Kanyi Okeke
Scott Thompson does not have a degree in computer science…The chief executive of Yahoo does not have a degree in computer science as he has claimed, it emerged today.
The embarrassing revelation was unearthed by an activist hedge-fund manager who is a major shareholder in the embattled technology firm.
Daniel Loeb, founder of the fund Third Point, says he has discovered that Scott Thompson doesn’t have a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Stonehill College near Boston, as the company stated in regulatory documents filed last week.
Mr Thompson’s official biography at his last job, with PayPal, made the same claim about his academic credentials.
In face, he studied accounting – and Stonehill did not even offer computer science degrees until four years after he graduated.
Mr Loeb made the allegation in a letter on Thursday to Yahoo’s board of directors.
Yahoo Inc. confirmed the findings, but the company attributed the misinformation to an ‘inadvertent error.’
Mr Loeb, who controls a 5.8 per cent stake in Yahoo, is leading a campaign to shake up the company’s board so he can help come up with a strategy to boost the company’s long-slumping stock price.
He alleged that the mix-up over Mr Thompson’s educational background discredited the company as a whole.
‘If misrepresentations were made, they would confirm yet again that Yahoo! is in dire need of a complete corporate governance overhaul,’ he wrote in his letter to the board.
He concluded: ‘If Mr Thompson embellished his academic credentials we think that it 1) undermines his credibility as a technology expert and 2) reflects poorly on the character of the CEO who has been tasked with leading Yahoo! at this critical juncture.’
Mr Loeb claimed to have made his discovery simply by searching Mr Thompson’s name on Google.
Yahoo defended its CEO, who joined the firm in January having previously been president of PayPal.
The firm said Mr Thompson was ‘a highly qualified executive with a successful track record leading large consumer technology companies’.
