I've met and interviewed Scott several times over the course of my career.<p>He is the anti-Carol Bartz. He is extremely likeable, approachable. He's a consensus-builder, not a bomb thrower. And he did double PayPal's user base and revenue to 100+ million and $4+ billion respectively.<p>Yahooers will like this guy. He's sharp. He's the right man for the job.
<i>“Scott’s primary focus will be on the core business"</i><p>That's good (even though I don't know that business that refers to) because they botched the entire mobile entry.<p><a href="http://m.yahoo.com/w/frontdoors/" rel="nofollow">http://m.yahoo.com/w/frontdoors/</a> provides a decent mobile experience. So they developed their own android app, which only acts as a branded web browser for the above URL. The only "features" the app seems to add are Posting to facebook (not a yahoo! property!) and Sharing a url via the standard email/message/text/etc.<p>The mobile site looks well designed and easy to navigate, but cuts essential features to get there.<p>* For instance, Sports team by conference, but you can't see records or standings <a href="http://m.yahoo.com/w/sports/ncaaf/teams/ncaaf.i-a.2?.ts=1325691714&.intl=us&.lang=en" rel="nofollow">http://m.yahoo.com/w/sports/ncaaf/teams/ncaaf.i-a.2?.ts=1325...</a> Guess I'm going to ESPN<p>* The mobile calendar has no month view and requires a 3 drop down date widget to navigate beyond next/prev week. Can't see which weeks in February I'm free for vacation without navigating through each week. Guess I'm sticking with google calendar's native app.<p>* Yahoo Games has a huge offering and user base and nearly every game should be playable on a phone, but I can't play Yahoo chess. Why not? Too busy cloning youtube and myspace I assume.<p>* <a href="http://m.yahoo.com/w/movies?.intl=us&.lang=en" rel="nofollow">http://m.yahoo.com/w/movies?.intl=us&.lang=en</a> Check out the mobile movie page. An incredibly useful feature! And it includes reviews! Go ahead and click reviews for a movie to see what yahoo users think. Wait.. brings you to the movie page. Ok, click reviews again... oh wait it isn't a link. How do I read user reviews on my phone? Guess I'm going to another site for that content.<p>Simple stuff that just screams "We aren't using our own products!" I don't for a second believe Yahoo uses their own calendaring system for work. Tons of stupid broken features they should clean up, but it seems no one cares to pay attention.<p>Yahoo has tons of content but they refuse to deliver it. The above issues aren't really that bad, but I have options so I will gladly go to a provider who delivers a better experience.<p>Meanwhile, running paypal should not count as a positive credential. Perhaps if yahoo swears fealty to ebay then they too can benefit the same way paypal has.
PayPal is an entrenched player whose largest market also happens to be its parent company. Their customer service is terrible, they've been vilified in the press, and I can't say they're known for innovation, technical or otherwise.<p>Not who I'd want running a floundering tech giant.
For the sake of internet, valley and Yahoo! - I hope he succeeds big time. Yahoos deserve much better than a foul-mouthed, talentless and outdated CEO they ousted. I hope he lives up to the promise!
PayPal has survived by having an early lead in a business with high barriers to entry, despite having abused their users and customers at every turn. The guy who oversaw that would not be my #1 pick to lead a flagging consumer internet company.
I agree with Jason Calcanis that Yahoo needed a product oriented CEO, not just another financial guy.<p>They need someone who groks products and can make acquisitions to grow the audience. You want the operations guy to be the number two, not the CEO.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), the premier digital media company...<p>Who writes these PR releases?
Some humility should be in order here..<p>Yahoo Appoints Scott Thompson CEO [FIXED]
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), the premier digital media company from April 1999 to February 2000 is desperately trying to become relevant again after a series of incomprehensible blunders. We are very hopeful that with the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive we will finally get things turned around because, quite frankly, the next stop for us is being Gecko'd - bought out for pennies on the dollar, broken apart and sold off to the highest bidders at auction.
I choked on my coffee when I saw the headline. Not the Scott Thompson from Kids in the Hall. Though that would be an inspired choice as well, and just as likely to save Yahoo.