Every once in a while, events come together to form a perfect crystal of secrets, lies, and ironic symbolism.
On that note, I give the current crumbling of Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson, who apparently never received a computer science degree from Stonehill College, as listed on his resume and public biography. The "inadvertent error" was discovered by the aggressive hedge fund Third Point that owns 5.81% stock in Yahoo, and this "error" also shows up on Yahoo's SEC filings and on Thompson's resume.
As part of Third Point's volunteer research (they want a place on the board), they discovered that it was impossible for Thompson to have earned a computer science degree from Stonehill, as the college only offered one computer science course during his time there: Intro. "Presumably," a letter from the hedge fund stated, "Mr. Thompson took that course." Hope he passed it, too.
Yahoo is saying that this changes nothing about his qualifications to run their company, while Scott Thompson is pulling the old how'd-that-get-there? Patti Hart, a Yahoo! board member who led the CEO search, has resigned, which I guess is only right, but Thompson remains. Thompson has only been at the beleaguered company, which recently laid off 2,000 workers, for four months.
The Week (via Yahoo News aggregation, natch) has a roundup of opinions as to whether Thompson should stay or go.
Why didn't Yahoo use some sort of search engine to discover more about their CEO before hiring him? I don't know; neither does Scott Thompson, as he doesn't have really have a computer science degree.
If you want to know more about Stonehill College, or anything else in the world, click here.
---
To be lied to about college degrees on a regular basis, click to join PoliticOlogy
Follow: Evan McMurry @evanmcmurry | PoliticOlogy @OlogyPolitics
Comments (0)
Be the first to comment!