Yahoo!"s former CEO, Scott Thompson, reportedly told the company"s board of directors he was dealing with thyroid cancer before he resigned.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal released earlier this morning, Thompson informed the company"s board of his diagnosis "late last week." A source told the newspaper that Thompson"s diagnosis influenced his decision to resign as head of the company. In addition to the company"s board of directors, Thompson also told several colleagues of his recent diagnosis, according to the report. Thompson"s diagnosis had taken place in recently, while he was under investigation for falsifying his resume.
Thompson resigned from his position as chief executive officer yesterday, following a brief reign which saw the CEO"s resume come into question. According to Thompson"s resume, he had a degree in computer science. This was later revealed to be untrue, which left many Yahoo! employees and investors calling for the CEO"s job. Daniel Loeb, hedge fund manager at Third Point, Yahoo!"s largest outside stock holder, first accused Thompson of falsifying his resume, which led to media storm surrounding the company"s decision to hire the CEO.
Yahoo! selected Thompson to run the company in January and the former PayPal president was the second CEO in three years for the struggling Internet company. The company has since named Ross Levinsohn interim CEO; Fred Amoroso was named chairman of the company"s board of directors, replacing Roy Bostock, who also resigned.