Online bookies Paddy Power have named Ross Levinsohn as the 4/1 favourite to become the next CEO of Yahoo!, according to a survey of their business betting community.
Following the shock news of the firing of Carol Bartz, Yahoo!’s executive vice-president of the Americas region, an internet player at several major corporations in the past, is seen by some as someone who might be able to settle the Yahoo! ship.
At 6/1, interim CEO Tim Morse is seen as one of Levinsohn’s biggest rivals alongside former CEO of MySpace, Mike Jones.
Should Yahoo! go for an internal name, their SVP for Europe and Africa, Rich Riley, is also in the running at 9/1. The leading female contender to replace Bartz currently is Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg, albeit a currently distant 66/1.
CEOs of fellow internet giants in the betting include Ask.com’s Doug Leeds at 9/1, LinkedIn’s Jeff Weiner at 33/1 and Twitter’s Dick Costolo at 50/1. However, Paddy Power make the heads at Apple and Google altogether less likely with Tim Cook and Eric Schmidt a distant 80/1 and 500/1, respectively.
“Yahoo! is a falling giant struggling to live with the new kids on the internet block and as such the early betting suggests an internal appointment with several Yahoo! names at the head of the market,” Darren Haines, spokesman for Paddy Power, said.
“If you’re a leading light at Facebook, Apple, Twitter or Google, why would you step out of the title race for a relegation battle?”
Paddy Power’s Next Yahoo! CEO betting
4/1 Ross Levinsohn (Yahoo! EVP Americas)
6/1 Tim Morse (Yahoo! interim CEO)
6/1 Mike Jones (Former MySpace CEO)
8/1 Rich Riley (Yahoo! SVP Europe and Africa)
8/1 Marc Benioff (Salesforce CEO)
9/1 Doug Leeds (Ask.com CEO)
9/1 Dennis Crowley (Foursquare co-founder)
12/1 Ben Elowitz (Wetpaint CEO)
12/1 Dan Finnigan (Jobvite CEO)
12/1 Blake Irving (Yahoo! EVP , CPO)
25/1 Steve Sordello (LinkedIn CFO)
25/1 Deep Nishar (LinkedIn SVP Prod)
25/1 Nikesh Arora (Google SVP Bus Off)
25/1 David Henke (LinkedIn SVP Ops)
33/1 Jeff Weiner (LinkedIn CEO)
33/1 Chris Cox (Facebook VP Product)
33/1 Jeff Williams (Apple SVP Ops)
33/1 Alexander Gounares (AOL Tech Off)
40/1 Richard Parsons (Former Time Warner CEO)
50/1 Dick Costolo (Twitter CEO)
50/1 Peter Oppenheimer (Apple CFO)
66/1 Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook COO)
80/1 Tim Cook (Apple CEO)
100/1 Sean Parker (Co-founder of Plaxo, Causes and Napster)
500/1 Eric Schmidt (Executive chairman of Google)
