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Yahoo Names PayPal Executive New CEO

Posted by Unknown on from the closing-geocities-was-a-mistake dept.

Diggester writes "Yahoo Inc said on Wednesday it has appointed Scott Thompson as its chief executive, effective from January 9, replacing interim CEO Tim Morse who will resume his role as chief financial officer. Thompson, who was previously president of PayPal, a unit of eBay Inc, will also join Yahoo's board. Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock said Thompson's primary focus will be on the core business as the company continues its strategic review process. Yahoo has been in discussions about selling off its Asian assets for some weeks."

15 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Oh Boy by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Funny

    We just got finished pillorying Pay Pal (again).

    Now we can go after Pay Pal AND Yahoo!

    2012 is looking up!

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  2. Signs of death by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Thompson, who was previously president of PayPal

    I can't imagine how the past president of PayPal, a company known for screwing its customers, could possibly be a good thing for Yahoo.

    Yahoo has been in discussions about selling off its Asian assets for some weeks.

    Great, all you hear from Yahoo lately is "let's sell things off." When was the last time you heard them talk about creating a new product? These are signs of death.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:Signs of death by Hadlock · · Score: 2

      I'm curious why they went with the PayPal CEO? Presumably he's going to have a lot of banking/legal background, which, while possibly useful, isn't horribly useful for an advertising/search company. Then again, beggars can't be choosers when you're asking someone to captain your sinking ship...

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
    2. Re:Signs of death by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I can't imagine how the past president of PayPal, a company known for screwing its customers, could possibly be a good thing for Yahoo.

      Yahoo is basically some fora, crappy free email, and lousy imagehosting strapped onto the side of Bing. It's a front for Microsoft, much like Netflix (which only started using Silverlight after a board seat at Microsoft was secured.) I'd say this fits in nicely with where things were going anyway. When they announced they would be powered by Bing I knew it was all over and that they had lost their last reason to exist.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Signs of death by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      I'm not sure it's really justified to say that. Yahoo was a large ($1billion +) company, and until recently they've been growing at a fairly nice rate, despite competition from MS and Google. Search is definitely not their only source of revenue, they are behind a lot of e-commerce.

      Their primary difficulty moving forward is that with the takeover attempts, and other challenges, a lot of their skilled developers were leaving the company. In early 2007 there was a mass exodus of engineers leaving Yahoo. If you were doing interviews in Silicon Valley at the time, you probably interviewed a few of them. It's not easy to rebuild a team of quality engineers, especially when all reports are that your company is collapsing.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    4. Re:Signs of death by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yahoo makes a ton of money from their e-commerce, which isn't always publicly visible, so you may not have noticed. It's a strong company with decent fundamentals, and reasonable potential.

      It is also an example of what happens when the CxO group decides to bash on their company with sledgehammers. Or when Corporate Raiders attempt to 'help' things. It's a company that's being destroyed from the top, and all the quality engineers are leaving out the sides (or rather, have left).

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    5. Re:Signs of death by lucm · · Score: 2

      Thompson, who was previously president of PayPal

      I can't imagine how the past president of PayPal, a company known for screwing its customers, could possibly be a good thing for Yahoo.

      Yahoo has been in discussions about selling off its Asian assets for some weeks.

      Great, all you hear from Yahoo lately is "let's sell things off." When was the last time you heard them talk about creating a new product? These are signs of death.

      If companies were always keeping their course and never got rid of any business, EMC would still sell computer desks and Berkshire-Hathaway would still be in the textile business instead of printing money in Omaha...

      --
      lucm, indeed.
  3. how??? by sribe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This would require that: a) Yahoo have a core business and b) Yahoo know what that business is.

    1. Re:how??? by jmkaza · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yahoo is an online services company, they just haven't figured it out yet. When Terry Semel came on board, he thought Yahoo was a content company, and worked hard with his Hollywood background to build that out. When he failed, Carol Bartz came on board with the idea that Yahoo was an advertising platform, and worked with Microsoft to expand that offering. Without a vision of how Yahoo can provide better online services to it's end users, no CEO will be successful.

  4. Buyer ordered to destory Yahoo by KPU · · Score: 5, Funny

    In related news, Yahoo was sold through Paypal. The buyer claimed Yahoo is defective and asked for a refund. Paypal then ordered the buyer to destroy Yahoo.

    1. Re:Buyer ordered to destory Yahoo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      I liked Scott Thompson way better when he was a running faggot.

    2. Re:Buyer ordered to destory Yahoo by 19thNervousBreakdown · · Score: 2

      As much as I want to mod this Funny, I'll instead post here to say, watch the video before modding Troll. My first thought when reading "Scott Thompson" was his Buddy sketches, but this is definitely one of my favorites.

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      <xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
  5. Re:Yahoo = toast. by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

    I think it was pretty obvious that Yahoo=toast 5 years ago. It's amazing they've held on for this long.

  6. A new age of violin destruction begins! by Tharsman · · Score: 2

    A new age of violin destruction begins!

  7. Oh, crap by Minwee · · Score: 3, Funny

    Quick, hide the violins.