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And so it ends. This morning, All Things D's Kara Swisher— whose stories about Yahoo's crisis over the widely-circulated but falsestatement that its new CEO Scott Thompson earned a degree incomputer science have made for compelling reading — reportedthat Thompson was stepping down . Yahoo has now confirmed it . The company has named veteran Internet executive Ross Levinsohnas interim CEO and said it's allowing dissident stockholderDan Loeb and two of his associates onto its board. The whole saga began back on May 3rd when Loeb sent a letter toYahoo disclosing the questionable status of Thompson's computer-science degree , which was mentioned in his official Yahoo biography and had beenlisted in SEC filings. ( MORE: Match the Yahoo Memos with the Pollyannish Sentiments, 2007-2012 ) If you're fond of Yahoo and rooting for it to reverse itsfortunes — as I am — it's a relief to seeThompson go. The once-mighty web company has suffered from abizarre string of humiliating episodes dating back at least toFebruary of 2008, when it failed to agree to Microsoft's extremely generous, never-to-be-equaled takeover bid . If it had allowed Thompson to stay in place, it couldn'thave moved past the current disaster. And even if Thompson'sclaim that he didn't insert the bogus credential into hisbiography is true, the notion that he never noticed it over thecourse of more than a decade strains credulity to the breakingpoint. Among other things, the Thompson disaster is a reminder that mediacompanies such as Yahoo are often truly incompetent when it comesto something they should theoretically know better than anybody:dealing with the media in times of crisis. When Loeb first accused Thompson of fudging his r sum , Yahooblithely issued a statement which said that the false computer-science degree was "aninadvertent error" — like there's any other kind?— and praised Thompson's background and leadership. Atthat point, shortly after Loeb lobbed his bombshell, there'sno way that anyone at Yahoo other than Thompson could have knownwhat was going on; the company should have declined comment otherthan to say it was looking into the matter and would report backlater. It then let Thompson send two inevitably-leaked memos to Yahoo employees in which he gave a classic non-apology and toldthem not to pay attention to the mess; both of the missives madeThompson and Yahoo look worse than they would have if he had saidnothing at all. And then Thompson's " explanation " — hey, it was somebody else's fault! —was leaked, spurring Yahoo's headhunter to release an angry rebuttal . ( MORE: Tale of Two Techs: Yahoo CEO Mess Deepens as AOL Rides Patent Sale ) The moment that I read Kara's first story on all this, Ifigured out that Thompson was toast. I was wrong only in thinkingthat the endgame would come within a few days rather than a weekand a half later: Isn't it inevitable that Yahoo's Scott Thompson will be Apothekeredwithin the next few days?— Harry McCracken (@harrymccracken) May 03, 2012 ("Apothekered" is a reference to HP, the other big techcompany that has a knack for being embarrassed , repeatedly , by its CEO choices.) I'm not dredging up my tweet because I think I was prescient;I'm doing so because it was immediately, painfully obvious toa poorly-informed outsider like myself that he'd be forced todepart. Being inside Yahoo didn't help clarify the situation.It apparently made it impossible to understand what was going on.(At least if you were near the top — I'll bet therank-and-file Yahoos instinctively understood what the outcomewould be.) If Yahoo had quietly and quickly assessed the circumstances,communicated with the outside world sparingly but clearly, and thenbooted Thompson out, it would have gotten praise for making thebest of a truly dismal situation. Instead, I suspect, the phrase"inadvertent error" will remain a stinging in-joke in Silicon Valley for a long time to come. I am an expert from tempered-SafetyGlass.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Low Emissivity Glass , China Fire Rated Glass, Flat Tempered Glass,and more.
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