Yahoo picks PayPal chief as new CEO

Yahoo Inc, the internet giant battling stiff competition from rivals such as Google and Facebook, amid declining advertising revenues, named Scott Thompson, president of PayPal, a unit of eBay, as its new chief executive.

Thompson, 54, helped turn PayPal's online payments into eBay's fastest-growing business unit in the three years that he was there. He now has a more challenging task of turning around the fortunes of the troubled Sunnyvale, California-based internet pioneer, struggling to keep pace with rivals including Google and Facebook.

Yahoo has been headless since September, when the board fired Carol Bartz, the CEO, for failing to turn around the company (See: Yahoo chief Carol Bartz sacked). Thompson takes over as CEO on 9 January.

''My job is to leverage all of that talent and experience that exists in the organisation already,'' Thompson told the media after the announcement appointing him as CEO was made by Yahoo. ''I know there are some things we need to change and fix, and I love it. I think that's part of what attracted me to come here – that it's going to be fast-paced, fun, hard, complex with a great team of people.''

Thompson said his priorities included boosting revenue and ensuring that the company was back at the forefront of innovation. He wanted to bring Yahoo back to being ''one of those great iconic brands. We will be back to innovation and disruptive concepts,'' he promised. Yahoo will consequently focus on mobile devices including tablet computers and smartphones. ''I just won't rest until we've positioned this business and start to succeed,'' he added.

Yahoo's share of graphical and video ads in the US has been declining in recent years. Of the $12.3-billion market for graphical and video ads in the US, Yahoo's share fell to 13.1 per cent in 2011, from 14.4 per cent a year earlier. The company's revenues have also been stagnating around the $6 billion mark for a few years.