Yahoo appoints former PayPal president Scott Thompson as chief executive

Struggling web pioneer Yahoo has announced the appointment of former PayPal president Scott Thompson as its new chief executive, concluding a four-month search for a new leader in the wake of the sacking of Carol Bartz in September.

Thompson will begin his role on 9 January, replacing interim chief executive Tim Morse, who will return to his role of chief financial officer.

Chairman of the Yahoo board Roy Bostock said the appointment would turn the firm's fortunes around.

"His deep understanding of online businesses combined with team building and operational capabilities will restore the energy, focus and momentum necessary to grow the core business," he said.

"The search committee and the entire board concluded he is the right leader to return the business to a path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation."

Yahoo pointed to Thompson's time at PayPal as evidence for his success, noting he had helped grow the firm's user base from 50 million to 104 million and increase its revenues from $1.8bn to over $4bn.

Thompson himself said he was "excited" about his new role and said his overriding goal was to improve the firm's financial performance.

"With the goal of delivering the value our shareholders expect, my immediate focus will be on getting to know the entire team, working closely with the engineers and product teams, and diving into our products and services," he said.

"I will also be working directly with our region leaders and sales teams to get a clearer understanding of the needs of our advertisers and publishers."

However, Quocirca analyst Clive Longbottom told V3 that Thompson has a "mountain to climb" to revive the firm's position, and said a sale may be the best option in the long-run.

"Yahoo has fallen off a cliff when it comes to capabilities and reach, and its advertising revenues must be at a pretty low level. Its failure to accept Microsoft as a suitor made it the enemy of the investor and there is little interest in it as a vehicle or technology platform," he said.

"Thompson's strategy should be to discover what the true value of Yahoo is, what accounts are still live and used, what people are actually using it for, what capabilities it does have, any patent library it has and then begin to position it for sale."

Microsoft has been linked with a move for the firm for several years, and signed a confidentially agreement with Yahoo in late 2011 that could lead to a deal being struck in the future.

Microsoft first attempted to buy Yahoo for a whopping $44bn in 2008 but the search firm rejected the deal, before subsequently suffering a sizeable decline in its fortunes.