Third Point demands Yahoo CEO hiring info

Activist hedge fund Third Point, which has called for the ouster of Yahoo Inc. chief executive Scott Thompson for padding his resume, formally demanded in a letter that the Internet company provide access to all documents relating to Thompson's hiring.

Third Point CEO Daniel Loeb, who has been waging a public battle to place his firm's nominees on Yahoo's board, issued an ultimatum to Yahoo on Friday demanding it sack Thompson by midday Monday.

The demand letter Monday begins the process under a Delaware corporation law that allows a shareholder to inspect a company's books if that person has a proper purpose and meets procedural requirements.

Yahoo, whose revenue slid by more than a fifth last year, brought in Thompson, PayPal's former president, as chief executive in January, five months after Carol Bartz was fired.

Third Point last week revealed discrepancies in Thompson's education record: He has a degree in accounting from Stonehill College, not in computer science, as Yahoo previously stated. The hedge fund wants Yahoo to publicly reveal the process by which Thompson was vetted and disclose all minutes of any board meeting where his candidacy was discussed. Yahoo's board has said it is investigating the issue.

"We believe that this internal investigation by this board must not be conducted behind a veil of secrecy," Loeb said in his latest letter on Yahoo.

Loeb started out as a trader. He opened shop in 1995 with $3.3 million in assets under management and operated in space borrowed from a New Jersey-based hedge fund. He has been credited with sparking previous changes on Yahoo's board, namely the resignation of co-founder Jerry Yang and former chairman Roy Bostock.

-- Reuters and AP