Thompson new chief of Yahoo

YAHOO has named Scott Thompson, president of EBay’s PayPal division, as chief executive, the fourth in less than five years for the struggling internet company, which has been without a permanent boss since September.

It fired Carol Bartz after losing patience with her attempts to turn around the firm during her two-and-a-half years in post. Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock said Thompson’s track record of building on existing resources “to reignite innovation and drive growth” is “precisely the formula we need at Yahoo”.

It has been losing ground in the fast-growing internet advertising market to Google and Facebook for years and the board has considered a sale of all or part of the company since Bartz left. Yesterday’s announcement signals that Yahoo is not looking to sell the entire company.