It has been confirmed this morning that PayPal President Scott Thompson has been named the new CEO of Yahoo!. Thompson has been president of PayPal since early 2008, after serving as CTO in charge of information technology, product development and architecture.

Here’s an excerpt from a note to all PayPal employees sent by eBay Inc. CEO, John Donahoe, this morning:

As you may already have seen, Yahoo! announced this morning that Scott Thompson is joining the company as CEO, effective immediately. Scott informed me Tuesday afternoon, saying that despite his passion for PayPal, this was an opportunity he felt he had to take. I know I speak for everyone in wishing Scott the best.

I will serve in the interim role as President and will be meeting with the PayPal leadership team this morning to plan a seamless transition. And while I’m sure Scott’s decision is a shock to many of you, as it was to me, there is one thing I am certain of: PayPal has an enormous opportunity in front of it and we will not slow down. We will not miss a beat. And we will continue driving the incredible momentum that each of you has helped to create.

PayPal had an outstanding 2011 and a strong close to the fourth quarter. PayPal’s vision is clear. Our strategies are set and we have a strong, focused leadership team in place. And across PayPal, we have you — an incredibly talented team, committed to creating the future of money and changing how the world shops and pays.

Let’s do it, and take this special business to the next level in 2012 and beyond.

I join John in wishing Scott all the best.

I’ll update this blog post with any new developments as they happen.

Cheers,
RBH