Yahoo yo-yo claims another CEO

It was fun while it lasted. In a move that frankly surprised no one, Yahoo has replaced its resume-padding CEO Scott Thompson with interim CEO Ross Levinsohn, whom one presumes has a squeaky-clean CV, some four months after hiring the former.

Who the heck is Ross Levinsohn? Good question. Interestingly, I couldn’t find a resume for him online. A search for his LinkedIn profile comes up mysteriously blank, despite this LinkedIn blog entry by Mario Sundar detailing how LinkedIn board member Mark Kvamme hooked up with Levinsohn via his profile. (Quick, somebody alert Kara Swisher at AllThingsD, I think I smell another Yahoogate brewing.)

[ Also on InfoWorld: Yahoo’s CEO isn’t the only techie caught fibbing, as Cringely details in “Lies, spies, and Wi-Fi: Google fesses up.” | For a humorous take on the tech industry’s shenanigans, subscribe to Robert X. Cringely’s Notes from the Underground newsletter. | Get the latest insight on the tech news that matters from InfoWorld’s Tech Watch blog. ]

What we do know is that Levinsohn apparently negotiated the deal that brought MySpace to News Corp. for $580 million back in 2005, an amount that seemed ridiculous at the time and now merely comes across as insane, given that Murdoch & friends dumped MySpace last year for $35 million. It’s nice to know that Yahoo is in good hands because I need things like this to keep Notes From the Field going.

The reaction across the blogosphere?

Discovery News tech blogger Rob Pegoraro tweets: “Who has the longer average tenure: Yahoo CEOs or Spinal Tap drummers?”

I can’t prove it, but I’m pretty sure the answer goes to the heavy metal stickmen. The good news: No Yahoo CEO has died in a bizarre gardening accident, spontaneously combusted on stage, or choked to death on someone else’s vomit. As far as we know.

Kit Eaton, tech writer at Fast Company, asks the money question: “Can anyone explain what it is Yahoo does nowadays?”

I’d be happy to answer that question, Kit. What Yahoo does is change CEOs, sometimes as often as once a year, along with corporate direction and, occasionally, its logo. Also, it lays off people, usually thousands of them at a time. And it kills off the few things it did right, like that iconic neon Yahoo sign, which stood at the western end of San Francisco’s Bay Bridge for a dozen years until the company tore it down last December.

Over at Time, Harry “The Technologizer” McCracken offers up a fun game where readers can match former Yahoo CEOs with the memos they issued either upon being forced out of the top job or being asked to replace someone who was being forced out. Like this one:

I am a huge believer in Yahoo and its people. We have a unique array of audience, advertising and technology assets that will become even more valuable as the Internet continues its rapid growth. And, I have no doubt that, with its new leadership team, Yahoo will realize its enormous potential.

Those were among Terry Semel’s parting words to Yahoo employees, shortly before he left the building with nearly half a billion dollars in salary. But they could have just as easily been spoken by Jerry Yang, Carol Bartz, Scott Thompson, or — someday soon — Ross Levinsohn.

Postscript: Whenever you think you’re having a bad week or two in your life, remember this: The Wall Street Journal has revealed that, in addition to the public humiliation of losing his high-profile job thanks to a fudged resume, Scott Thompson has thyroid cancer and will start undergoing treatment immediately. All snark aside, Notes From the Field wishes him a speedy recovery.

Is Yahoo pushing up daisies? Post your postmortems below or email the do-not-resuscitate orders here: cringe@infoworld.com.

This article, “Yahoo yo-yo claims another CEO,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the crazy twists and turns of the tech industry with Robert X. Cringely’s Notes from the Field blog, and subscribe to Cringely’s Notes from the Underground newsletter.