Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson has been using a resume with a false claim for more than a decade. Activist shareholder Daniel Loeb unveiled Thompson’s lack of a computer science degree during a proxy fight, saying it raises issues about his credibility — and the board’s.
However it happened, Scott Thompson made it through multiple high-level jobs without a challenge to his claim of a bachelor’s degree in accounting and computer science from Stonehill College. But then the new CEO of Yahoo ran into activist investor Daniel Loeb.
The head of hedge fund Third Point, which is the largest institutional investor in the Sunnyvale company, is waging a proxy battle with Thompson and Yahoo directors over seats on the board. On Wednesday, Thompson stressed a lack of qualifications for Loeb and some of his candidates to be on the Yahoo board — so Loeb went public Thursday afternoon with the allegation that Thompson couldn’t have a computer science degree since it wasn’t offered when he went to Stonehill. Yahoo admitted to an “inadvertent” error and removed the offending line from Thompson’s online bio and promised a probe.
It’s going to be a lot harder to make the problem disappear.
Loeb’s accusation comes at a time when only last week we were all reading about a UPenn dean who lied about having a degree from Columbia. Loeb himself has a degree from Columbia. Maybe this is where he got his idea.
The sum total of Loeb’s degrees has been to make him a bully. Thompson’s lack of an elitist degree created vacuums in competition for others’ deference, no matter how much this type of deference is misplaced.
I suggest here that Yahoo stand up against the bully. He might have some good ideas about Yahoo, but not over this.
Last week I commented in one of the UPenn threads. I said I enjoy stories about people who lie about their degrees – they snipe at the caste system. If Loeb is really looking for Truth by accusing Thompson of lying, then he shouldn’t ignore this larger truth.
I was going to post this in yahoo’s ‘man behind the curtain’ thread that you wrote, but I feared if I did then some employee at Yahoo would hack into my yahoo email account.
However it happened, Scott Thompson made it through multiple high-level jobs without a challenge to his claim of a bachelor’s degree in accounting and computer science from Stonehill College. But then the new CEO of Yahoo ran into activist investor Daniel Loeb.
yahoo CEO + EBAY + fake degree …. just awesome!
http://pic.twitter.com/iYDxUY0s
It’s pretty interesting to me how this seemed like a small thing and now has turned into big news
Loeb’s accusation comes at a time when only last week we were all reading about a UPenn dean who lied about having a degree from Columbia. Loeb himself has a degree from Columbia. Maybe this is where he got his idea.
The sum total of Loeb’s degrees has been to make him a bully. Thompson’s lack of an elitist degree created vacuums in competition for others’ deference, no matter how much this type of deference is misplaced.
I suggest here that Yahoo stand up against the bully. He might have some good ideas about Yahoo, but not over this.
Last week I commented in one of the UPenn threads. I said I enjoy stories about people who lie about their degrees – they snipe at the caste system. If Loeb is really looking for Truth by accusing Thompson of lying, then he shouldn’t ignore this larger truth.
I was going to post this in yahoo’s ‘man behind the curtain’ thread that you wrote, but I feared if I did then some employee at Yahoo would hack into my yahoo email account.
how insane.