments Tue, 22 May 2012 16:03:16 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=210917

While former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson fades from the tech scene — besides getting jacked from the top job at the Silicon Valley Internet giant, he’s also just come off two tech boards he had served on — the investigation over his hiring and how a fake computer science degree got into the company’s regulatory filings continues.

While the quick-fire controversy burned Thompson, as well as now former Yahoo director Patti Hart, the special committee of independent board members is still at work trying to figure out how such a mess was made in the first place.

And, more importantly, who knew what when and told whom.

At the time the committee was announced, Yahoo said it would “conduct a thorough review of CEO Scott Thompson’s academic credentials, as well as the facts and circumstances related to the review and disclosure of those credentials in connection with Thompson’s appointment as CEO.”

The special committee is chaired by Yahoo’s new Chairman Fred Amoroso and includes John Hayes and Thomas McInerney, two independent directors who joined the board in April.

Yahoo also hired independent counsel Terry Bird of the law firm Bird, Marella, Boxer, Wolpert, Nessim, Drooks and Licenberg in Los Angeles to handle the inquiry.

The company also noted at the time that “the special committee and the entire Board appreciate the urgency of the situation and the special committee will therefore conduct the review in an independent, thorough and expeditious manner. The Board intends to make the appropriate disclosures to shareholders promptly upon completion of the review.”

Gripped by urgency myself, I have grown weary waiting by the phone for some official answers, which sources said will not be forthcoming for some time.

But since I am the most curious of cats — uh-oh! — I started dialing around on my own to find out what’s what.

And, according to sources — especially since Thompson has settled with Yahoo and will not get severance due to the academic falsehood — the big focus is now centering on if the company’s staff screwed up the background check of his academic credentials, thus allowing it to get into its official filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and also on Yahoo’s corporate Web site.

When Thompson was hired from eBay, where he was president of its PayPal payments division, the online commerce company had the correct bio information in its SEC filings, although not on its Web site or in its PR materials.

The question is: Did someone from Yahoo simply rely on Web bios and not check eBay filings and did anyone ever re-check Thompson’s college records? (Note: It took me 15 minutes flat to find out he did not have such a degree at Stonehill College in the Boston area.)

If lazy checking was the case, it spells rank incompetence on the part of staffers, as well as Hart, who headed the search after Yahoo fired its previous CEO Carol Bartz last fall.

A much more troubling line of inquiry taking place is aimed at the possibility that someone at Yahoo did discover the discrepancy in Thompson’s resume and either did not report it up the chain of command or did and it was either lost or ignored or, well, worse.

While this certainly ain’t Watergate, such a situation would be very hard for Yahoo to explain away as easily to shareholders, especially potentially litigious ones. As it is always said, the coverup can often be more damaging than the crime itself.

And, if it is determined by the special committee that certain employees knew of Thompson’s resume inaccuracy, it will most certainly result in dismissals of Yahoo employees.

The focus on the committee — which truly cannot sweep this under the rug, if it occurred in this much more serious scenario — is most obviously the legal department of Yahoo, which is responsible for making certain filings are accurate.

Also under scrutiny is the quickness of the hiring of Thompson.

Among the questions is how much vetting was done and whether adequate questions about him were asked among a variety of possible sources.

When he was picked in January, Thompson was a dark-horse candidate for many, including some Yahoo board members.

In fact, he was not on the initial headhunting lists prepared by outside talent search firm Heidrick & Struggles.

That’s because Heidrick had placed Thompson at eBay in mid-2000 and could not then recommend him to Yahoo. As it turned out, Thompson took it upon himself to cold email Yahoo board member and Intuit CEO Brad Smith about the job, who then passed Thompson’s interest to Hart.

Heidrick had no involvement in the checking of Thompson, although he later blamed the firm in a public meeting with Yahoo employees for putting the error in his bio in the first place from when he was hired at eBay. Heidrick quickly called the accusation “verifiably not true” in a memo to its own employees.

Sources said that meant that the firm had a resume that Thompson had submitted to it that also contained the error.

But the central mystery of how that mistake appeared on his bio will likely remain just that without further explanation from Thompson.

In a radio interview in 2009, he did not correct a specific question about the twin degrees he appeared to have held and seemed to even agree with the show’s host, Moira Gunn, about them.

Later, she told me in a video interview that Thompson had clearly indicated to her in the prep for that interview that he indeed had a computer science degree.

Still, it is still not clear — and may never be — who put the faux computer science credential on his resume in the first place.

So, with all apologies to Winston Churchill: It might remain a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120522/former-ceo-thompson-might-be-gone-but-investigation-into-resumess-still-a-hot-potato-at-yahoo/feed/ 0 Yahoo's Parting With Thompson Will Be for "Cause" (aka CSLie) http://allthingsd.com/20120514/yahoos-parting-with-thompson-will-be-for-cause/ http://allthingsd.com/20120514/yahoos-parting-with-thompson-will-be-for-cause/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 09:00:21 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=207552

According to numerous sources, Yahoo is claiming “cause” in its parting with former CEO Scott Thompson, related to the fake computer science degree on his resume.

Such a determination will mean the company is not obligated to pay him the large severance that would have been due to him otherwise.

In his offer letter on January 3, Yahoo spelled out the terms of the employment agreement, noting what would happen if he left the company under more positive “without cause” terms.

“If Mr. Thompson’s employment is terminated by the Company without cause or by Mr. Thompson for good reason, the Company will offer him severance benefits similar to the benefits it provides to other senior executives of the Company at the time of his termination,” reads the document, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “In addition, if Mr. Thompson’s employment is terminated by the Company without cause, by Mr. Thompson for good reason, or due to Mr. Thompson’s death or disability, the Make-Whole RSUs that are then outstanding and unvested will fully vest upon his termination.”

The “Make-Whole” RSUs — or restricted stock units, related to his time as president of eBay’s PayPal payments division — were valued at $6.5 million in Yahoo’s SEC filings.

But sources said Yahoo has relied on another clause in Thompson’s offer letter, titled “Code of Ethics and Yahoo! Policies,” to make the case that it would not have to pay out such a large sum to him.

Reads the clause:

“Yahoo! is committed to creating a positive work environment and conducting business ethically. As an employee of Yahoo!, you will be expected to abide by the Company’s policies and procedures including, but not limited to, Yahoo!’s Guide2Working@Y!, Yahoo!’s Code of Ethics and Yahoo!’s Corporate Governance Guidelines,” reads the letter. “Yahoo! requests that you review, sign and bring with you on your Employment Start Date, the enclosed Code of Ethics Acknowledgment Form.”

Under the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s ethical terms, the borked bio and how it got that way — which was still under investigation when Thompson stepped down — was the major issue in his ouster, since he was responsible for making sure it was accurate when submitted for regulatory filings.

In addition, while Thompson publicly blamed a headhunting firm for making the error back in the mid-2000 timeframe, that company — Heidrick & Struggles — hit back, saying his claims were “verifiably not true.” According to sources, Heidrick apparently possesses an inaccurate resume submitted to them by Thompson.

Heidrick, which placed Thompson at eBay many years ago, was not involved in his hiring at Yahoo. It had to recuse itself from his vetting as part of its search for a new Yahoo CEO, because it had placed him previously.

In fact, Thompson had nominated himself for the job via cold emails with Yahoo board members and was examined and hired quickly.

Perhaps too quickly, given the poor background check that was discovered by activist shareholder Daniel Loeb of Third Point.

Sources close to the board said that investor pressure relate to these credibility lapses grew too loud, along with employee rancor at Thompson’s actions — forcing the issue this weekend.

What was definitely not a reason for Thompson’s departure from Yahoo — although it was unfortunate timing — was an unspecified “illness” I referenced in my initial story on the subject.

(Note to readers: I found out this weekend that illness was thyroid cancer. But I declined to name it specifically, since I felt it was Thompson’s right to publicly reveal such a personal health issue and not mine. While I recently suffered a stroke and the experience perhaps influenced this editorial decision, the cancer was only a side issue to the resume drama at Yahoo and not naming it specifically seemed, well, more responsible to me. Argue amongst yourselves about it, but that’s my take. And also, I wish Thompson a successful treatment and speedy recovery)

That said, The Wall Street Journal did an entire piece about the cancer today today, noting that “the decision to step down from Yahoo was in part influenced by Mr. Thompson’s cancer diagnosis.”

That might have been true for Thompson — a source close to him characterized the parting as “mutually agreed” — and perhaps his illness accelerated the resume controversy.

But all that aside, he was given no choice in the matter by the Yahoo board, numerous sources said. The parting was almost entirely due to the mess about the botched bio and all its implications.

In fact, in all its public communications about his leaving, Yahoo and its execs offered no token thanks and barely even mentioned Thompson, such as in its official statement yesterday.

It read, referring to newly chosen interim CEO Ross Levinsohn: “Mr. Levinsohn replaces Scott Thompson, former Chief Executive Officer, who has left the Company.”

And left it he has, without a choice and with what will be a much smaller settlement, sources said. It is not clear when Yahoo has to unveil those terms in public documents.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120514/yahoos-parting-with-thompson-will-be-for-cause/feed/ 0 Exclusive: Yahoo's Thompson Out; Levinsohn In; Board Settlement With Loeb Nears Completion http://allthingsd.com/20120513/exclusive-yahoos-thompson-out-levinsohn-in-board-settlement-with-loeb-nears-completion/ http://allthingsd.com/20120513/exclusive-yahoos-thompson-out-levinsohn-in-board-settlement-with-loeb-nears-completion/#comments Sun, 13 May 2012 15:59:24 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=207290

Yahoo’s embattled CEO Scott Thompson (pictured here) is set to step down from his job at the Silicon Valley Internet giant, in what will be dramatic end to a controversy over a fake computer science degree that he had on his bio, according to multiple sources close to the situation.

The pair will apparently say he is departing for “personal reasons.” Sources said that Thompson will be claiming to be leaving due to a serious illness that he recently discovered he had.

But the evolving crisis — which is just over a week old — centered on his botched resume and how he handled the thorny issue is the key reason for the abrupt end to his tenure as a CEO.

Thompson’s likely replacement on an interim basis will be Yahoo’s global media head Ross Levinsohn, who most recently also ran its Americas unit, including its advertising sales.

In addition to the management upheaval, Yahoo’s board is closing in on a settlement with the man who discovered Thompson’s misstep, activist shareholder Daniel Loeb of Third Point, said sources.

The situation could change, since Yahoo’s full board still has to meet this morning to officially approve the sweeping changes at the long-troubled company.

But, if it is, this development goes a long way toward fixing some of what has been ailing Yahoo recently.

And it’ll also be a stunning victory for Loeb (pictured here), since the pugnacious hedge fund investor is set to get three board seats from a slate proposed by him as part of a proxy fight aimed at Yahoo. The new Yahoo directors will be media exec Michael Wolf and turnaround specialist Harry Wilson. Loeb’s fourth selection — former NBC head Jeff Zucker — will withdraw.

The five current Yahoo directors — who were to step down at the company’s annual meeting this summer — will leave the board effective immediately, sources said, to make way for the Third Point selections.

Finally, Yahoo’s recently added director Fred Amoroso will be named chairman of the board.

Amoroso is the director who has been conducting the investigation into the issues raised by Loeb about how the fake academic credentials got in Thompson’s public bios, as well as in Yahoo’s regulatory filings, and also the hurried circumstances around his hiring in January.

Those mysteries — read, screw-ups — might never be solved now, although Thompson made a convoluted attempt to explain it all in two awkward employee meetings at the end of last week. In those gatherings, according to numerous sources, he blamed a headhunting firm for introducing the mistake when he was being hired for a job at eBay in the mid-2000 timeframe.

That company, Heidrick and Struggles, slapped back last week with an internal memo, noting that Thompson’s claim was “verifiably not true.” Sources said that Heidrick told Yahoo’s board that it was in possession of a resume that Thompson had apparently submitted showing the inaccurate CS degree on it.

That memo, impugning Thompson’s credibility, was one of many that piled on to create an impossible situation for the Yahoo board, related to his leadership ability going forward.

Thompson had also previously issued a Yahoo statement, in which he apologized for the “distraction” caused by the problematic resume, but not for the mistake itself.

And, initially, Yahoo — under his direction — had called the borked resume an “inadvertent error.”

Such fumbling to fix the situation was among the many other issues that the board has been considering relating the ability of Thompson to remain in his job. Also of importance was the sinking morale of Yahoo employees, who had largely rejected Thompson’s excuses in the ResuMess scandal.

Internal message boards at Yahoo lit up all last week, with staffers largely rejecting his explanations. In addition, a number of top execs and engineers approached the board calling for Thompson’s firing.

While that’s not precisely what happened here, it’s close enough to describe Thompson’s departure as inevitable.

All this change comes in the wake of a massive restructuring he was in the midst of at Yahoo, after 2,000 employee layoffs.

Thompson was pushing forward a vision of adding a much more significant data and commerce element to Yahoo’s largely ad-based business.

That is likely to be less stressed under media-focused Levinsohn, who will be essentially trying out to be the permanent CEO.

Well known in the media and advertising communities, he has worked at a number of big online efforts over many years.

According to his bio at Yahoo, where he arrived in 2010:

He previously served as the President of News Corporation’s Fox Interactive Media, where he was responsible for the day-to-day operations, strategy and acquisitions that helped transformed the company into a leader in digital media. He also held senior management positions with AltaVista, an early pioneer and leader in search, CBS Sportsline where he oversaw all content and development for the top rated sports site, and HBO where he launched and oversaw a unit developing new programming and revenue streams. Levinsohn also was the co-founder and managing director of Fuse Capital, an investment and strategic equity management firm focused on investing in and building digital media and communications companies.

Levinsohn sits on the board of Freedom Communications and the Bogart Pediatric Cancer Research Program. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from The American University.

So far in my checking, Levinsohn’s resume is accurate.

More to come, obviously.

I have emails and texts and calls into everyone for comment, but apparently they are all out at a Mother’s Day brunch (except me).

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120513/exclusive-yahoos-thompson-out-levinsohn-in-board-settlement-with-loeb-nears-completion/feed/ 0 Heidrick & Struggles Slaps Back at Thompson's Yahoo in Blame Game Over ResuMess http://allthingsd.com/20120511/heidrick-struggles-slaps-back-at-thompsons-yahoo-in-blame-game/ http://allthingsd.com/20120511/heidrick-struggles-slaps-back-at-thompsons-yahoo-in-blame-game/#comments Sat, 12 May 2012 01:39:30 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=207190

And it just gets worse in the controversy over Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson and the circumstances around how a fake computer science degree could get onto his bio.

Heidrick & Struggles is smacking back at him for insinuating that the well-known headhunting firm had messed up his resume.

In meetings with employees to attempt to explain the situation yesterday, multiple sources said that Thompson claimed that a mistake made by a headhunting firm in mid-2000, when he was moving to a job at eBay, was the way the inaccuracy got into his bio.

Thompson did not name the firm, but he was clearly referring to Heidrick & Struggles, which handled that placement. It was also working on the Yahoo CEO search, after the Silicon Valley Internet giant fired its former CEO Carol Bartz last fall.

But, because it had originally placed Thompson at eBay, the firm did not work on his hiring at Yahoo.

So, Heidrick was not going to take Thompson’s blame for the botched bio.

“While we were not involved in this placement, there have been both direct and indirect mentions of this relationship in several news articles. Furthermore, if recent media reports are accurate, the CEO of Yahoo! has made potentially damaging allegations about our firm that are simply not true and cannot be allowed to stand in the public record,” wrote CEO Kevin Kelly to staff. “The media articles in question have indicated that the Yahoo! CEO told members of his senior staff that, many years ago, a junior member of our firm invented an academic credential for him in the course of preparing standard profile materials. Based on information in our possession, this allegation is verifiably not true and we have notified Yahoo! to that effect.”

This letter is just another brick in what is looking like an insurmountable wall for Thompson to keep his job at Yahoo. Sources said that the board of Yahoo had been sent a letter from Heidrick on the matter earlier today.

And, let me just say, this latest eruption is simply not good for Thompson’s chances to remain CEO for much longer.

Yahoo declined to comment, but here is the full letter from Kelly to its staff:

Colleagues,

Heidrick & Struggles’ clients across the globe place their trust in our professionalism and discretion, as we assist them in their most significant leadership decisions. We regard that trust as one of our most valuable corporate assets. As such, we do not often comment on internal matters involving our clients. However, recent press accounts have reported statements that contain misstatements of fact and criticisms of our professional services that require a response from us.

As many of you have seen, there has been recent focus on the CEO appointment at one of our long-term clients, Yahoo!. While we were not involved in this placement, there have been both direct and indirect mentions of this relationship in several news articles. Furthermore, if recent media reports are accurate, the CEO of Yahoo! has made potentially damaging allegations about our firm that are simply not true and cannot be allowed to stand in the public record. The media articles in question have indicated that the Yahoo! CEO told members of his senior staff that, many years ago, a junior member of our firm invented an academic credential for him in the course of preparing standard profile materials. Based on information in our possession, this allegation is verifiably not true and we have notified Yahoo! to that effect.

This is why I am writing to you today. All of us at Heidrick & Struggles take our responsibility to our clients very seriously, and it is important for us to set the record straight when our good work and reputation are called into question.

The issue surrounding Yahoo! underscores the importance and impact of the work we do for all of our clients — helping them build the best leadership teams possible. Our clients place their trust in us each day, and we have developed strong policies and procedures over our nearly 60-year history to serve them.

On behalf of the management team and Board of Directors, thank you for your continued support and dedication to Heidrick & Struggles.

Best,
Kevin
L. Kevin Kelly
Chief Executive Officer
Heidrick & Struggles

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120511/heidrick-struggles-slaps-back-at-thompsons-yahoo-in-blame-game/feed/ 0 Exclusive: Yahoo Director in Charge of Botched CEO Vetting to Step Down From Board http://allthingsd.com/20120508/exclusive-yahoo-director-in-charge-of-botched-ceo-vetting-to-step-down-from-board/ http://allthingsd.com/20120508/exclusive-yahoo-director-in-charge-of-botched-ceo-vetting-to-step-down-from-board/#comments Tue, 08 May 2012 15:50:13 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=205076

CSLie has claimed its first victim, although the mystery is still unsolved.

Patti Hart — the Yahoo director in charge of the search that resulted in the hiring of Scott Thompson as its CEO, making her directly responsible for a clearly botched vetting of his academic record — will not stand for re-election to the board at the next annual meeting, according to sources close to the situation.

Hart — who is CEO of International Game Technology, which makes electronic gaming equipment and systems products — is resigning. Apparently, said sources, her own board asked her to remove herself from the Yahoo mess to better focus on the company she actually runs.

But she is perhaps just a few steps ahead of being pushed, given her key role in the hiring of Thompson, who was president of eBay’s PayPal payments unit when he cold-emailed Yahoo director and Intuit CEO Brad Smith seeking the job.

A Yahoo spokesman declined to comment.

[UPDATE: Yahoo confirmed the inevitable departure later in the day and said the Yahoo board would have nine members going forward. Hart also released a statement, confirming the move.]
Hart, who came to the Yahoo board in 2010, has been head of its corporate governance and nominating committee.

The departure makes her the first casualty — but definitely not the last — of the controversy over how a fake college degree managed to get in Yahoo’s regulatory filings via Thompson’s inaccurate bio.

The issues around how Thompson was hired — including how background checks on him failed to discover that he never got a CS degree from the Boston area’s Stonehill College, as his longtime bio on eBay had claimed — are part of a new investigation by the board.

That will be officially announced later today, along with the hiring of an outside law firm to conduct the probe, which will be headed by independent director Fred Amoroso.

[UPDATE: Yahoo officially said it was forming a special committee to look at Thompson's bio snafu and the circumstances around his hiring. Along with Amoroso, the other members are John Hayes and Thomas McInerney, independent directors who joined the board in April.

"The special committee and the entire Board appreciate the urgency of the situation and the special committee will therefore conduct the review in an independent, thorough and expeditious manner," a statement from Yahoo said.

Interestingly, the statement did not include a show of support for Thompson, which often happens in such circumstances.]

They will have a lot to investigate. Such as this mystery: Thompson’s correct bio appeared in filings eBay made with the Securities and Exchange Commission, while Yahoo’s similar documents were inaccurate about his educational credentials.

Also under scrutiny: How the falsehood was added to Thompson’s public resume, and who put it there; why Thompson never noticed the error, there since at least 2004; why he declined to correct it when asked directly about it; and who at Yahoo might have known about the problem before the hiring.

It’s a basic case of who, what, where, when and how. And, most of all, why anyone would make such a dumb mistake.

Hart would seem to have all the answers to that, along with a forensic firm that worked on the vetting. Key Yahoo staffers were also involved, said sources, although its headhunting firm on the CEO search, Heidrick & Struggles, was not used in relation to Thompson.

Presumably, there is a paper trail of some sort, which was the subject of a legal demand by activist shareholder Daniel Loeb of Third Point yesterday. He uncovered the bio error last week, in the middle of pressing a proxy fight to garner board seats.

Loeb’s allegations also nailed Hart in much-less-egregious padding of her own college record, making it appear as if she had economics and marketing degrees. She has one in business administration, with “specialties” (Yahoo’s ridonkulous word, not mine) in economics and marketing.

While Hart’s leaving might assuage some, providing a convenient scapegoat to the bizarre situation, this is by no means over for Yahoo or Thompson.

Another increasingly potent issue is the ever-declining morale at the Silicon Valley Internet giant over the company’s odd response — it initially called the bio problem an “inadvertent error,” without further explanation — and also Thompson’s lack of transparency on the issue.

He released an email to employees last night, apologizing for the “distraction” of the resume issue, but not for the error itself.

That, and other of Thompson’s actions — he has been described to me, by many close to the situation, as defiant over the issue, and as blaming Loeb for conducting a personal vendetta — did not sit well with many, both inside and outside Yahoo.

A Yahoo spokeswoman told me earlier this week that there is much support for Thompson internally and externally, but declined to provide specifics.

But message boards I read were mostly negative about him, as are a plethora of direct emails to me on the situation. One clever commenter on this site bemoaned that Thompson might get off “Scott-free.”

Ouch! Nonetheless, the atmosphere at Yahoo is indeed unsettled.

“Sentiment from employees is unanimous that he must go,” said a Yahoo employee, who has no personal agenda that I can grok, in a common refrain. “He clearly knew and lied for years; and his handling since exposed has been unacceptable.”

Unacceptable or not, though, Hart is the only one going for now. But stay tuned.

Until then, here’s an appearance I made today on WSJ.com to talk about Hart’s departure:


[ See post to watch video ]

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120508/exclusive-yahoo-director-in-charge-of-botched-ceo-vetting-to-step-down-from-board/feed/ 0 As Yahoo CEO Reaches Out to Top Staff, Board Meets to Weigh "Options" (I.E., Deciding Who Gets to Take the Borked Bio Blame) http://allthingsd.com/20120506/as-yahoo-ceo-reaches-out-to-top-staff-board-meets-to-weigh-options-i-e-figuring-out-who-gets-to-take-the-borked-bio-blame/ http://allthingsd.com/20120506/as-yahoo-ceo-reaches-out-to-top-staff-board-meets-to-weigh-options-i-e-figuring-out-who-gets-to-take-the-borked-bio-blame/#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 03:27:43 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=204185

Even as Yahoo’s board was kibitzing all weekend about how to handle the continuing resume-padding controversy around its recently hired CEO Scott Thompson — including hiring its own outside crisis communications firm to represent it — he was working the phones to keep top staff apprised of the evolving situation.

While Thompson told those he spoke to that he was limited in what he could say and blamed a “personal vendetta” by an activist shareholder for his troubles, being proactive in this regard is probably a good idea.

That’s because multiple sources said he said exactly nothing in various strategy meetings with top employees last week about allegations leveled by Dan Loeb of Third Point, which proved correct, that Thompson had not gotten a computer science degree in college, as his longtime bio had claimed.

“It was the gorilla in the room and it was awkward in the extreme,” said one exec present at the meetings. “He never brought it up, which was even worse.”

At this point, it seems unlikely that Thompson can regain the confidence of many at Yahoo — even though a company spokeswoman said he received a lot of incoming support too, both externally and internally — until he can render some cogent explanation about how the borked bio got into both Yahoo’s public site and also its more critical regulatory filings.

Even more mysteriously, how the error was never present in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission made by eBay, where Thompson led its PayPal payments unit, although his public eBay bio has also been wrong for close to a decade.

And, most of all, how was it that Thompson never caught the mistake himself — even when directly asked about it — despite the likelihood of reviewing it multiple times over those many years and ultimately certifying it for Yahoo’s own SEC filings.

Calling Encyclopedia Brown to solve the Case of the Computer Science Degree That Wasn’t!

Thompson has given no explanation about the debacle to the bulk of the Yahoo staff at all levels, save for an information-free and terse note to employees on Friday afternoon that essentially asked them to focus on their work instead of his bizarre crisis.

Unfortunately for him, many Yahoos are focusing a lot on Thompson, with message boards at the Silicon Valley Internet chastising their CEO and giving him support that is tepid at best. From interviews I have had with two dozen employees this weekend, to say morale is at an all-time low is perhaps understating the situation.

Here is a short selection of comments that were read to me, for example:

“Resume padding is one thing, but lying about something that is so easy to check is puzzling.”

“There is no reason to let it slide by … This isn’t some guy who’s trying to impress a date … It’s sad that we just accept this kind of stuff from corporate heads and politicians.”

“Having some document to prove you can do a job is not all that important, lying about it is.”

What appears to trouble employees the most in the threads I was read was the nonchalance of the initial Yahoo statement about the issue, which called the addition of a fake degree on Thompson’s bio an “inadvertent error.”

“From a pure employee perspective, it feels like it is a violation of their principles,” said one person, reflecting a dozen or more conversations I had this weekend up and down the organization. “And anyone else would probably be immediately fired for this, even with an explanation.”

Said another: “He clearly knew and lied for years; and his handling since exposed has been unacceptable.”

As I noted above, a company spokeswoman said there was also much support for Thompson (pictured here) within the company, but declined to provide any quotes or details.

Presumably, some answers will be coming from a board investigation aimed at getting to the bottom of the situation, including trying to grok who put the error in the bio in the first place.

My bet: They’ll try to pin it on a lower-level minion, although that will not fly with a lot of people.

Including me, because whoever typed in the faux degree, its presence there has been too long for Thompson not to be responsible for it.

Flunky error or not, there are important questions about whether Thompson himself provided a bio that contained the inaccuracy to the board when he put himself forth for the job via direct emails to Yahoo director and Intuit CEO Brad Smith.

That line of thought basically boils down to: Can Thompson not read?

More problematic is the fact that the placement did not come via Yahoo’s headhunter on the CEO search, Heidrick & Struggles, which apparently was not charged with doing a background check on Thompson.

Instead, the director in charge of the search, Patti Hart, sources said, hired another forensic firm, which appears to have missed Thompson’s erroneous academic record.

The only thing completely clear amidst all the confusion: Hart screwed up by botching an extremely simple part of a vetting she was charged with. That makes her vulnerable, of course, along with other Yahoo board members or staffers closely involved in the talent search.

While Hart (pictured here) is in a much dicier position, Thompson still appears to have initial board backing — at least for today — as it’d be a very tough call to fire yet another CEO so quickly in the middle of several key deals for Yahoo, as well as a proxy fight.

Said one person close to the situation, the board is still considering its “options,” in an effort that is being led by independent board member Fred Amoroso.

So, it will be instructive to see how the board will proceed tomorrow — especially since it is likely that Loeb will lob a lawsuit to try to get more information on the Thompson hiring process.

But it’s started by hiring its own outside communications firm, Sard Verbinnen, which has handled other crises for Yahoo in the past.

Sard’s Charles Sipkins — welcome back, Charlie! — had no comment about the board’s next move, except to reiterate its statement from last week that it is looking into the Thompson bio mess and will make appropriate disclosures at some point.

We can’t hardly wait.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120506/as-yahoo-ceo-reaches-out-to-top-staff-board-meets-to-weigh-options-i-e-figuring-out-who-gets-to-take-the-borked-bio-blame/feed/ 0 They Shoot Yahoo CEOs, Don't They? But Not Without a Really Smoking Gun and a Much Stronger Board. http://allthingsd.com/20120505/they-shoot-yahoo-ceos-dont-they-but-not-without-a-really-smoking-gun-and-a-much-stronger-board/ http://allthingsd.com/20120505/they-shoot-yahoo-ceos-dont-they-but-not-without-a-really-smoking-gun-and-a-much-stronger-board/#comments Sat, 05 May 2012 16:33:02 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=203924

Earlier today, Yahoo’s persistent thorn, activist shareholder Dan Loeb of Third Point poison-penned another letter to the board of the Silicon Valley Internet company, demanding that Yahoo fire its new CEO Scott Thompson, as well as director Patti Hart, over bizarre inaccuracies related to their academic achievements.

“Permitting Mr. Thompson and Ms. Hart to stay with the Company after apparently violating the Code of Ethics sends a message to all Yahoo! employees that a different set of rules applies at the top,” Loeb wrote.”[Yahoo must] terminate Mr. Thompson for cause immediately given his demonstrable unsuitability to remain Chief Executive Officer and a director of Yahoo! and accept the resignation of Ms. Hart for similar reasons.”

And while many across the blogosphere — including some very clever tweets — called for his head tout de suite, that’s just not going to happen.

At least for now, at this early point in a controversy over Yahoo filing legal documents that misrepresented Thompson’s long-ago degree from Stonehill College.

In a nutshell: Thompson does not have a computer science degree, as he had maintained he did in public bios for almost a decade, a falsehood that mysteriously seeped into documents Yahoo filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

That’s bad news for Yahoo, for sure, on many levels, but moving against Thompson at this moment is not likely to be the answer — for the short term, at least.

That’s due to many reasons, that I like to think of it as three hopelessly complex puzzles that need solving pronto.

The What-Did-Yahoo-Know-and-When-Did-It-Know-It Question

There is no question the first thing Yahoo’s board needs to do is a thorough investigation to determine how a borked bio could proliferate so widely and for so long.

Most importantly, Yahoo will have to reveal if Thompson actually gave them this incorrect information, as he aggressively lobbied for the then-open CEO job.

As I had previously reported several times, Thompson cold-emailed a Yahoo director — Intuit CEO Brad Smith, as it turns out — despite not being on the list of potential candidates. Thompson was then shuttled over to Hart, who was running the vetting process with the help of headhunting firm Heidrick & Struggles, and hired within weeks.

Oddly, sources said Thompson never filled out the required informational papers for the job, nor did Heidrick conduct the normal background check on him. Instead, another forensic firm Yahoo hired did the work.

If it turns out Thompson gave any of them the bad bio info, it would be quick curtains for him.

But if Yahoo’s board members obtained his info on their own, the next key query would be how no one at Yahoo — especially its legal and compliance staffers, as well as outside help — managed to catch the problem during the vetting of Thompson.

Here are some good questions to start with:

Who put a faux computer science degree on Thompson’s bio in the first place, why and when did it happen?

Where did Yahoo get the inaccurate information?

Who was in charge of checking Thompson’s academic record for Yahoo?

And, who checked the work of the checkers?

The problem is made more complicated, because correct information was easily available in the SEC filings of eBay for years, since Thompson was head of its PayPal payments unit.

While the resume information was indeed wrong on eBay’s Web site and on numerous bios of Thompson for years, how did eBay legally get it right while Yahoo did not?

That calls into question the expertise of the company, its directors and those they hired to make sure execs were completely on the up and up, a task they clearly failed at.

If rank incompetence is the reason, which it looks like it might be, expect certain board members and other Yahoo staffers to go, along with anyone who helped in the Thompson vetting, or lack thereof.

Unless, of course, the gang-that-couldn’t-shoot-straight actually did shoot straight and some one at Yahoo found out about the educational discrepancy before the new CEO was announced, but declined to fix it.

While sinister, such a scenario is not entirely implausible, given how much pressure Yahoo was under at the time to hire a CEO quickly, due to Loeb and his looming proxy fight.

If any evidence were to surface that this was so, it is curtains all around, which would rain the kind of disaster down on Yahoo’s Sunnyvale HQ that would make Loeb’s attacks look like a Nerf battle. Instead, it would be “The Hunger Games” — except that no one survives.

The Chaos-in-Sunnyvale Conundrum

Which brings us to the profound implications of Yahoo jacking its second CEO within six months.

While it’s easy to yell “Fire the CEO” on a crowded Twitter, it’s simply not so easy in practice.

How long did it take Yahoo’s lugubrious board to figure out Carol Bartz needed to go? A … long … time. (And, she had a CS degree!)

More to the point, Thompson — and his not-so-merry band of consultants from Boston Consulting Group and, this week, McKinsey & Company — has only just completed a massive layoff of 2,000 employees and a jarring restructuring of management.

He’s also in the early stages of rolling out a new and decidedly still-squishy strategic plan to top execs (also just this week), along with working on some other key initiatives.

That includes renegotiating its search partnership with Microsoft; noodling around on a possible deal with Google; contemplating the sale of a variety of assets; and — oh, yes — trying to take on social networking Godzilla Facebook over patent infringement.

Busy much?

But, most importantly, Thompson is now the umpteenth Yahoo CEO to be working on the never-ending talks with its Asian partners over selling back a piece of the company’s lucrative stake to them.

While Yahoo CFO Tim Morse and head lawyer Mike Callahan are the point men on the deal, the lack of CEO would be an issue in the now-proceeding again talks.

This is a sale that must — and I underscore must — get done and soon, giving Yahoo much-needed breathing room and a whole lot of cash to fork over to increasingly disgruntled shareholders.

So, expect Yahoo to try to milk that deal for all it’s worth in the coming week, in order to give the appearance, at least, of positive forward momentum.

And, like it or not, Thompson has to play a key role in it getting done.

Thus, the likelihood of wait-and-see over point-and-shoot on Thompson is higher than you might think.

That’s especially true given four members of the board are leaving within six weeks and have either or are in the process of being replaced by new members.

Then, Thompson will be their problem to solve.

Again, no small thing, since the old crew — led by feckless Chairman Roy Bostock — is not likely to want to end its appalling tenure with yet another disaster.

Such a move would further tarnish the legacy of its outgoing directors, although I am not sure how it could be any more sullied, given their consistent record of one bad decision after the next.

What do I really think? I think this cursed board will maintain its 100 percent score of doing the wrong thing at the right time.

It could be a different case with the new directors, of course, who all seem pretty sharp and not as easily impressed by a record of failure.

They will surely be monitoring Thompson carefully, as will employees, who have taken to internal message boards with a rage not seen in a while over the resume debacle.

Their morale might be one uncertainty impacting Thompson’s fate. If a lot of key employees continue to bolt Yahoo or those remaining more loudly express their disdain for the bio antics, the new directors might listen.

The Whatever-Loeb-Says-We-Won’t-Do-Till-Later Head-Scratcher

Which brings us back to Loeb, whose noisy campaign to grab seats on the Yahoo board has certainly hit home this week.

And, though Yahoo likes to ding him a lot, since he started his campaign of terribly entertaining investor terror, a lot of what he’s been calling for has happened.

That includes a major flushing of the board — with five longtime members, including co-founder Jerry Yang, going, going and gone.

In addition, Loeb brought pressure to slow down some questionable deals, from Yahoo’s PIPE dream to a tax-free spinoff in Asia in a deal only an accountant could love.

He’s also — though they try to deny it — got the Yahoo directors in the dangerous habit of reacting to him, rather than playing their own game.

While the Yahoo board has resisted any deal with Loeb (pictured here), blaming him for rejecting their kind offers of settlement, it is he who is setting the tone more than Yahoo.

And that tone is of alarm and trouble and chaos at Yahoo.

That’s not going to work to convince other Yahoo investors to back his cause — in fact, Loeb has a decidedly uphill battle to win his proxy challenge — he has still scored a direct win with the bio relevations.

So far, though, Loeb has not sunk Yahoo’s battleship, so it is unlikely the board will acquiesce to his latest demand of Thompson being fired by noon on Monday.

Maybe it will eventually, or maybe it will just scold Thompson or maybe it will do nothing at all.

All that is an unknown — a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, with a lot of managerial incompetence thrown in. And that, most of all, is the sad definition of today’s Yahoo.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120505/they-shoot-yahoo-ceos-dont-they-but-not-without-a-really-smoking-gun-and-a-much-stronger-board/feed/ 0 How Did a Phantom CS Degree Get on CEO's Bio in SEC Filings? Yahoo's Not Saying. http://allthingsd.com/20120503/how-did-phantom-cs-degree-get-on-ceos-bio-in-sec-filings-yahoos-not-saying/ http://allthingsd.com/20120503/how-did-phantom-cs-degree-get-on-ceos-bio-in-sec-filings-yahoos-not-saying/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 23:08:24 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=203523

Back in early 2008 when Scott Thompson got the job as president of eBay’s PayPal, the regulatory filing accurately listed his educational pedigree:

“Mr. Thompson holds a B.S. degree in Accounting from Stonehill College.”

The eBay filings over the next several years — until he left the online commerce giant for a much bigger job as CEO of Yahoo in January of this year — remained consistent.

But, curiously, Thompson’s bio on eBay’s Web site added an additional degree to his curriculum vitae for more than a half-dozen years, different from its Securities and Exchange Commission documents:

“Scott received a bachelor’s in accounting and computer science from Stonehill College.”

As it turned out, according to the Boston-area school, he had not gotten a computer science degree at all and graduated with the Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration (Accounting).

An eBay spokesman I called today had no explanation for the discrepancy, except to note that its legal filings were correct and that it was an error due to the lack of cross-checking the Web bio, which was apparently posted by Thompson’s staff at the time.

Also without explanation — and perhaps more seriously — is that the false computer science degree claim somehow then made it into Yahoo’s SEC filings, as well as his Web site bio, when Thompson took the helm. (The inaccurate line about his schooling is in its latest filing and all others.)

Without providing further explanation of how it got there, Yahoo today called the mistake an “inadvertent error” and said it had no bearing on his ability to lead the Silicon Valley Internet giant.

But the long troubled company might be speaking too soon, given that the revelation was uncovered this morning by activist shareholder Dan Loeb of Third Point. Loeb has called into question the vetting process that Yahoo’s directors did to hire Thompson, as part of a proxy fight he is waging to gain several board seats.

And, while such an allegation is normal for an increasingly nasty battle, Loeb has hit his mark with deadly accuracy this time, putting into question both Thompson’s credibility and Yahoo’s obvious botching in its vetting of him.

“If there is a good explanation for the apparent discrepancies regarding the academic records of Mr. Thompson and Ms. Hart, we are confident that it will be provided promptly,” wrote Loeb in a letter to Yahoo’s board today. “However, in the event that there is no good explanation, we expect the Board to take immediate action.”

The Ms. Hart that Loeb was referring to is Patti Hart, the board member who ran Yahoo’s process for hiring a new CEO after it fired Carol Bartz — who does have a CS degree — last year. (In his letter today, Loeb also correctly called into question how she portrayed her own college degree in a more impressive fashion than was accurate.)

The search for a new Yahoo CEO was conducted by headhunter Heidrick & Struggles, which did not have Thompson on its list of candidates, since it had placed him at eBay many years before.

In fact, according to numerous sources, without involvement by Heidrick, it was Thompson who cold-emailed key Yahoo board members, nominating himself for the CEO job. He was quickly brought in for interviews and, presumably, a thorough vetting.

Despite that and despite the fact that eBay’s SEC filings did not list a computer science degree, Hart or others seem to have totally missed the discrepancies and it was added to Thompson’s official Yahoo bio and legal filings.

It’s not clear what happens next or if there are any legal implications, beyond a needed correction by Yahoo with the SEC — which already took the entire line about Thompson’s education off his Web bio today.

Yahoo’s not talking either, with its spokesperson declining to provide any explanation for its lapse or who had maintained that Thompson had that degree when he did not.

It’s essentially a mistakes-were-made-let’s-move-on defense.

I think not, for my part, and a number of prominent Silicon Valley people I spoke to today agreed that these issues tend to spin out of control.

“This is going to get very messy, very quickly,” said one person in a common sentiment I heard.

Maybe, and it’s not clear if the company has to release any details of how this occurred or if its board needs to investigate the situation.

In addition, Thompson himself is probably not at risk unless it can be definitely proved he was the one who misrepresented having the degree in the first place. He can simply say he had no idea who added it to the eBay Web site and that he did not notice it there on on the Yahoo Web site and SEC filings.

While that makes him look careless, how big a deal it becomes with shareholders, as well as Yahoo employees, is also an unknown. While a computer science degree is not a requirement for a CEO of a tech company — both Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft’s Bill Gates dropped out of college and did pretty well in computer science anyway — tech resume padding, even inadvertent, is not a characteristic that is going endear Thompson to anyone.

Plus, it just handed Loeb a very potent weapon in his fight against Yahoo, the very day after the company said the hedge fund manager’s expertise was not “relevant” to gaining a board seat.

One thing’s for sure: Loeb is most certainly very good at vetting.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120503/how-did-phantom-cs-degree-get-on-ceos-bio-in-sec-filings-yahoos-not-saying/feed/ 0 Yahoo Hopes to Fight Back at Activist Shareholder Third Point With More New Board Members of Its Own http://allthingsd.com/20120322/yahoo-hopes-to-fight-back-at-activist-shareholder-third-point-with-more-new-board-members-of-its-own/ http://allthingsd.com/20120322/yahoo-hopes-to-fight-back-at-activist-shareholder-third-point-with-more-new-board-members-of-its-own/#comments Thu, 22 Mar 2012 20:34:10 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=189323

Yahoo leadership, betting it can stave off a challenge from activist shareholder Daniel Loeb of Third Point, has been stepping up efforts to name three additional new board members to replace directors that are leaving.

Yahoo has already named two of the five open slots — former Rovi CEO Fred Amoroso and LiveOps Chairman (and former CEO) Maynard Webb, who was once COO of eBay.

But now, the company is pushing harder to get the last three on board in light of Third Point’s ever-increasing proxy pressure.

Several sources said that Yahoo’s new CEO Scott Thompson has told people inside and outside the Silicon Valley Internet giant that the threat from Third Point, which owns almost six percent of the company, is not as worrisome as some think it could be.

Thus, Yahoo’s headhunting firm Heidrick & Struggles has been contacting a number of high-profile media players about joining the board, including former News Corp. execs Peter Chernin and Tony Vinciquerra, as well as former MTV head Judy McGrath.

Both Chernin and Vinciquerra, sources said, have turned down the prospect of joining the Yahoo board in the midst of a possible proxy battle, along with other massive changes taking place.

Yahoo has not yet been successful at landing the remaining directors.

Meanwhile, Loeb, via saucy letters and filings, has been aggressively making a case that Yahoo should add his alternate slate of directors, including former NBC head Jeff Zucker, to the board. He recently submitted preliminary proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

That’s because his cursory discussions with Thompson have apparently led nowhere, causing him to also publicly call for Yahoo to pay more attention to Third Point’s board selections.

If Yahoo names more directors to replace outgoing ones, it will be a slap in the face to Loeb, followed by inevitable ground battle war for investor votes.

Yes, that too.

Here’s a video from the WSJ.com’s “Digits” online tech show I did on the topic:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120322/yahoo-hopes-to-fight-back-at-activist-shareholder-third-point-with-more-new-board-members-of-its-own/feed/ 0 Confirmed: Yahoo Names PayPal Head Scott Thompson as New CEO http://allthingsd.com/20120104/confirmed-yahoo-names-paypal-head-scott-thompson-as-new-head/ http://allthingsd.com/20120104/confirmed-yahoo-names-paypal-head-scott-thompson-as-new-head/#comments Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:08:53 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=159711

As I reported late last night, Yahoo said it had named PayPal President Scott Thompson as its new CEO. The exec is currently in charge of the large eBay online payments unit.

He’ll start next week, but there are staff conference calls today and also an all-hands meeting on Yahoo’s main Silicon Valley campus (meet at URLs, troops!) tomorrow.

Yahoo shares are down almost three percent on the news so far, as Wall Street has been hoping for a big sale of some sort and not another turnaround.

Yahoo will be holding a 7 am PT press conference about the move and presumably to swan around Thompson.

(Welcome, Scott! I hope you were informed — please do not listen to what co-founder Jerry Yang says on this important issue — that you are supposed to send all internal memos to me! Also, as one of my Twitter followers, Mike Dudas of Google just tweeted: “If Thompson leads companies as well as he grows a moustache, Yahoo made a great CEO choice!!” I concur.)

A Yahoo PR person confirmed the hire very cordially in a phone call early this morning and the Internet giant also put out a press release.

So did I, of a sort, last night. Given I am too tired to rewrite myself, here is what I had reported:

The company fired its last CEO, Carol Bartz, in September, and Yahoo has been run by the board and also by interim CEO Tim Morse, who had previously been its CFO.

After Bartz’s ouster, Yahoo said it was looking at a range of strategic options, including the possible sale of all or part of the company.

That was the focus at first, although Yahoo had simultaneously hired Heidrick & Struggles to look for a new CEO.

The company attracted two partial investment bids from private equity firms, Silver Lake and TPG Capital, but shareholders were unhappy with the low prices of these so-called PIPE — Private Investment in Public Equity — arrangements.

Yahoo then moved to try to strike a tax-advantaged deal with its long disgruntled Asian partners, China’s Alibaba Group and Japan’s SoftBank, to sell back parts of the large stakes it has long owned in Alibaba and Yahoo! Japan.

Those complex negotiations are still ongoing and look promising, which could yield Yahoo billions of dollars in capital to be given to investors, for stock buybacks or to invest in new initiatives.

Since then, the board — long considered one of the more cloddish in tech — has turned its attention to hiring a new CEO, in the hopes of trying once again to revive its flagging fortunes.

Thus, it began looking to hire someone with deep tech experience at a large public consumer Internet company in Silicon Valley.

That narrowed the field, with Yahoo looking at a range of choices with expertise in advertising, technology platforms and more.

There is a lot of that on the deep bench that eBay CEO John Donahoe has assembled at the online commerce giant, including Thompson.

Plus, he is a genuine Internet geek.

According to his eBay bio, Thompson became president of PayPal in early 2008, after serving as its CTO in charge of information technology, product development and architecture.

Before eBay, he worked at Inovant, a subsidiary of Visa formed to oversee global technology for the organization. He was also CIO of Barclays Global Investors and has worked at Coopers and Lybrand on information technology.

And here’s a tasty new wrinkle: Thompson recently “liked” Yahoo on his Facebook page, along with the decidedly more interesting Kickstarter and Splunk.

Again, Scott, thanks for the Facebook tip — I knew the social networking site could come in handy!

(Also, here is an interview I did with him post-announcement.)

And here is Yahoo’s official press release where Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock says nice stuff about Thompson:

YHOO_News_2012_1_4_General

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120104/confirmed-yahoo-names-paypal-head-scott-thompson-as-new-head/feed/ 0 Here Are Some More Yahoo CEO Choices: Liddell, Rosenblatt, Desmond http://allthingsd.com/20111227/heres-some-more-yahoo-ceo-choices-liddell-rosenblatt-desmond/ http://allthingsd.com/20111227/heres-some-more-yahoo-ceo-choices-liddell-rosenblatt-desmond/#comments Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:12:20 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=157034

It’s the typically newsless time around Christmas and New Year’s, but for once there has actually been a lot going on at Yahoo.

Last week, the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s typically moribund board decided to move ahead with negotiations to sell part of its stake in China’s Alibaba Group, as well as all of its shares in Yahoo Japan.

While that is still not a done deal, it adds clarity to the Yahoo mishegas, as current leaders there seek to turn around the company’s lagging fortunes.

Now, as Yahoo continues to contemplate a pair of partial investment bids by private equity firms Silver Lake and TPG Capital into 2012, more focus will be on the selection of a CEO candidate to take over, sources said.

While I have floated some names that have been contemplated — such as Hulu CEO Jason Kilar, Juniper CEO Kevin Johnson, former aQuantive and Microsoft exec Brian McAndrews, and board member David Kenny — I have collected some more that seem to be getting the once-over and are being mentioned internally as well as externally.

Sources said that the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee at Yahoo, which is run by independent director Patti Hart, has been looking for someone with definite public company experience, as well as expertise in large-scale management.

As to talent, candidates seem to be either good at running big platforms, or deeply knowledgeable about advertising and media as well as technology.

Another important criteria, said sources: Someone who is “collaborative” and nonconfrontational. As in, not like the former and very pugnacious CEO Carol Bartz, who was fired in September.

Thus, here’s another trio of candidates to consider, while we wait — and who knows how long that will be given that the Asian activity could have tired out for a bit this usually slow-moving board:

Chris Liddell: The former CFO of Microsoft is an interesting name that just popped up recently, and it makes some sense when you think about the possible mindset of the Yahoo board.

Liddell, who has a charming New Zealand accent, did a short stint, from January of 2010 to March of this year, as CFO at General Motors. Recently married to another former Microsoft exec, he has since been living in New York.

He apparently loves living in the Big Apple.

But when he left GM, Liddell made it clear he wanted to go for a top job next. He was among the candidates for a recent search for a CEO of Time Warner’s Time Inc. (an effort that was run by exec search firm Heidrick & Struggles, which is also conducting the Yahoo hunt).

Known as tough and decisive, he certainly is qualified to deal with complex financial situations, such as the one in which Yahoo now finds itself knee-deep. One knock: Little product or advertising experience.

Laura Desmond: While certainly a dark horse, Desmond has been queried by Heidrick, said several sources.

She is CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group, a subsidiary of Publicis, one of the largest media planning and buying agencies, making Desmond one of advertising’s most prominent players.

Well-known in Yahoo’s key market, she is considered a savvy and smart exec with a wry sense of humor.

I happen to particularly like one line from one of her bios:

“Ms. Desmond’s career has been driven by two caveats: Take intelligent risks and learn more from failure than from success.”

She could learn a lot at Yahoo. (I know, easy jab, but it works!)

David Rosenblatt: The former DoubleClick CEO, who went on to a big ad job at Google after it paid $3.2 billion for the company, is also a long shot, mostly by his own choosing.

The sharp exec is always on the short list of CEO candidates for a lot of big, splashy online jobs, but he seems to want to swim his own way.

Case in point: He was recently named CEO of New York-based 1stdibs, a relatively obscure online marketplace known among antique dealers and interior designers looking for one-of-a-kind furniture, art and lighting.

Yes, that’s right: Fancy lamps.

Rosenblatt also serves on the boards at Group Commerce, Twitter and IAC.

All that Internet ad and e-commerce experience is exactly why Rosenblatt would be one of the better choices for CEO of Yahoo. But, for him, I would guess taking such a job is probably in the life’s-too-short category.

More to come, obvi!

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111227/heres-some-more-yahoo-ceo-choices-liddell-rosenblatt-desmond/feed/ 0 Potential Yahoo CEO David Kenny Now Much More Available http://allthingsd.com/20111026/potential-yahoo-ceo-david-kenny-now-much-more-available/ http://allthingsd.com/20111026/potential-yahoo-ceo-david-kenny-now-much-more-available/#comments Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:34:21 +0000 Peter Kafka http://allthingsd.com/?p=137055

Akamai president David Kenny has stepped down after a year on the job — and in the midst of Yahoo’s CEO search, where his name has come up as a possible replacement for fired CEO Carol Bartz.

Kenny is also a Yahoo board member — joining early last year — and had quickly become one of the major forces in pushing for change at the company in the wake of the troubled Bartz regime.

In a statement distributed along with Akamai’s Q3 earnings, Kenny said he wants to “to return to my first passion of pursuing emerging opportunities on the consumer Internet.”

You can decide for yourself whether Yahoo represents an “emerging” opportunity or something else.

Sources said the departure from the networking company was mutual, although there has been an increasing amount of tension over Kenny’s involvement on the Yahoo board, which has been working on a massive strategic review.

Kenny, who was the initial leader of the effort, stepped down from that board task and also recused himself from any involvement in the simultaneous search for a new CEO.

Whether he will get the job is not a done deal by any means. He is among several candidates Yahoo has been contemplating pursuing, after only recently hiring Heidrick & Struggles for its executive search.

In fact, it’s not entirely clear Kenny wants to be CEO of Yahoo or if he would want to return to his roots at a consumer advertising agency. Another issue: He currently lives in Boston.

Before coming to Akamai, he was managing partner of VivaKi, the media and digital arm of marketing giant, Publicis Groupe. He came to the French concern after it bought relationship marketing services firm Digitas, which Kenny ran.

All that advertising experience is one of the reasons he is being looked at by Yahoo, which is contemplating doubling down in online advertising platforms and products if it does not sell.

Many assumed that Kenny’s move to the Web platform company meant that it would become more actively involved in Web media itself. But Akamai didn’t make any major moves or acquisitions during his tenure.

Meanwhile, back at Akamai, Kenny’s title will be assumed by CEO Paul Sagan, who had previously served as president as well.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111026/potential-yahoo-ceo-david-kenny-now-much-more-available/feed/ 0 Exclusive: Yahoo Hires Heidrick & Struggles for CEO Search http://allthingsd.com/20111013/exlcusive-yahoo-hires-heidrick-struggles-for-ceo-search/ http://allthingsd.com/20111013/exlcusive-yahoo-hires-heidrick-struggles-for-ceo-search/#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2011 23:53:18 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=132200

According to sources close to the situation, Yahoo has hired Heidrick & Struggles for its CEO search.

It will be a dicey job, since the effort is on a separate track than the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s wide-ranging strategic review, which is looking at a range of options including the sale of the company.

That’s why many see the move as window-dressing for Yahoo’s board, rather than any real interest in hiring a new leader.

Sources said that will make the search a difficult one for Yahoo, since any CEO candidate would be coming into a very volatile situation. In addition, Yahoo has been struggling — Struggles, struggling, get it? — to recharge its advertising and search business and also its product innovation cycle.

That’s the reason — among several others — that the board of Yahoo suddenly fired its former CEO Carol Bartz last month.

Heidrick has worked for Yahoo previously, in the now ill-conceived placement of Bartz by partner John Thompson. A different partner will be handling this assignment, sources said.

The pool of possible CEOs to lead Yahoo is not a large one, but could includes execs such as Juniper Networks CEO Kevin Johnson, Chegg CEO Dan Rosensweig, Skype CEO Tony Bates, John Pleasants of Disney’s Playdom, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and any number of top Google execs, as well as Yahoo board member and Akamai President David Kenny.

(I am, of course, waiting by the phone for the call.)

A Yahoo spokeswoman declined to comment.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111013/exlcusive-yahoo-hires-heidrick-struggles-for-ceo-search/feed/ 0 Think You Can Help AOL Keep Hackers at Bay? Here's the Job for You. http://allthingsd.com/20110303/think-you-can-help-aol-keep-hackers-at-bay-heres-the-job-for-you/ http://allthingsd.com/20110303/think-you-can-help-aol-keep-hackers-at-bay-heres-the-job-for-you/#comments Thu, 03 Mar 2011 23:00:19 +0000 Arik Hesseldahl http://newenterprise.allthingsd.com/?p=3712 Think you’ve got what it takes to protect the likes of Arianna Huffington, Michael Arrington and millions of AOL Instant Messenger users from hackers and other digital troublemakers? Can you both handle the new “AOL Culture” and take “dramatic, symbolic actions” that “inspire and energize others”? If you can, and if you also have more than 10 years of experience in the IT security industry, a degree in computer science plus an MBA, and if you don’t mind living in Dulles, Va., then we have the job for you. At AOL.

The company is looking for a new vice president of IT security who will report directly to CIO Bill McGrath. A source who obtained a copy of the eight-page job description being circulated by executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles was kind enough to send it along to me.

AOL is of course on an acquisitive tear, adding new properties all the time, and thus making the job of a new head of security ever more complex. It recently spent $315 million to acquire The Huffington Post and five months ago acquired TechCrunch.

The document below doesn’t mention compensation, but my source was told the pay range is in the mid-200s. It’s been awhile since AOL itself has been the target of a security breach, at least of the kind that makes headlines. Of course there was today’s distributed denial of service attack against WordPress.com which apparently affected Techcrunch for some time today. If you think you’re the one who’s up to the task, the job description is below. Enjoy.

aolvpsecurity

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110303/think-you-can-help-aol-keep-hackers-at-bay-heres-the-job-for-you/feed/ 0 Exclusive: Major Meltdown at Yahoo as More Top Execs to Depart, Including U.S. Head Hilary Schneider http://allthingsd.com/20100929/exclusive-major-meltdown-at-yahoo-as-more-top-execs-to-depart-including-u-s-head-hilary-schneider/ http://allthingsd.com/20100929/exclusive-major-meltdown-at-yahoo-as-more-top-execs-to-depart-including-u-s-head-hilary-schneider/#comments Wed, 29 Sep 2010 23:21:20 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=34461

The executive turmoil at the very top of Yahoo continues, with the company poised to announce the resignations of three top execs, including U.S. head Hilary Schneider (pictured here), according to sources close to the situation.

The other execs also leaving, which Yahoo (YHOO) is planning on revealing Friday: U.S. Audience head David Ko and, as BoomTown previously reported, VP of Media Jimmy Pitaro.

While some at Yahoo are trying to spin it as an ouster, sources close to the situation said that Schneider–who presides over media and advertising sales at Yahoo–has wanted to leave the company for a while, but was convinced to stay on by CEO Carol Bartz.

Schneider will, in fact, stay at Yahoo while it searches for her replacement. Heidrick & Struggles had already been headhunting candidates for her job in recent weeks.

Why Ko, who works directly for Schneider, is leaving now is uncertain, although sources said a lot of product control over properties under him is being moved over to Chief Product Officer Blake Irving.

Irving was hired several months ago by Bartz, and he has brought in many former colleagues from Microsoft (MSFT) to top product jobs at the company. And he’s appeared to have won the latest corporate power play too.

This entire mess–and that’s precisely what it is–calls into question the tenure of Bartz, a tough-talking, cost-cutting exec who was brought in to clean up Yahoo after the maelstrom around the failed takeover attempt by Microsoft several years ago.

She replaced co-founder Jerry Yang and came in with guns blazing and styling herself as an agent of change.

Except not too much as changed–except for finally striking a search technology deal with Microsoft–as the exodus of talent from Yahoo increases, advertising revenue growth is anemic, innovation is stalled, metrics are weak and the stock remains moribund.

In addition, Bartz’s frequent shoot-from-the-hip remarks appear to have alienated a number of partners, most recently in Asia.

This week, according to sources, some board members had an emergency meeting at Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, Calif., HQ to try to figure out how to deal with the burgeoning management issue.

Some speculate that they will hire a second-in-command to Bartz, who might be able to take over for her when her contract is up in 18 months.

Yahoo declined to comment.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100929/exclusive-major-meltdown-at-yahoo-as-more-top-execs-to-depart-including-u-s-head-hilary-schneider/feed/ 47 Yahoo Poised to Name New International Head–After Five-Month Look-See at the Crowned Web Heads of Europe http://allthingsd.com/20090817/yahoo-poised-to-name-new-international-head-after-five-month-look-see-at-the-crowned-web-heads-of-europe/ http://allthingsd.com/20090817/yahoo-poised-to-name-new-international-head-after-five-month-look-see-at-the-crowned-web-heads-of-europe/#comments Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:24:43 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=17734 austin_danger_powers_mike_myers

Yahoo is closer to naming a new international head, according to sources, the last big slot left in the top management structure of CEO Carol Bartz.

While BoomTown is endeavoring to get the name of this international man of mystery, several sources said the company has come close to settling on a London-based media exec, who will move to and operate out of its Sunnyvale, Calif., HQ in Silicon Valley.

But it is unclear if or when a final appointment will be made.

That exec could be a lot of people, since Yahoo’s headhunter for the job–Heidrick & Struggles–has pretty much talked to the gamut of international Web muckety-mucks since the search started six months ago.

The many chatted up include: Former Bebo head Joanna Shields (nope, she has a noncompete from AOL); former Joost CEO Mike Volpi (nope, he just landed as a VC at Index Ventures), Microsoft (MSFT) consumer and online man in Britain Ashley Highfield (hmm, would he move so quickly after jumping from Project Kangaroo and the BBC?) and Gavin Patterson, head of the BT Retail unit.

But Yahoo could also opt for a more traditional media exec, said some sources.

In a memo to Yahoo staff after her reorganization in February, Bartz said that “international growth is critical for Yahoo!, which has become too reliant on its U.S. business over the years.”

Still, that key job remains unfilled, in an arena Yahoo has dropped the ball in recently, even as more nimble competitors like Google (GOOG) and Facebook thrive.

In the Yahoo (YHOO) management chart posted below, Bartz has filled the CFO role with Tim Morse and the customer advocacy slot with Jeff Russakow.

Without an international head, the three regional heads worldwide–Rose Tsou (Asia), Rich Riley (Europe) and Keith Nilsson (Emerging Markets)–have continued to report to Bartz. The U.S. region–Yahoo’s most significant market–is headed by Hilary Schneider.

Here is the Yahoo top management org chart, released back in February (click on it to make it larger):

orgchart

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090817/yahoo-poised-to-name-new-international-head-after-five-month-look-see-at-the-crowned-web-heads-of-europe/feed/ 0 Bartz to Be Named Yahoo CEO: Now What's Next? http://allthingsd.com/20090113/bartz-to-be-yahoo-ceo-now-what-next/ http://allthingsd.com/20090113/bartz-to-be-yahoo-ceo-now-what-next/#comments Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:12:21 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=8447

It looks like Carol Bartz will be taking on the thankless role as new Yahoo CEO.

Sources close to the situation told BoomTown–which had first named the former Autodesk CEO the top pick last week–that Bartz (pictured here) has been approved for the job by the Yahoo board and has accepted it.

The Wall Street Journal is also reporting the move.

The pick is one of the safest Yahoo (YHOO) could have made, which is typical for it, choosing an experienced and strong public company CEO, but one without a lot of experience in advertising or the Web 2.0 Internet.

Sources close to the CEO search said that the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company’s headhunter, Heidrick & Struggles, has told many that Yahoo would also be looking for a strong No. 2 with more Internet and product experience if a CEO with less online background was selected.

Candidates for that position are numerous.

That job is not likely to fall to its current incumbent, Yahoo President Sue Decker, although Bartz could choose to keep Decker, given her experience and depth of knowledge about Yahoo.

But it could be a little odd, too, if Decker stays, since she was also vying for the CEO job and was one of the top internal candidates.

But sources close to the Yahoo board said that many inside and outside the company would have reacted badly to a Decker appointment as CEO, given that she has been No. 2 to outgoing Yahoo CEO and Co-founder Jerry Yang.

The pair have presided over a decline in Yahoo’s business and an even deeper one of its stock.

Sources who have spoken to Decker said it is more likely she will leave the company, and had stayed this long out of loyalty to Yang.

Most controversially, some are concerned about Bartz’s possible closeness to Decker and Yang–Bartz serves on the Cisco (CSCO) board with Yang and the Intel (INTC) board with Decker–seeing the choice as an attempt by Yang to stay in power at Yahoo.

Yahoo’s board has also gotten a lot more rebuffs from outside execs than expected for the top spot, because of its major challenges. While rich in assets and online traffic, the company has suffered over the last year from a range of internal and external troubles.

In a reaction piece to the possibility of making Bartz the CEO of Yahoo I posted last week, the reaction was mixed, with some lauding it as an important move to steady the long troubled company, while others called it problematic for the Yahoo leader not to have a deep Web background.

One thing is sure: Bartz does know tech, unlike former CEO Terry Semel, who hailed from Hollywood. And she also knows how to run a company like clockwork, unlike Yang, who–while inspirational–has had a rocky tenure and has been considered weak in execution.

With an upcoming fourth-quarter results report on Jan. 27 likely to be a disaster, Bartz will have a lot on her plate, including working out a much expected search partnership with Microsoft (MSFT) and deciding what to do about the constipated deal to buy Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL.

And, oh yes, fix Yahoo’s troubled graphical ad business and weak morale!

Early investor response to Bartz has been muted, at best, despite her solid credentials.

Bartz, 60, is certainly an experienced and very well-regarded tech exec, with the talent to turn things around. She served as chairman, president and CEO for 14 years at the San Rafael, Calif.-based Autodesk, which makes computer-aided design software for engineers.

While there, Bartz presided over huge growth at Autodesk (ADSK), stepping down in April of 2006 to spend more time with her family, and has since served as its executive chairman.

She also put in stints at other big tech companies, including Sun Microsystems (JAVA), Digital Equipment Corporation and 3M (MMM).

According to her resume on Autodesk’s Web site, Bartz holds an honors degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin.

Bartz is also on the boards of a blue chip list of tech companies and organizations, including Intel, Cisco Systems, NetApp (NTAP), and the Foundation for the National Medals of Science and Technology.

She is also exactly the kind of serious, seasoned public company CEO with tech experience whom Yahoo’s board has told investors and others it is looking for, with skills to pull off mergers and think strategically.

But Bartz also was in charge of a more old-school kind of tech company and has less experience in the faster-moving Web environment that prevails now.

Although she toughed it out successfully, Bartz underwent difficult times during the Web 1.0 era, in fact, when investors were worried about Autodesk’s prospects in the online era.

Most critically, Bartz also has less advertising experience, which is Yahoo’s principal business.

In addition, Autodesk is half the size of Yahoo.

Nonetheless, she is well-liked in the tech community and has ties to key companies Yahoo must deal with, including Microsoft.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090113/bartz-to-be-yahoo-ceo-now-what-next/feed/ 10 Dear Yahoo Board: C'mon, Get On With It (A CEO by Tomorrow Would Be Good) http://allthingsd.com/20081230/dear-yahoo-board-cmon-get-on-with-it-a-ceo-by-tomorrow-would-be-good/ http://allthingsd.com/20081230/dear-yahoo-board-cmon-get-on-with-it-a-ceo-by-tomorrow-would-be-good/#comments Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:00:56 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=7789

BoomTown’s got nothing, which is not something I like to say very much.

I am talking about the Yahoo CEO search, which is either being done by the Internet giant’s board in such elegant secrecy and with such amazing stealth that it is getting by everyone.

That or it’s business as usual for the Yahoo (YHOO) board, which so far has never met a challenge for the company it could not drag out painfully and with great public dithering.

I am hoping, of course, it is the former–that my crack sleuthing skills have been frozen solid here in Buffalo–and the choice will be announced to great fanfare by year’s end (which is, er, tomorrow).

But from reporting I have done over the last several days, the latter seems to be the case and Yahoo might not have a new leader in place for a few weeks at least.

Still, I vote for tomorrow!

But, if I had to make a prediction, Yahoo will pick an external candidate among the several candidates it is vetting now, given the time this has taken and also the need to show Wall Street, investors, their employees and the rest of us it intends to change.

In any case, if Yahoo cannot land someone by the end of January, many sources I spoke to expect the board to pick one of its own–most likely, former Nextel head John Chapple, a new director.

I have also heard that longtime Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) exec, Vyomesh (VJ) Joshi, who runs its massive imaging and printing group, is also a possibility, as well as others on the board.

When Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang announced he was stepping down in mid-November, sources I spoke to said the board was ready to act with urgency and boldness to get a leader in place to drag the company out of the doldrums.

It even made a little list, as I wrote in a post:

The board, though, has apparently made a list of six–I have no idea why that is the number chosen–clear criteria for the new leader of Yahoo.

The first is that the candidate have ‘extensive’ experience as the CEO of a public company. Another calls for media and advertising expertise. And mergers and acquisitions experience. Also strategic skills.”

While sources inside and outside the company say several candidates were considered and contacted, thus far there is no clear front-runner, as some–such as News Corp. (NWS) COO Peter Chernin and former Vodafone (VOD) CEO Arun Sarin–have discounted their interest so far. (News Corp. is the owner of this Web site.)

One response to my progress of the Yahoo CEO search from an insider was typical: “Not a peep. Oddly quiet.”

A major reason for the lack of swiftness might be Yang, who is very involved in the search along with Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock (who might think twice about parking his chauffeured car with his name splashed on it somewhere else than in front of Yahoo, for all the emails I get about sightings of it).

Many sources said Yang is intent on getting the CEO choice just right, given so many other missteps made under his management.

“This is his last act and he is really serious about not making a bad choice,” said one exec who has talked to Yang.

That kind of consideration takes time, of course, even though many think that a bit of decisive speed might be a good thing to see from Yahoo right about now.

Still, with the holidays, as well as the weak economy, Yahoo is no Shangri-La for potential candidates.

In addition, Yahoo will wrap up a quarter this week that is sure to be especially weak, given all the internal and external turmoil.

“It is a very tough job and anyone worthwhile has to think long and hard before taking it,” said one person who has been contacted by Yahoo’s headhunter, Heidrick & Struggles, about interest in the No. 2 job at Yahoo, once a CEO is found.

This concept being bandied about is to put a new top team in place to replace Yang, and possibly President Sue Decker, who is the leading internal candidate for CEO.

Interestingly, a COO/President choice is perhaps the more interesting choice for Yahoo, since the field of candidates here widens considerably and has a lot more digital experience.

But first, of course, the CEO needs to be picked, and that’s still to come, delaying everything from doing a deal with Microsoft (MSFT) over search to buying Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL, all of which are being pushed into 2009.

Well, only the Yahoo board knows for sure who that will be, although I am still digging away like a rabid gopher to find out more.

But here is a great music video of Val Emmich singing “(C’mon), Get On With It,” to spur the Yahoo board on:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081230/dear-yahoo-board-cmon-get-on-with-it-a-ceo-by-tomorrow-would-be-good/feed/ 3 Yahoo Board Casts About for New CEO: No Committee, Six Criteria and AOL Merger-Ready! http://allthingsd.com/20081203/yahoo-board-casts-about-for-new-ceo-no-committee-six-criteria-and-aol-merger-ready/ http://allthingsd.com/20081203/yahoo-board-casts-about-for-new-ceo-no-committee-six-criteria-and-aol-merger-ready/#comments Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:00:41 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=7129 Now let’s return from the land of fatuous deal schemes and half-baked plots to buy Yahoo and get to the most critical issue facing its board right now: Finding a new CEO to replace outgoing leader Jerry Yang.

According to numerous sources inside and outside the company BoomTown has spoken to this week, board Chairman Roy Bostock (pictured here) has been asserting a new CEO will be named by the new year.

Only 28 more shopping days left until management clarity!

Well, maybe not so much.

Why?

Because there’s actually no “official” search committee that has been appointed by Yahoo’s board, sources said.

Instead, an informal group–with Bostock and board member Gary Wilson at the lead, with help from all the rest of the board–is conducting the effort jointly, along with exec search firm Heidrick & Struggles.

It’s almost like a Berkeley collective!

The board, though, has apparently made a list of six–I have no idea why that is the number chosen–clear criteria for the new leader of Yahoo (YHOO).

The first is that the candidate have “extensive” experience as the CEO of a public company. Another calls for media and advertising expertise. And mergers and acquisitions experience. Also strategic skills.

That’s a tall order, of course, to deliver on in such a short time.

In addition, the idea of bringing in at the same time a No. 1 and No. 2 exec has been considered, with one stronger in media and the other in product and technology.

It is hard to find an exec with skills in both, even in the best of situations.

Think pairing someone like News Corp. (NWS) COO Peter Chernin with Google (GOOG) exec Tim Armstrong or DoubleClick exec David Rosenblatt with, say, Yahoo CTO Ari Balogh and you get the concept.

But many who have spoken to board members at Yahoo said they get the distinct impression that they are leaning toward one of their own–former Nextel head John Chapple, former media exec Frank Biondi, Jr. or former Microsoft (MSFT) exec Maggie Wilderotter (pictured here).

That is due to wanting someone who has operational skills, but also can get things moving at Yahoo, while also being able to continue to work with Yang.

He will remain on the board and regain his title of Chief Yahoo. Sources said Bostock and other board members believe that Yang remains an important and beloved figure at Yahoo among the rank and file and needs to remain involved going forward.

Another key reason for wanting to pick an insider is that Bostock has also intimated that Yahoo was ready to do a deal at any time in the next week or so to merge with AOL–with or without a new CEO in place.

Consummating that might irk an outside candidate, who would have to manage the complex merger without input into its making, rather than a board member, who has been involved.

Talks between Yahoo and AOL have been never-ending and due diligence extensive, as this column has previously reported, although slower of late, because of the uncertainty around Yahoo leadership.

And the price–or, more specifically, the percentage–Yahoo has been willing to fork over to AOL owner Time Warner (TWX) has been the key sticking point, especially as Yahoo’s stock has waned in price.

Yahoo has long wanted to give Time Warner about 20 percent of the merged company, while Time Warner has wanted one-third. At current prices, that’s about $3 billion in value versus $5 billion.

But, if such a deal could finally be struck, it might be a dramatic and apt swan song move for Yang (pictured here), which could inject a bit of excitement into the mostly lackluster situation for both Yahoo and AOL.

Yang and others at Yahoo have also long felt that the company would have more leverage with Microsoft if it also controlled AOL–when and if it formally restarts its talks with the software giant about some sort of search deal.

Interestingly, many close to the situation said that there is still resistance among the “old guard” of the Yahoo board to doing a search deal at all.

New board member and activist shareholder Carl Icahn has loudly called for such a partnership with Microsoft.

But there is still extensive internal debate about whether it is wise to decouple search from Yahoo, many sources said, even if it brings in massive guaranteed revenues and allows Yahoo to cut costs in its engineering ranks.

Said one person close to the situation: “A lot of what has been going on is the board trying to figure out what kind of company does Yahoo aspire to be. That determines the type of person they bring in.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081203/yahoo-board-casts-about-for-new-ceo-no-committee-six-criteria-and-aol-merger-ready/feed/ 3 BoomTown Scoop Confirmed: The Entire Yahoo Press Release on Yang Stepping Down as CEO http://allthingsd.com/20081117/boomtown-scoop-confirmed-the-entire-yahoo-press-release-on-yang-stepping-down-as-ceo/ http://allthingsd.com/20081117/boomtown-scoop-confirmed-the-entire-yahoo-press-release-on-yang-stepping-down-as-ceo/#comments Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:37:13 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=6586

As BoomTown reported earlier today in an exclusive scoop, Yahoo (YHOO) has confirmed that CEO Jerry Yang will be stepping down and a search for his replacement is underway.

(Yang also penned a memo to Yahoo employees about the move.)

Here is the entire Yahoo press release about the development:

Yahoo! Conducting Search for New CEO

Co-Founder Jerry Yang to Step Down Following Appointment of New CEO and Return to Former Role as Chief Yahoo! and Board Member

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov 17, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) –

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) today announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a search for a new Chief Executive Officer. Jerry Yang, co-Founder of Yahoo!, has decided to return to his former role as Chief Yahoo! upon the appointment of his successor as CEO, and he will also continue to serve on the Board. Yang, 40, assumed the CEO role at the Board’s request in June 2007, and he has led Yahoo! through a strategic repositioning and transformation of its platform.

Chairman Roy Bostock, working with the independent directors and in consultation with Jerry Yang, is leading the process of assessing potential candidates and determining finalists for consideration. The search will encompass both internal and external candidates, and the Board has retained Heidrick & Struggles, a leading international executive search firm, to assist in the process.

“Over the past year and a half, despite extraordinary challenges and distractions, Jerry Yang has led the repositioning of Yahoo! on an open platform model as well as the improved alignment of costs and revenues,” said Roy Bostock. “Jerry and the Board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level. We are deeply grateful to Jerry for his many contributions as CEO over the past 18 months, and we are pleased that he plans to stay actively involved at Yahoo! as a key executive and member of the Board.”

“From founding this company to guiding its growth into a trusted global brand that is indispensible to millions of people, I have always sought to do what is best for our franchise,” said Jerry Yang. “When the Board asked me to become CEO and lead the transformation of the Company, I did so because it was important to re-envision the business for a different era to drive more effective growth. Having set Yahoo! on a new, more open path, the time is right for me to transition the CEO role and our global talent to a new leader. I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo! realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation.”

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081117/boomtown-scoop-confirmed-the-entire-yahoo-press-release-on-yang-stepping-down-as-ceo/feed/ 5 Jerry Yang's Entire Memo to His Employees on Stepping Down as CEO http://allthingsd.com/20081117/jerry-yangs-entire-memo-to-his-employees-on-stepping-down-as-ceo/ http://allthingsd.com/20081117/jerry-yangs-entire-memo-to-his-employees-on-stepping-down-as-ceo/#comments Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:58:58 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=6577

BoomTown has obtained the entire memo from Jerry Yang to his employees at Yahoo about his plans to step down as Yahoo CEO.

Yang, a truly nice man–which has been a plus and a minus for him–and an Internet visionary for sure, penned a classy note to the Yahoo (YHOO) troops. And BoomTown, feeling sentimental, will not even make fun of the lack of capitalization this time.

Here is the link to Yahoo’s official press release on Yang’s stepping down as CEO. And here is this blog’s scoop about the move.

And here’s the Yang memo to employees:

To: all yahoos
Fr: Jerry
Subject: update

yahoos -

i wanted to address all of you on the news we’ve just announced. the board of directors and I have agreed to initiate a succession process for the ceo role of yahoo!. roy bostock, our chairman of the board, is leading the effort to identify and assess potential candidates for consideration by the full board. the board will be evaluating and considering both internal and external candidates and has retained heidrick and struggles to help in this effort.

i will be participating in the search for my successor, and i will continue as ceo until the board selects a new ceo. once a successor is named, i will return to my previous role as chief yahoo and continue to serve as a director on the board.

last june, i accepted the board’s request that i assume the ceo role to restructure and reposition the company as a whole in order to more effectively meet the fast-changing needs of both users and partners. since taking on the ceo role, i have had an ongoing dialogue with the board about succession timing. thanks in large measure to your tireless efforts, we have created a more open, competitive yahoo! and we believe the time is now right to transition to a new ceo who can take the company to the next level.

despite the external environment we face, the fact remains that yahoo! is now a significantly different company that is stronger in many ways than it was just 18 months ago. this only makes it all the more essential that we manage this opportunity to leverage the progress up to this point as effectively as possible. i strongly believe that having transformed our platform and better aligned costs and revenues, we have a unique window for the right ceo to take ownership over the next wave of mission-critical decisions facing the company.

all of you know that I have always, and will always bleed purple. i will always do what I think is right for this great company. while this step will be an adjustment for all of us, i know it’s the right one. i look forward to updating you on this process as soon as the board has developments to share, and will continue to do everything i can to make yahoo! fulfill its full potential.

thank you,
jerry

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081117/jerry-yangs-entire-memo-to-his-employees-on-stepping-down-as-ceo/feed/ 10 Yahoo's Jerry Yang to Step Down, as a Search for New CEO Commences http://allthingsd.com/20081117/yahoos-jerry-yang-to-step-down-as-a-search-for-new-ceo-commences/ http://allthingsd.com/20081117/yahoos-jerry-yang-to-step-down-as-a-search-for-new-ceo-commences/#comments Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:50:01 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=6565

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang will step down from his job as CEO as soon as the board finds a replacement for him, in what sources close to the situation call a joint decision by him and the company’s directors.

Yahoo (YHOO) will announce the move within the next hour. [UPDATED: Yahoo confirms the move in its official press release.]

But, in a memo to Yahoo’s employees, obtained by BoomTown, Yang confirmed the pending departure, writing: “…we believe the time is now right to transition to a new ceo who can take the company to the next level.”

Yahoo has hired Heidrick & Struggles, the well-known executive search firm, to evaluate candidates, both internally and externally.

After a replacement is found, which the company hopes will be quickly, sources said, Yang will resume his former title as Chief Yahoo and will also remain on the Yahoo board.

While did-he-walk-or-was-he-pushed speculation will no doubt run rampant, sources said Yang already has and will play an important role in the search for his replacement.

Sources close to the board expect the choice will end up being an outsider and is not likely to be current Yahoo President Sue Decker, although she is being considered for the job.

But both she and Yang have been closely affiliated with each other as the company has struggled to right itself after a tumultuous year and its stock price has plummeted.

Yahoo shares closed today at $10.63 after trading at historic lows for a while and giving the company a valuation of only $14.7 billion.

While Yahoo’s board has some execs in mind to become CEO, obvious candidates include News Corp. (NWS) COO Peter Chernin, as well as former AOL head Jon Miller, former eBay (EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman, Google (GOOG) ad exec Tim Armstrong, former Fox Interactive exec Ross Levinsohn and former Yahoo COO Dan Rosensweig (who is currently with the Quadrangle Group).

BoomTown would also throw in former Microsoft top exec Kevin Johnson, now CEO of Juniper Networks (JNPR), and who led the software giant’s abandoned takeover bid against Yahoo earlier this year.

According to sources, both Yang and the board have been discussing the move for months, although Yang has been saying quite explicitly in public that he was going to stay in place to see through the many changes he has made in his 16-month tenure.

In a recent interview with me, in fact, Yang said about his determination to lead:

“In this uncertain environment, I think I am absolutely the right person. Times like this require a leader who really understands this company and its customers, and I think I do. The world is a different place today than even a month ago and I think I am the best person to guide Yahoo through this volatile time.”

In fact, it has always been a volatile time for Yang at Yahoo. He took over suddenly last June from former CEO Terry Semel, whose departure also came after Yahoo’s struggles became increasingly apparent.

Things only got worse for Yang, due to both his own and previous management missteps and also massive external forces, including a hostile takeover attempt by Microsoft (MSFT), which was soon followed by a proxy fight by activist shareholder Carl Icahn.

The Microsoft bid–which was $31 a share–was abandoned, and Icahn dropped the proxy fight, with Icahn joining the board with two other directors he had handpicked.

And while Microsoft has been interested in a deal related to Yahoo’s search business, its CEO, Steve Ballmer, has categorically ruled out a renewed bid.

Yahoo also saw its search business decline in the face of dominance in the market by Google (GOOG), which had ironically started its then-nascent business on Yahoo as its search partner.

Worse still, Yahoo’s strong graphical ad business has suffered badly in the midst of the current economic meltdown.

There has also been an exodus of major executives over the last year, along with recently announced layoffs of 10 percent of the company, which are set to take place Dec. 10.

In addition, Yahoo’s controversial search ad deal with Google collapsed and its talks to merge with Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL have dragged on.

With all this, sources close to the company said that both Yang and the board felt the company needed another leader to take it to the next level and complete the turnaround efforts Yang has been trying to pull off.

“It was time for someone else,” said one source close to the board.

More, obviously, to come…

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

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