Wanted: CEO with verifiable résumé to lead slightly used Internet company.
Yahoo! is on a search mission yet again. The Web portal has hired executive recruitment firm Spencer Stuart to begin contacting potential CEO candidates.
This time Yahoo isn’t using Heidrick and Struggles, the firm that bungled the hiring of former CEO Scott Thompson.
Thompson exited Yahoo! in May after activist hedge fund Third Point discovered a hole in his résumé via a simple Google search. His résumé listed degrees in computer science and accounting when he only had the latter.
The discrepancy led to Thompson’s exit and to Third Point winning a proxy fight, which placed chief Daniel Loeb on the board alongside two of his nominees.
Since Thompson’s exit, Ross Levinsohn has been acting CEO. Levinsohn was previously global head of media.