Nearly three months after it fired Carol Bartz, Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) is reportedly set to name a new chief executive officer Wednesday. According to a report from AllThingsD website, PayPal's President Scott Thompson is poised to take over as the new CEO of the Internet giant. Thompson has served as president of PayPal since January 2008 and has overall responsibility for establishing PayPal as the leading global online payment service. He previously served as PayPal's senior vice president and chief technology officer from February 2005 to January 2008.
Thompson joined PayPal in February 2005 after a nearly four-year stint as technology solutions head at Inovant LLC, a subsidiary of Visa USA. He was the chief technology officer and executive vice president of technology & support services for Visa USA from 1998 to September 2001. He also serves on the board of directors of F5 Networks Inc. and Zuora Inc.
Yahoo board removed Bartz from her role as CEO in September 2011 and named CFO Timothy Morse as interim CEO, while it initiated a search for a permanent replacement.
The board also formed an Executive Leadership Council, comprising key senior Yahoo Executives, to manage the day-to-day operations of the company until a permanent CEO is appointed.
The Internet giant, which offers most of its products free, requires more of ad revenues to boost its performance. Even though display advertising is a bright spot, the company is facing tough competition in search business from Google, Inc. (GOOG) and also from increasing popularity for social networking sites such as Facebook.
Yahoo continues to lose search market share to Google, and hasn't been able to increase revenues even as the Internet ad market expands by more than 20 percent annually.
Bartz was named as CEO of Yahoo in January 2009 in order turnaround the company's dipping fortunes. As part of Bartz's turnaround strategy, the company went through several cost control efforts, including laying-off of hundreds of workers and closing or selling several of its less popular services. Under her leadership, Yahoo also sold stakes to raise billions of dollars, aiming to buy a good startup to boost its results. However, Bartz's efforts did not come to fruition.
Of late, there have been a number of media reports on possible bids for Yahoo after the Sunnyvale, California-based company fired its CEO and embarked on a strategic review.
Amid the struggling business and investor disgruntlement, Yahoo has again been approached by software giant Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and other potential bidders such as private equity firms Silver Lake Partners, Blackstone Group (BX), TPG Capital, KKR & Co. (KKR), Bain Capital, Carlyle Group, Hellman & Friedman, Providence Equity Partners and Warburg Pincus.
YHOO closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $16.29, up $0.02 on a volume of 19.71 million shares. In the past 52-week period, the stock has been trading in a range of $11.09 to $18.84.
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June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.