The Undoing of Scott Thompson at Yahoo

What triggered the controversy?

The entire controversy was triggered by Dan Loeb, CEO of Third Point who also owned 5.8% Yahoo. Dan sent a letter to Yahoo’s Board of Directors which he then made the contents public. The letter detailed how Thompson’s resume included false claim that he holds a degree in computer science from Stonehill College, when in actual fact Thompson’s degree was in Accounting only. Loeb sites that Stonehill College only warded computer science degrees four years after Thompson graduated. Loeb questioned whether if Thompson embellished his credentials and if the Board of Directors of Yahoo failed to exercise due diligence in the hiring of a Chief Executive.

The timeline of the main events of the case

May 3: Yahoo confirms that CEO Scott Thompson has only an accounting degree from Stonehill College near Boston, and no degree in computer science. Activist shareholder and hedge fund leader Daniel Loeb at Third Point LLC had revealed the inaccuracies in both bios.

May 7: Thompson apologizes for the error about his degree, without explanation. He says in an email to employees that he won’t resign.

May 8: Yahoo says Hart will step down at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, which remains unscheduled.

May 10: Thompson assures his colleagues at Yahoo that he didn’t supply the incorrect information.

May 13: Yahoo says Thompson has left the company and Ross Levinsohn, an executive in charge of its media operations, will be interim CEO. Yahoo also announces new board chairman, Fred Amoroso. The company says Hart, current chairman Roy Bostock and two other board members are leaving and three new board members, including Loeb, will join Wednesday.

May 14: The Wall Street Journal reports that Thompson had told the board last week that he has thyroid cancer. The diagnosis contributed to his decision to step down.

The repercussion of the issue on Thompson

It’s been clearly established that Thompson’s act of falsifying his qualification was deliberate. As an immediate repercussion of this, Patti Hart plus two other Board members resigned. Chairman of the board at the time, Roy Bostock resigned and was replaced by Fred Amoroso. Thompson was reported to have resigned on medical grounds and was replaced by Ross Levisohn.

The integrity aspect of the case

The simplest form of integrity explained, in my opinion, is that one needs to have to be true to oneself and to do nothing that would dishonour you. Having personal integrity is to have moral principles, uprightness and taking that moral high ground at all times. Integrity at the workplace is the crucial value that an employer looks for in the person that they hire.

The only character in this case that had a faint or perceived to have some form of integrity was Roy Bostock, then Chairman of Yahoo and the two other board members that stepped down along with him. He stepped down as Chairman and seen by others as taking full responsibility of the entire conundrum. Scott Thompson, and Patti Hart to a certain degree are examples of integrity meltdown at the onset. As a leader, a CEO, integrity is not an option. Scott Thompson lost his integrity. His support (whether active or tacit) for the spurious claim was a really big problem. This represents two approaches (playing victim and trying to "spin" the issue) that validated the original issue of lack of integrity.

Integrity is Earned Individually, but Granted Publicly. In other words, a person can be of high integrity, but if everyone thinks he’s not, his actions don't matter. The flip side is perhaps more common. A person could be of low integrity, but if everyone thinks he has integrity, then he’s golden. However, once the truth comes out, he is done with, because all control is lost.