Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson out after false claims on resume

Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson is out after it was discovered that he padded his resume with an embellished college degree, concluding his term at the company after only four months. In a statement posted late on Sunday, Yahoo confirmed Thompson “has left the company.” The tech blog AllThingsD was the first to report on the news, and the New York Times followed up with its own article.

Yahoo’s interim CEO will be media chief Ross Levinsohn, according to the company. Levinsohn was reportedly an early successor to Carol Bartz, who was fired from Yahoo by phone in September. The CEO role went to Thompson instead in January. It was the activist shareholder group, Third Point, who sparked the scandal just over a week ago, when they reported Thompson lied about details of his college degree. Third Point owns about 5.8 percent of Yahoo and is the largest outside shareholder. Thompson, who published Yahoo bios, including the one in the company’s latest annual report, a legal document CEO’s must personally swear are truthful, claimed he holds a bachelor’s degree in both accounting and computer science from Stonehill College. Third Point found his degree is actually in accounting only. Yahoo called the oversight and “inadvertent error.” The director who led Yahoo’s CEO search committee, Patti Hart, announced that she would step down at the end of her current term.