College degree controversy

This section may lend undue weight to certain ideas, incidents, or controversies. (May 2012)

On May 3, 2012, activist investor Dan Loeb, CEO of Third Point LLC, sent a letter to Yahoo's board of directors and made the contents of the letter public in a press release.^[12] The letter cites a Yahoo! SEC filing stating that Thompson "holds a Bachelor's degree in accounting and computer science" from Stonehill College and that Loeb had reason to believe that the degree was "in accounting only". Loeb questioned if Thompson had "embellished his academic credentials" and questioned if the board had "failed to exercise appropriate diligence and oversight in one of its most fundamental tasks – identifying and hiring the Chief Executive Officer." The basics of hiring the chief executive officer were subsequently overlooked.

Yahoo!'s filings with the SEC stated that Thompson "holds a Bachelor’s degree in accounting and computer science from Stonehill College". However, the 2008–10 proxy statements of eBay, Thompson's former employer, only noted an accounting degree.^[13] Yahoo! initially acknowledged the misstatement as "an inadvertent error",^[14] then subsequently began an investigation.^[15] Stonehill College responded to press inquiries by stating that Thompson was granted a B.S.B.A. degree in accounting.

On May 13, 2012, Yahoo! issued a press release stating that Thompson was no longer with the company, and would immediately be replaced on an interim basis by Ross Levinsohn, recently appointed head of Yahoo's new Media group.^[16][17][18]