Third Point’s Daniel Loeb must be having a great day, with his triumph in the resume padding row. This was marked by the sad exit of Yahoo’s CEO Scott Thomson, alleged to have tampered his academic records. There was a buzz in the elite circle that the CEO had stepped down and later confirmed by the company. After an initial calmness over the issue, internet origin tech-giant Yahoo on Sunday declared that Ross Levinsohn, Global Media Head will handle the CEO chair temporarily, after the no-reason-ascertained to the exit of its present CEO Scott Thomson. Eventually this means that Third Point has almost won a battle if not a war. For the largest share holder of Yahoo, Third Point, sometime in the first week alleged that former CEO tampered his academic records.
How markets presume the exit:
Yahoo must be in serious trouble with the exit of Thomson, barely four months after helming the company. The tech-giant is already on a fierce battle in gearing up to face the stiff competition given by other techies like Google and Facebook. To meet the survival targets the company is also toying with the idea of selling its shares in the Chinese `Alibaba’.
Macquarie Securities analyst Ben Schacter is quoted in ET that, “The key question for shareholders remains how will they monetize the Asia assets. The board and shareholders, not an interim CEO, will need to figure it out.”
Lawrence Haverty, a fund manager with GAMCO Investors, a Yahoo investing company is quoted on the same media, “Nothing they do seems to work. Right now I think a sale of the company is the best option.” It may be noted on the last trading day last week, Yahoo shares closed at $15.19 on Nasdaq. Well at the moment the situation looks brim for the tech-giant that needs a quick strategy to make a turn around.
Yahoo statement:
Global media head, Ross Levinsohn, will be interim CEO, replacing Thompson who has left the company. It did not give a reason for his exit but said the board had settled a proxy battle with Third Point and will nominate three of its slate of four candidates to Yahoo's board.
Third Points allegation:
Dan Loeb, founder and Chief executive of Third Point LLC alleged that Thomson made false claims of possessing a Bachelor’s degree in accounting and computer science from Stonehill College near Boston, according to Huffington Post. He also added that Thomson only possessed a degree in accounting. Dan had sent a letter to the Yahoo Board of Directors in this regards. In an earlier statement Third Point said, “To assert that years of inaccurate SEC filings, website biographies and (more)… were `inadvertent’ is, in our view, the height of arrogance.” Third Point demanded Yahoo to fire the CEO and wanted three issues to be sorted out before Monday noon. They are, to reveal the vetting process for Thomson’s appointment, explain process of nominating Board Directors and disclose whether any other Yahoo Board members knew about Thomson’s college degree inaccuracy. (With Inputs from Internet- Aarkay)
