Chief executive steps down at Yahoo

Yahoo chief executive Scott Thompson left the company Sunday, four months into the job, after more than a week of scrutiny into inaccuracies on his resume and in company filings.

The struggling Internet company had hoped that Thompson would turn things around. But he now becomes the fourth chief executive to leave Yahoo in five years. He is being replaced by Yahoo's global media head, Ross Levinsohn.

Thompson's exit was encouraged by Third Point, the activist hedge fund that owns nearly 6 percent of Yahoo shares. Third Point claimed Thompson had padded his resume with a degree in computer science from Stonehill College.

Thompson did earn an accounting degree from Stonehill, a Catholic school near Boston, in 1979, a fact that Yahoo correctly lists. But he did not earn a computer science degree.

Privately, Thompson told his colleagues that he wasn't responsible for the incorrect information. He blamed a Chicago headhunting firm, Heidrick & Struggles.

In an internal memo last week, Heidrick & Struggles denied Thompson's accusation.

"This allegation is verifiably not true and we have notified Yahoo! to that effect," chief executive Kevin Kelly wrote to employees. A spokesman for the firm declined to comment Sunday.

Thompson's resume discrepancy might have been more forgivable at a company that was making money for shareholders, said James Post, a management professor at Boston University.

"Yahoo has been embattled for such a long time that there are a lot of people prepared to believe the worst about that company," said Post, who specializes in corporate governance and professional ethics.