Yahoo has appointed Scott Thompson, the president of online payments firm Paypal, as its new head, as the embattled internet media giant looks to turn around its fortunes.
Thomson will fill the vacancy left by Carol Bartz, who was dismissed as chief executive in September.
Yahoo is currently undergoing a strategic review as it has failed to keep up with rivals such as Google.
The US firm’s key products, beside its search engine, include photo sharing site Flickr and its webmail platform.
Thompson has headed Paypal, the payments division of eBay, since 2008, during which time its userbase doubled.
Yahoo’s share price has stagnated at about $15 ever since late 2008, refusing to go above $20, after Microsoft failed to buy up the company for $33-a-share that year.
