Yahoo appoints Scott Thompson as CEO

Yahoo has appointed Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer, effective January 9, 2012. He has also been appointed to the company's board of directors.

He recently served as president of PayPal, a division of eBay. Under his leadership, PayPal enhanced its lead as the global online payment service, expanding its user base from 50 million to more than 104 million active users in 190 countries worldwide and increasing the number of merchant partners to more than 8 million globally, with revenues growing from $1.8 billion to $4+ billion in 2011.

''His deep understanding of online businesses combined with his team building and operational capabilities will restore the energy, focus, and momentum necessary to grow the core business and deliver increased value for our shareholders,'' said Roy Bostock, chairman of the Yahoo board.

''Scott's primary focus will be on the core business, and as CEO and director, he will work closely with the Board as we continue the strategic review process to identify the best approaches for the Company and its shareholders,'' he further added.

''With the ultimate goal of delivering the value our shareholders expect, my immediate focus will be on getting to know the entire team and hearing more from all Yahoo!s, working closely with the engineers and product teams, and diving deeply into our products and services to learn more about what our more than 700 million users find most engaging and useful,'' said Scott Thompson.

Prior to PayPal, Thompson was executive vice president of technology solutions at Inovant, a subsidiary of Visa, formed to oversee global technology for the organization.