::::Yahoo's CEO is out. Now what?::::

<div class=&quot;custm_img_blk&quot;><img src=&quot;http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337167372_temp.top.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; width=&quot;300&quot; height=&quot;200&quot; align=&quot;left&quot; /></div><br /><img src=&quot;http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/reuters/INtechnologyNews/~4/EoOcb0zwwSc&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /><span style=&quot;text-align: left&quot;>NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Scott Thompson, Yahoo's third CEO in about three years, has officially</span><span style=&quot;text-align: left&quot;>&nbsp;</span><span style=&quot;text-align: left; background-color: transparent&quot;>left the building</span><span style=&quot;text-align: left&quot;>.</span><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;>That barely makes a dent in Yahoo's problems. Now that Thompson's resume-embellishing scandal has reached a resolution, Yahoo (YHOO,<span style=&quot;background-color: transparent&quot;>Fortune 500</span>) will be forced to confront new questions -- and longtime issues that are still unsettled -- on its rough road to reinvention.</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;><span style=&quot;background-color: transparent&quot;>Now Yahoo is a rudderless ship -- again. Yahoo media chief Ross Levinsohn, who had been a rumored permanent successor to Carol Bartz (<span style=&quot;background-color: transparent&quot;>fired from Yahoo by phone</span>&nbsp;in September), will serve as the interim CEO.</span></p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;><span style=&quot;background-color: transparent&quot;>Task #1: Find a new CEO.</span>Thompson left the company just four months into his tenure, after the discovery that his official Yahoo bio and other documents embellished his academic credentials. Thompson claimed a dual degree in &quot;accounting and computer science,&quot; but his actual degree is only in accounting.</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;>Analysts are waiting to see whether Yahoo will launch yet another CEO search -- a potentially lengthy and expensive process -- or stick with its in-house talent.</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;>&quot;Ross has been at a number of different firms, and he's had a lot of success,&quot; said Scott Kessler, equity analyst at S&amp;P Capital IQ. &quot;He knows media, he knows advertising. But most importantly, he is well-liked and well-respected.&quot;</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;>Those may sound like obvious characteristics for any potential CEO, but Yahoo's recent leaders haven't fared well. Bartz's phone firing followed a tumultuous relationship with the board. Before her came Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, who stepped down as CEO amid shareholder anger after snubbing a $47.5 billion buyout offer from Microsoft (MSFT,&nbsp;<span style=&quot;background-color: transparent&quot;>Fortune 500</span>).</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;>&quot;Yahoo has been dealing with different predicaments and personalities for years,&quot; Kessler said. &quot;They really have to be enamored of the type of person Ross has proven himself to be: someone who has the vision, can communicate the strategy and gets along with people.&quot;</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;><span style=&quot;background-color: transparent&quot;>Make peace with new board members -- after a nasty fight.</span>Thompson's resume issues came to light via Third Point, the activist shareholder that launched a proxy fight in&nbsp;<span style=&quot;background-color: transparent&quot;>February</span>. Dan Loeb, Third Point's CEO, had proposed four new board members for Yahoo, including himself. When Yahoo wouldn't play ball, the fight got ugly.</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;>By uncovering the resume lie, Third Point got a lot of what it wanted. In addition to Thompson's exit on Sunday, Yahoo also named three of Third Point's four nominees to the board.</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;>One of them is Loeb himself; the other two have backgrounds that reveal where Loeb thinks Yahoo should go. Harry Wilson is the CEO of Maeva, a corporate restructuring and turnaround firm; Michael Wolf is CEO of media consulting company Activate.</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;>The three new Third Point-nominated board members extend a year of turnover for the Yahoo board. In&nbsp;<span style=&quot;background-color: transparent&quot;>February</span>, four of Yahoo's directors said they wouldn't stand for re-election. A fifth, Patti Hart, stepped down&nbsp;<span style=&quot;background-color: transparent&quot;>last week</span>&nbsp;after Thompson's resume scandal came to light.</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;>&quot;The change on the board is a good one -- not so much because I know the new members will be successful, but because the old members were so unsuccessful,&quot; said Clayton Moran, a stock analyst at Benchmark Capital. &quot;Change is a good thing for Yahoo.&quot;</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;><span style=&quot;background-color: transparent&quot;>Figure out Alibaba.</span>&nbsp;Yahoo's Asian holdings have long been considered the company's most valuable asset.</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;>Yahoo owns about a 40% stake in Chinese Internet giant Alibaba. But Alibaba CEO Jack Ma and Bartz had a public dispute over ownership of<span style=&quot;background-color: transparent&quot;>Alipay</span>, an online payment unit similar to eBay (EBAY,&nbsp;<span style=&quot;background-color: transparent&quot;>Fortune 500</span>)-owned PayPal.</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;>The companies&nbsp;<span style=&quot;background-color: transparent&quot;>reached an agreement</span>&nbsp;in July 2011, but tensions continued. Ma said at a conference in late September that&nbsp;<span style=&quot;background-color: transparent&quot;>Alibaba would be &quot;interested&quot; in buying all of Yahoo</span>. Earlier this year, talks<span style=&quot;background-color: transparent&quot;>reportedly collapsed</span>&nbsp;between Yahoo, Alibaba and Japan-based Softbank over a potential deal to sell Yahoo's stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan.</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;>Negotiations surrounding the Alibaba stake are reportedly back on, but without a permanent CEO, Yahoo may have to put those discussions on hold.</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;>&quot;The Asian assets are so valuable that I have to think the new board will also be interested in monetizing,&quot; Moran said. &quot;But I would think [the Thompson debacle] means nothing is imminent.&quot;</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;><span style=&quot;background-color: transparent&quot;>The age-old question: What is Yahoo?</span>&nbsp;Even if Yahoo scores cash by selling its Alibaba stake, it will still need to develop a roadmap for its future.</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;>The central question of just what Yahoo is, exactly, has stumped most of its recent CEOs. The company calls itself &quot;the premier digital media company,&quot; and its news properties do attract tons of traffic, but Yahoo has a sprawling product portfolio and a brand name with a lot of baggage attached.</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;>Thompson tried his hand at defining Yahoo during his short tenure. Just last month, he&nbsp;<span style=&quot;background-color: transparent&quot;>reorganized</span>&nbsp;the company into three groups: consumer, ad-focused &quot;regions,&quot; and technology. Now, Thompson won't be there to see that vision to the end.</p><p style=&quot;padding: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px&quot;>Like so many of his predecessors, Thompson promised a new dawn for Yahoo. The clouds have yet to break.&nbsp;</p>

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