The Case of Yahoo and the CEO Who Lied on His Resume

In January 2012, Scott Thompson was appointed as CEO of IT-company and search engine Yahoo. Coming from PayPal, he replaced interim CEO Tim Morse. Yahoo had gone through a turbulent time, but things seemed to improve with Thompson’s arrival. On May 3, 2012, activist shareholder Daniel Loeb, on behalf of Third Point, sent a letter to Yahoo’s board and simultaneously published it online. The letter referred to two official Yahoo documents, the annual report ‘Form 10-K/A’ and the proxy statement for shareholders, stating that CEO Scott Thompson had a bachelor’s degree in both Accounting and Computer Science from Stonehill College. However, Third Point’s investigation revealed that Thompson only had a degree in accounting, not in computer science. This was confirmed by Stonehill College. So, the successful and much appreciated CEO lied on his resume.