Yahoo Pressured To Fire CEO By Monday

Yahoo shareholders are pressuring the company to fire its CEO Scott Thompson after it was discovered that he lied about his resume. Daniel S. Loeb, chief of hedge fund Third Point, Yahoo's largest institutional shareholder, has shot a letter to Yahoo's board today demanding that they fire Thompson and dismiss Patti Hart, the director of the hiring committee, by noon on Monday.

It was discovered this week that Thompson padded his resume, claiming to have earned a computer science degree when he only had an accounting degree from Stonehill College in Boston. At the time of his attendance, Stonehill did not have a computer science program. Following the revelation, Yahoo responded saying that it was an "inadvertent error," which Loeb called an insulting explanation to shareholders.

It also doesn't help that Thompson had a chance to correct the error during a recorded interview, but instead called himself an engineer. Furthermore, there seems to have been an inaccuracy with Hart's resume as well, listing her as having a bachelor's degree in marketing and economics when instead she earned a degree in business administration with a specialty in marketing.

Besides the firing of Thompson and resignation of Hart, Loeb is also demanding Yahoo to disclose how it vetted credentials during its search process and to replace four of the board seats with his own team. Although Third Point is a major shareholder, it holds 5.8 percent of stock, which isn't enough for Loeb to force action, but he can certainly create more misery for the already troubled Yahoo.

[via NYTimes]