Third Point Notches Another Win: Yahoo Director Resigns

Third Point, the New York hedge fund that owns 5.8 percent of Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), the No. 3 search engine, scored another victory late Tuesday as the company formally announced a director would quit.

Patti Hart, 56, CEO of International Gaming Technnology (NYSE: IGT), who was in charge of recruiting new CEO Scott Thompson, 54, to Yahoo, will step down at the still-unscheduled annual meeting.

Yahoo, in Sunnyvale, Calif., announced the move late Tuesday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

We thank Patti for her years of service and wish her all the best, the board said.

Third Point, the New York hedge fund managed by Daniel Loeb, had argued both Thompson and Hart had inflated their resumes, adding academic credentials they lacked.

On Wednesday, Loeb demanded Thompson step aside, at least for the interim, until the alleged embellishment is fully explained. We take no joy in witnessing this carnage, he said. This baord's unchecked value destruction mist stop once and for all.

In a memo Monday to Yahoo's 14,100 employees, Thompson apologized. On Tuesday, the company said it would establish a special committee with outside counsel to explore the issue. Thompson's official proxy filing states he has degrees in accounting and computer science from Stonehill College whereas he only posseses the accounting degree. In filings for other companies where he is a director, Splunk (Nasdaq: SPLK) and F5 Networks (Nasdaq: FFFV), he doesn't cite a degree in computer science.

Third Point had demanded a company response by Friday to its complaints Yahoo management had filed misleading data with the SEC.

Yahoo shares fell 6 cents to $15.30 in Wednesday trading. The company's market value is $18.6 billion.