Ross Levinsohn said to become full time CEO of Yahoo

Levinsohn took over in May after Scott Thompson resignation

After a big scandal took down both the CEO and the Board of Directors at Yahoo in May, the company finally seems to be getting back on the right path.

Interim Yahoo CEO Ross Levinsohn, who has been in the position since early May, is now the favorite to take over the job full time, Reuters is reporting.

This comes after Hulu said that its CEO, Jason Kilar, was no longer in the running. Levinsohn and Kilar were said to be the last two candidates.

Jonathan Miller, News Corp's Chief Digital Officer and former CEO of AOL, was said to have also been considered, but withdrew because of his friendship with Levinsohn, who he had previously run investment firm Fuse Capital with.

Levinsohn’s stock is sure to have risen after the deal that Yahoo made with Facebook on Friday, which ended a protracted legal battle over patents between the two tech giants.

The acrimony between the two companies began in March, under former CEO Scott Thompson.

A Yahoo spokesperson would not comment on the report.

Yahoo’s revolving door of CEOs

Yahoo has had great trouble holding on to a CEO since Terry Semel, who became CEO in 2001, was replaced by Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang in 2007. Since then, no other EO has lasted more than two years.

Yang was replaced by Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz in 2009, but she only lasted until 2011, when she was fired over the phone. Bartz’s ouster was seen, by some, as an example of sexism in Silicon Valley.

PayPal President Scott Thompson took over in January 2012. His tenure at Yahoo was marred by failure and scandal, first with the Facebook patent lawsuit, then the announcement of massive layoffs in April.

But Thompson’s true legacy was secured when a resume fudging scandal, where it came out that Thompson had lied about degrees he had received as an undergraduate, ended his time as CEO in early May, after only four months on the job.

The scandal not only took down Thompsons, but the entire Board of Directors as well, who were blamed for not properly vetting Thompson in the first place.

Other executive shuffles

Yahoo is not the only company to see new executives this year.

Zong founder David Marcus was named President of PayPal in March, taking over the position that Scott Thompson left to become Yahoo CEO in January.

Barclays, the third largest bank in Britain, is currently suffering through a scandal after CEO Bob Diamond was forced to quit after the British government fined them £290 million, or $450 million, after finding that they had rigged their rates.

Duke Energy, the largest electric power company in the U.S., is also facing a big CEO scandal after firing Progress Energy CEO Bill Johnson one day after buying out Progress Energy for $18 billion. Johnson was replaced by Duke CEO Jim Rogers. North Carolina agencies are currently investigating the move.

Johnson will received a payout of $44 million for his one day as CEO of the combined company.

(Image source: ibnlive.in.com)