Yahoo Names New CEO
Scott Thompson, former president of eBay's PayPal division, has been named the new CEO of Yahoo, effective January 9.
Scott Thompson is set to take over Yahoo at a time when the company has experienced 12 consecutive quarters of revenue declines. And while his success at PayPal is undisputed - he grew sales from $1.8 billion per year to $4 billion per year during his seven-year tenure - some analysts are concerned that Yahoo's disparate platforms may prove a difficult challenge.
At the moment, most of the rhetoric about the announcement has been positive. Thompson is an experienced and successful executive and the scope of Yahoo's reach won't be new to him, coming from a behemoth like eBay. "Scott Thompson is a very, very competent leader and CEO," said Rebecca Lieb, Altimeter Group's media analyst. "He did amazing things at PayPal. But PayPal isn't Yahoo. PayPal is a very directional technology platform. And Yahoo is a brand octopus."
Ms. Lieb's sentiments capture the concerns of the analysts who are more worried about Yahoo's structure than they are about Thompson's abilities as an executive. And perhaps that is going to be the first step in the process of turning Yahoo around. Thompson's first chore may simply be to focus Yahoo's resources in areas where it can become a dominant market presence.
Currently, the company is spread over such a wide area of service platforms that none of them are able to capture the imagination of their core customer demographic. Moving forward, Yahoo will have very difficult decisions to make about where it should be allocating its resources. Some platforms will have to be scaled back or sold off, while others must become the core of a new focus that might lead Yahoo to a new period of growth.
At the moment, most of the rhetoric about the announcement has been positive. Thompson is an experienced and successful executive and the scope of Yahoo's reach won't be new to him, coming from a behemoth like eBay. "Scott Thompson is a very, very competent leader and CEO," said Rebecca Lieb, Altimeter Group's media analyst. "He did amazing things at PayPal. But PayPal isn't Yahoo. PayPal is a very directional technology platform. And Yahoo is a brand octopus."
Ms. Lieb's sentiments capture the concerns of the analysts who are more worried about Yahoo's structure than they are about Thompson's abilities as an executive. And perhaps that is going to be the first step in the process of turning Yahoo around. Thompson's first chore may simply be to focus Yahoo's resources in areas where it can become a dominant market presence.
Currently, the company is spread over such a wide area of service platforms that none of them are able to capture the imagination of their core customer demographic. Moving forward, Yahoo will have very difficult decisions to make about where it should be allocating its resources. Some platforms will have to be scaled back or sold off, while others must become the core of a new focus that might lead Yahoo to a new period of growth.
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