Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/googles-marissa-mayer-tapped-as-yahoos-chief/

by sahillavingia • 14 years ago

1016 343 14 years ago

dealbook.nytimes.com

jbyers3• 14 years ago

Wow. I am speechless. There is probably no better person on earth to light a user- and product-focused fire under Yahoo. But the risk, the risk for her is just stunning. Huge props to her for making the leap from what must be a very comfortable Google and for the board for finding a stunning candidate to lead the revival of Yahoo.

(Edit: my definition of risk is lost time and missed opportunity. She's not going to suffer in compensation or reputation.)

jblock2• 14 years ago

I mentioned this out loud at the office and that was the exact same reaction.

jc4p• 14 years ago

I don't think anyone in my office had a reaction other than "...What the fuck?!"

backspace2• 14 years ago

I'm sorry but I find it so hilarious. I worked at Yahoo and Google both. I know both their cultures (and especially the culture at Yahoo after all the good engineers left). IMHO, she is status quo - no different than the horrible string of CEOs being hired by Yahoo. In fact, I will put a stake in the ground that she will not move the needle further than what Scott/Bartz did.

I just can't get over how hilarious this situation is.

RollAHardSix2• 14 years ago

Would you care to elaborate more on the different cultures both as individual entities and in direct comparison to each other?

hv23• 14 years ago

Curious; care to elaborate from an insider's perspective?

What about their cultures make this situation hilarious, and how come you're convinced that Mayer won't make a difference?

jmsduran• 14 years ago

Yes, I too am curious about your perspective. There are far too many posts claiming "Hey, I worked at X and Y!" without providing any sort of perspective whatsoever.

brianstorms• 14 years ago

I agree w/ backspace.

rokhayakebe3• 14 years ago

Backspace, you sound negative. Can you at least provide some information which makes you feel like she is not going to perform? Like her previous performance, because that would be an ok indicator in this case.

uptown2• 14 years ago

"the risk for her is just stunning"

What risk? She's already achieved complete financial security from here time at Google. At Yahoo! she'll be taking the reins of a company that still attracts a massive userbase but is aching for someone with a fresh viewpoint on how to transform the company. Nothing buy potential IMO.

jbyers3• 14 years ago

I'm not talking about money or reputation. The risk I see is time and opportunity. She could spend a maddening four years not moving the needle at Yahoo rather than another company or a startup of her own. Four years of punishing travel, endless meetings, unending Wall Street scrutiny. That risk.

ry0ohki• 14 years ago

The risk of her reputation. Once you have money, reputation is of the things that keeps you going every day. Right now her reputation is golden.

larrys3• 14 years ago

"fresh viewpoint on how to transform the company"

And possibly who to poach from google.

larrys3• 14 years ago

"someone with a fresh viewpoint on how to transform the company"

Prior to joining google in 1999 as employee number 20 "Mayer worked at the UBS research lab (Ubilab) in Zurich, Switzerland, and at SRI International in Menlo Park, California" (wikipedia) for what appears to be only a few years. (She graduated high school in 1993, received a B.S. and and M.S. which must have taken at least 4 or 5 years afaik).

My guess is that she has a great deal of confidence, confidence built on the fact that she was an early google employee and she was able to ride the success of that opportunity. But her entire working career is basically google and I'm not sure she brings the depth of experience necessary to take on turning around the fortunes of Yahoo.

yogrish• 14 years ago

And later in Oct, She will go on maternity leave. So no Yahoo head ache for some time. http://www.firstpost.com/tech/yahoo-marissa-mayer-is-first-p...

backspace2• 14 years ago

Actually, there is no risk at all (if you know what's behind the covers).

She is stagnating at Google. She had high ranking high influence positions at Google but over the years has been relegated to a position that has little visibility and control, mostly due to her non execution. This is a great opportunity for her to make some serious cash and be the "top dog" in a kennel of average dogs, rather than the opposite at Google.

Also, even if she crashes and burns at Yahoo, she will get many more opportunities simply due to the brand recognition she has due to her tenure at Google.

awakeasleep• 14 years ago

Could you explain more what you mean by non-execution? I don't travel in circles where I have context for something like that and it sounds interesting.

sharkweek• 14 years ago

Matt Cutts seems to disagree about her work -- https://twitter.com/mattcutts/status/224963111222910976

jcampbell12• 14 years ago

> mostly due to her non execution.

I remember long ago hearing her push the notion that all design and interface decisions must be tested. I remember thinking that is just a recipe for non-execution with the goal of never being "wrong".

gdilla2• 14 years ago

And if she crashes and burns, she gets what, 50million in an exit package? Why not take that.

ChuckMcM5• 14 years ago

Definitely unexpected that she would show up at Yahoo but not unexpected that she would leave Google. The re-org was kind of a slap in the face and everyone pretty much knew it. But taking this role was not what I would have expected. If Microsoft really is trying to sell its Bing unit she might be able to make a search company out of it again. Or at least a company with a native search product to power its other properties.

jcdavis• 14 years ago

Actually I don't think the risk is all that high. If the sinking ship still sinks, then oh well. But, however small the chance, she manages to turn things around...

RollAHardSix2• 14 years ago

Respectfully what risk does she have? She has a tremendous history with Google, even if Yahoo tanks with her at the helm, she could probably continue in at least a Senior Vice President position with almost any other company of her choosing.

Not to mention she is more-then-likely financially taken-care of. At that point, 'risk' is almost negligible. It's all just 'more possibilities' for Mrs. Mayer.

drumdance4• 14 years ago

I think it's a risk too. She's shown that she can excel in a small company undergoing hyper growth.

In this case she's presenting herself as a turnaround expert. I'm surprised she didn't sign on with a pre-IPO darling like Twitter or Facebook long ago.

ArbitraryLimits• 14 years ago

> She's not going to suffer in compensation or reputation.

Are you serious? Have you seen what's happened to Yahoo's CEOs since ... ever?

azylman3• 14 years ago

I don't think there's a lot of reputation risk for her, here... I'm pretty sure that if Yahoo continues it's current course, the majority reaction will be "Well, Yahoo was a sinking ship anyway, there's not a lot she could have done" but if Yahoo makes a comeback she'll be hailed as a miracle worker.

azylman3• 14 years ago

For proof of this, see Marc Andreessen's comments in TechCrunch[1]:

Andreessen also said he's "super-happy" for Mayer, because she's ready to step into a CEO role at a major tech company.

But can she actually turn Yahoo around? Andressen declined to offer any suggestions for areas that the company should pursue, and he also cautioned that it's hard to think of many Web companies that succeeded in turning themselves around.

"On the other hand, it's hard to overestimate how screwed Apple was in 1997," Andreessen said. "Tech comapnies can in fact be turned around. The problem is, there aren't a lot of Steve Jobs characters running around."

Basically, if she makes it, she's "a Steve Jobs character" and if not, well, it's hard to turn tech companies around.

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/16/marc-andreessen-marissa-may...

tjmc3• 14 years ago

Don't be so sure. Nokia was a sinking ship before Elop joined and now he's wearing most of the blame. Sure, he could have hitched Nokia's wagon to Android instead. But given that Google own competitor Motorola and are selling the killer Nexus 7 at no margin, they aren't exactly an ideal partner either.

sabat2• 14 years ago

As someone who has been underwhelmed by Ms. Mayer since her early days at Google, I think this is just another desperate attempt to save the ailing Yahoo. It will fail, and she'll be out in less than a year.

anmol• 14 years ago

curious to learn why you say this?

ebbv• 14 years ago

Clearly she's done good things at Google, but I think the chances of her being able to right what's wrong at Yahoo! are very low. Best of luck to her.

sajid• 14 years ago

It will be interesting to see what happens at Yahoo now that someone who actually knows what they're doing is at the helm.

CodeCube• 14 years ago

I wonder if this means Bing is out and we'll see a new partnership with Google in the coming months. If so, it's a total ninja takeover :)

benjaminwootton• 14 years ago

Wow that really is an audacious move from Yahoo!

yock• 14 years ago

Is it possible that Yahoo is just too far gone to be helped? Her head must be filled with dozens of ideas for changing the corporate culture there, but would any of us honestly believe anything could save Yahoo at this point?

r00fus2• 14 years ago

Look at it from this angle: if she succeeds, she could be wildly successful (Steve Jobs return-style).

If she fails, could anyone fault her?

I see no outsized downsides for her here - she either succeeds or Yahoo continues to fail. For Yahoo, this is a high-profile CEO who, if the board gives enough maneuvering space, might prevent the free-fall and establish a stable flight.

jonhendry• 14 years ago

YIM: Yahookia In Motion

drharris• 14 years ago

It can always be saved. They have a reasonably competent group of employees, a nice patent portfolio (recently cross-licensed with FB), and a recognizable brand that is still in heavy (albeit declining) use today. Even the more geeky crowd is becoming bearish on Google, so I think it's the perfect opportunity to reinvent the brand. What it should/could become is anybody's guess, but it will have to be a big change to correct their current course. It's always possible.

petercooper2• 14 years ago

There's another way to look at it. With $1bn of net income in 2011, Yahoo! can clearly turn a profit.

Could any of us here on HN forge a great, long term business from a profit stream of hundreds of millions of dollars? I'm sure quite a few could, and Meyer surely stands a good chance.

Even if she has to turn the organization upside down, make major branding changes, or fire key staff, Yahoo! has the resources, at least, to change for the better. It has just lacked the willpower, till now hopefully.

richardv• 14 years ago

Can someone explain how she is able to do this? Set aside the boldness of the move, but if anyone ever should be put on some kind of "garden leave" or some kind of non-compete it would be a person moving from a prominent position in Google to become CEO of Yahoo?

Anyway, that aside. One thing that I hope that comes from this, is bringing some of the same Google-quality-developer-friendly-ethos to Yahoo. Dispite consuming several Yahoo services, I'm always disappointed at how slow they release changes... and if there is one thing that Yahoo needs it's changes..

---------

[] June 16th, "Marrissa Meyer Makes Move to Yahoo",

[] June 20th, Yahoo switches from Bing to Google Search.

[] July 21th, Bing sees enormous drop in QPM.

Coup of the century? Who would of thought, should this actually happen, it would be the best possible outcome. Sacrificing the queen to totally dominate the search market even further.

codex3• 14 years ago

Non-competes are unenforceable in California. Non-solicitation and non-disclosure agreements are more so.

reso• 14 years ago

Non-competes are effectively illegal in California.

thornofmight• 14 years ago

If I have a non-compete from employment in another state but then want to relocate to California, does that previous non-compete still apply?

ChuckMcM5• 14 years ago

Sure, there isn't really an enforceable non-compete in California, its one of the things that makes Silicon Valley, well Silicon Valley. Second there is a sort of hubris around 'the best revenge is beating them at their own game.' I know of at least two founder/co-founder pairs that split over different ideas about how the vision should go and rather than try to sue the other out of existence, the sense of invulnerability or desire for competition gives rise to a sort of 'bring it on if you got it' mentality.

pwaring2• 14 years ago

Even if non-competes are enforceable, sometimes it will make more sense for a company to let an employee go straightaway anyway, rather than having them hang around twiddling their thumbs with no motivation.

emmelaich• 14 years ago

"Who would've thought"

(Couldn't help myself :-)

elsewhen2• 14 years ago

Yahoo's deal with Bing was reported to expire in 2019: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2052024/Its-Official-Mi...

raldi• 14 years ago

> June 16th, "Marrissa Meyer Makes Move to Yahoo"

Psst: It's July.

mikeflynn2• 14 years ago

I'm just gonna leave this right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcSujceZDmg

mikeflynn2• 14 years ago

Downvotes? Aww, you guys need to lighten up!

larrys3• 14 years ago

Actually I was hoping that was one of those Hitler spoof videos.

simondlr• 14 years ago

"Ms. Mayer resigned from Google on Monday afternoon by telephone. She starts at Yahoo on Tuesday." - That's quick.

milesskorpen• 14 years ago

I think this is pretty standard. Yahoo clearly needs a permanent CEO yesterday.

smokinn• 14 years ago

For the rank and file 2 weeks is standard.

For upper level executives as soon as you resign you're escorted out the door by security and you're not allowed to touch anything. The level of access you had was so high that they don't want you learning anything more about the company's plans and want you out asap.

I doubt anyone cared that she resigned by phone.

protomyth2• 14 years ago

I've been around some companies where any IT worker who gives 2 week notice is escorted immediately out of the building. It is not unusual for 2 weeks to not be needed or wanted.

raverbashing• 14 years ago

She should have done it by G+ hangout

(my opinion)

spiralpolitik• 14 years ago

California is an "at will" state so she's under no obligation to give Google any notice if she intends to quit, just as Google doesn't have to give her any notice if they intend to get rid of her.

In most cases 2 weeks is a professional curtesy.

jusben13693• 14 years ago

It's nearly always "same day" if you are going to a competitor. Whether you're the CEO or the front desk clerk.

solnyshok• 14 years ago

I find it so childish, when company escorts an executive out. If CEO have been looking for a job, then all needed files have been copied long time ago. CEO knows it. Company knows it. yet they cannot resist the stupid ritual. giggling.

tomkarlo6• 14 years ago

It's not childish, it's just being responsible. This is generally done for any employee with access to highly sensitive data. They're not going to do any more work for you; why take any risk that they'll do anything damaging after the moment when they tell you they're leaving?

Also, once they've resigned, they're no longer an employee, so for a lot of companies (Google included) they may not be allowed in the sensitive office areas, anyway.

spaghetti4• 14 years ago

Trying to think of explanations for this. First thing that comes to mind is a Dilbert cartoon where the new CEO takes over to run the company into the ground. While Yahoo's news, shopping, maps and search traffic is probably only a fraction of Google's it's still worth something. Why not install an insider at Yahoo and slowly help the traffic move over?

velodrome2• 14 years ago

I think she is very capable of turning Yahoo back into an engineering-focused company. Best of luck.

kanamekun• 14 years ago

Was Yahoo ever an engineering-focused company?

http://blog.phanfare.com/2009/07/its-official-yahoo-is-a-med...

smacktoward3• 14 years ago

Yahoo's roots were actually in a rejection of engineering.

For years their primary product was their human-curated directory of Web sites. It was popular because the quality of results returned by the algorithmic search engines of the time (HotBot, Lycos, AltaVista, etc. -- you young 'uns in the crowd may need to look them up) were so poor that you had better odds of finding what you were looking for in Yahoo's directory. The directory left out vast numbers of sites, of course -- that was the cost of trying to manually maintain an index of the Web as it exploded in size. Human curators couldn't keep up with that growth; only software could. But Yahoo bet that software would never be as good as humans at finding the site you were looking for.

Then Google came along and built software that could index the whole web and return relevant results from it, and that knocked the bottom right out of Yahoo's manual-curation approach.

vidarh• 14 years ago

I worked at Yahoo 2003-2005, and back then I used to tell everyone who would listen that a big part of the problem was that the engineering team at Yahoo believed that Yahoo was a technology company, while the product team treated it as a media company.

It was an ongoing tension while Yahoo was still desperately clinging to the fantasy of regaining the search leadership, or at least stopping Google in its tracks - search was to a large extent Yahoo engineering's claim to legitimacy for the idea of a tech focused Yahoo.

Without it, what was left were mainly support functions for a massive content operation, but with a team still to a large extent seeing itself as the core of the company.

Yahoo wasted tremendous amounts trying to do technology for the sake of being a tech company rather than to support revenues; a lot of little fiefdoms in engineering were allowed to exist seemingly because it looked internally like Yahoo was building an impressive technology base, while it often instead was creating tensions in the business and costing ridiculous amounts.

rokhayakebe3• 14 years ago

It was quite clear that the only way she could move up and grow would be to either start a new company, and what would that be that after Google, or leading another huge company. Great choice, I am rooting for her, and for Yahoo.

steve89184• 14 years ago

Wow, what an incredible coup.

I've always admired her, she seems to be very smart and has her finger on the pulse on what the Internet is all about, so if anyone can turn Yahoo around it's her.

I sincerely hope she has the intestinal fortitude to do WHATEVER it takes to revitalize Yahoo. The first thing I would do is get rid of the entire board of directors, they need a complete reboot as well.

asciident• 14 years ago

Ummm isn't it the board of directors that hires the CEO?

mlinsey• 14 years ago

Yes. But if an incoming CEO has a lot of political capital, they can try and demand that certain board members leave as a condition of taking the job. It's unusual, and takes an unusual person to pull it off, but it happens. (For example, this is what happened when Steve Jobs was made interim CEO of Apple.)

Mayer is a big coup for Yahoo, and the investors may back her if she wants to clean house with the board, but I wouldn't necessarily expect it to happen; it's unclear if Mayer really sees the board as part of the problem, and as Mayer is coming from outside of the organization, she may lack the close ties to other Yahoo execs that would be necessary to pull such a move off.

rokhayakebe3• 14 years ago

Thank you for the positive attitude. Most comments here are focused on how much of a challenge this is for her and why would she leave security for something that could possibly become bigger. Well, maybe she wants something bigger in life. Can that be possible?

tatsuke952• 14 years ago

>"so if anyone can turn Yahoo around it's her."

Do you really believe that? I mean, of all the potential candidates out there, she has the best pedigree?

I think the negative commentary stems from there. You think this is a coup. To me, it's sort of a ho-hum, predictable hiring. Yahoo! needs an overhaul as a business, and to do so they hired someone with SV name power.

steve89184• 14 years ago

I 100% believe that she has the best pedigree of any person out there.

Think about it, who would you have as CEO of Yahoo? John Chambers? Larry Ellison? The CEO of Hulu? Mark Hurd? Jerry Yang? Tim Cook?

I think Mayer is better qualified than anyone else that is available because she is an expert on the space. When she joined Google, the mainstream Internet was less than 5 years old. Her entire career has been built on the Internet. If she went to any large company like IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, Cisco, EMC, you name it, I would think it wouldn't be a good fit, because she wouldn't be an expert on the space.

Mayer has been with Google since practically the beginning, and as an executive, she has participated in the decisions and actions required to create and maintain a world-class engineering organization. As well, being an early employee and not just surviving but thriving, I'd be willing to bet that Mayer has done more as an engineer than most engineers at Yahoo, except maybe Filo, so that gives her incredible technical legitimacy. So, yes, I believe she is extremely qualified to run a company like Yahoo.

You can't just stick a "turnaround expert" in the shoes of Yahoo CEO and expect a great result. You need someone that understands the space, and can make the tough and right decisions that can put Yahoo back on track. Everyone that they've chosen as CEO since Yang just felt like they were trying to salvage as much of Yahoo as possible, and sell it to some other company or PE fund, and give up. By choosing Mayer, it means they are serious about trying to put Yahoo back on the right path again, and not just selling it off. I'm pretty sure this will motivate the current troops at Yahoo.

The only other interesting choice for CEO might be Reed Hastings, but he's taken already. The Yahoo board could have elected to try to acquire Netflix and put Hastings as CEO of the combined company, which would have been interesting. I still prefer the choice of Mayer though, because it shows a lot of guts, both on the part of Yahoo and Mayer.

ryanwaggoner2• 14 years ago

This might be a stupid question, but are there any amazing turnaround stories in the world of large tech companies? If not, is that due to the relative youth of the sector, or something fundamental? I can think of a ton of companies that have faltered, but really none that have made a dramatic turnaround.

smacktoward3• 14 years ago

Apple kind of leaps to mind.

This is where they were the year Jobs returned, remember: http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/wired+cover.jpg

spaghetti4• 14 years ago

Apple is a good example. Keep in mind that Apple was "turned around" by one of the founders. That's an example of re-aligning the company with it's original vision rather than altering the vision. I think the latter is much harder but I've never tried.

ryanwaggoner2• 14 years ago

Wow, I feel stupid now. Maybe I didn't think of Apple because it was an original founder returning and fixing things?

jot• 14 years ago

Apple

nileshtrivedi• 14 years ago

Apple?

herval• 14 years ago

Apple passed through a pretty dramatic shift on the Sculley/Spindler years... AOL is another example, if I'm not mistaken.

zem• 14 years ago

give "who says elephants can't dance" a read. it deals with the turnaround of ibm, a company with tremendous institutional inertia.

http://www.amazon.com/Elephants-Dance-Inside-Historic-Turnar...

taylorbuley• 14 years ago

Intuit hit a period of relative stagnation that Brad Smith has been working to plow through for a while, a period of change marked by the acquisition of Mint and an expansion in the online product suite

SanDisk went in the relative dumper following the memory glut in ~2009 but seems to have been recovering under Mehrotra for about a year now

And a great turn around (and around) story is Seagate, who tanked, went private around 2000, came out and soared mid-2000 and is sort of tanking again even under chairman Stephen Luczo's leadership

Sayter• 14 years ago

Apple from the mid-1990's to present. CEO John Sculley had been instructed in 1993 to sell the company (unsuccessfully, to AT&T, IBM, etc.), before getting fired. He refers to the time as Apple's "near-death experience." In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to the company via NeXT and Microsoft invested a severely needed $150 million. Without those two events happening, it is highly possible that Apple would not still exist today (let alone being the most valued technology company in the world). That's about as radical of turnaround as possible.

adventureful6• 14 years ago

IBM under Lou Gerstner is one of the greatest turn around stories in business history.

"How Lou Gerstner Got IBM To Dance" http://www.forbes.com/2002/11/11/cx_ld_1112gerstner.html

Also, Michael Dell returning to his company has been a solid turn around in regards to profitability and improvement in product quality, both of which had languished under the former chief. It doesn't show in the stock valuation because of substantial PE compression, but Michael Dell has taken the company from losing money briefly and having some accounting scandals, to a solid level of profitability in the last few years.

cschmidt• 14 years ago

Lou Gerstner's turnaround of IBM, in addition to the obvious Apple comparison.

petercooper2• 14 years ago

Bit borderline on being a 'tech' company by modern standards (though historically it's about as tech as it gets), General Electric under Jack Welch. He pulled off a Jobsian effort in the 80s. GE went from $27bn revenues to $130bn under his watch and a market cap of $14bn up to $410bn.

boyter• 14 years ago

As I recall most of that was due to the US economy turning around and picking up defense contracts. I think it would be impossible to not make money in that situation.

gcb2• 14 years ago

The microsoft controlled board already made sure the founders have no voice in the company anymore.

halo• 14 years ago

Nintendo.

adventureful6• 14 years ago

This will play out much like Armstrong at AOL. Lots of flailing around, another attempt at altering Yahoo's trajectory, and ultimately a further devalued company (not specifically because of anything Mayer will do, but because there's nothing that can stop Yahoo's erosion).

At some point the conclusion needs to be reached that the core of Yahoo is the problem. The products that generate the bulk of their sales are at best stagnant with no growth left, and at worst are slowly collapsing. Once that's properly digested, the company then needs to be blown apart and liquidated to the highest bidders.

Maybe there's a smaller core that could be focused on as a source of innovation and growth, but it's definitely not what makes up the bulk of Yahoo's $20 billion market value. If the goal is to generate shareholder value, Mayer should focus on getting her hands around an engine of growth that she can really add value to; a smaller Yahoo where she can drive a few growth products (assuming those can be found first). So much of what Yahoo does is maintaining a flat-lined late 1990s group of products.

codex3• 14 years ago

I wonder what advice Michael Dell has for Yahoo.

adventureful6• 14 years ago

Depends on if you think Mayer has some Steve Jobs magic in her.

erohead• 14 years ago

Success is non-linear! click

product50• 14 years ago

Good advice. So according to you nothing can be changed at Yahoo! no matter who comes in. Apple was in a similar situation not long ago and I am sure there were people like you commenting similarly. I am not saying Marissa is similar to Steve Jobs but at least she has the credibility and qualification to make things work. Why comment when you have nothing to add?

drumdance4• 14 years ago

Steve Jobs executed the single greatest turnaround in corporate history, at the company he founded, from which he had been fired ten years before. Betting on a similar result (or even something 10-20% as good) is really no different than expecting to draw an inside straight at the poker table. Sure, it can happen, but it's very unlikely.

Best of luck to Mayer and Yahoo, though.

adventureful6• 14 years ago

Apple is a once in a century example, good luck with that.

And besides, I didn't suggest nothing can be changed at Yahoo. I didn't say that at all.

I said it should be blown apart, and the stagnant 1990s products should go. Mayer should put her talents to work on a smaller core where growth can be achieved with new products.

Yahoo Finance? Yahoo Sports? Search? Yahoo Mail? 1998 era portals? There's no growth there. She might be able to revitalize energy into Flickr and adjust it to a smart phone world, that'd be one existing major product worth giving some attention to (for example).

Unless Mayer has something equivalent to the game changing PageRank approach to search, there's absolutely nothing she can do to improve Yahoo's search product. So what can she do with the existing product core exactly? Not much, stagnation is inherent to most of the product segments in question.

The real simple angle is: ok, what's the gorilla / whirlwind product that's going to revitalize Yahoo? Search? Not a chance. The content niche products like sports or finance? Nope. Web mail? Comeon. Classifieds & jobs? Nope, small potatoes. So what is it? To really grow a $20 billion company, you need to find billions in new profit. Mayer will only find that with new products. Unless you think she can take 1/4 of the search market back from Google or take a huge chunk of the rest of the web email market.

Yahoo needs a blue ocean change.

All the stagnant parts should be sold off for a huge amount of cash. And she should more or less start over and attack something new where Yahoo can own its segment and build a gorilla product with huge growth potential (instead of being 2nd or 3rd (etc) place in everything).

gcb2• 14 years ago

i'd disagree with the 'no matter who comes in'... but in real life, who comes in is decided by who is already in.

wpietri• 14 years ago

Note that Jobs didn't turn around Apple alone. He had built an entire separate company with a strong team and a strong technology. That was vital to the turnaround. In some ways, Apple didn't acquire Next; Next ate Apple from within. Aided, of course, by Jobs knowing the company and its markets inside and out.

And that wasn't enough; 3 years later they got their new OS out, but they were still a small player in their markets.

It was something like 4 years from takeover until they released the iPod, and circa 7 years before the stock really started to take off.

Even Yahoo can survive long enough for Mayer to find some new multi-billion idea, I'm not sure whether key shareholders or the board will give her enough rope to make significant changes.

j_baker2• 14 years ago

I think the problem at Yahoo has traditionally been too much of a focus on superstar CEOs, and Mayer isn't much different. What Mayer really needs to do is remove some of the focus from her and put it onto the people on the front lines doing the work.

joelandren• 14 years ago

Armstrong is a sales guy. Marissa is a product person. Yahoo has the budget and bandwidth to incubate great products. I wouldn't count her out based on a sales guy trying to turn around an ad sales business.

adventureful6• 14 years ago

I didn't compare Armstrong to Mayer. I said the end result would be similar.

wilfra3• 14 years ago

Apple derives more than 80% of their revenue (and probably 90%+ of their market cap) from product categories that didn't even exist in 1999.

Yahoo needs to reinvent itself. They have a $19 billion market cap, billions in revenue, a brand with household name recognition all over the World and tens of thousands of employees to do it. It can certainly be done. I don't know that Mayer will do it or that it will ever be done with Yahoo - but to look at their current sources of income and define that as their future is shortsighted. Unfortunately, thats exactly how their investors look at it and it's a big part of the reason why they are in this mess in the first place.

ddt• 14 years ago

Yahoo! and AOL are a classic examples of The Innovator's Dilemma. They can't separate themselves from the immediate needs of their customers to look at the patterns of what's next. They'll never take the leap of faith to do something completely new because they're not in a place where their culture and SOP allow it. The products that made them initially successful can't possibly carry them into the future. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator%27s_Dilemma

bcn• 14 years ago

Ms. Mayer resigned from Google on Monday afternoon by telephone.

That must have been an interesting call (to Larry?) to make...

codex3• 14 years ago

Especially given that Larry has lost his voice.

parsa28• 14 years ago

that only makes it more awkward...

orenmazor• 14 years ago

I read that as Trapped

richardjordan• 14 years ago

This is just brilliant news for Yahoo. Much as they have become a figure of ridicule in Silicon Valley, I have hoped year after year to see a Yahoo resurgence. This is finally a real chance at a turnaround.

Of course now we have to see if potential acquirers (particularly those going up against Google) suddenly see Yahoo as a much better target if they can get Mayer in the deal. (MS, FB, I'm looking at you!)

mtgx• 14 years ago

When does Yahoo's contract with Microsoft for the search engine expire? 2014? I think she will quickly switch to Google search engine after that. And there goes half of Bing's market share.

elsewhen2• 14 years ago

It's a 10-year contract that expires in 2019: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2052024/Its-Official-Mi...

pgrote• 14 years ago

Google has to sue Yahoo!, right? She has to be walking away with trade secrets for local and search.

spaghetti4• 14 years ago

More like Google just bought Yahoo.

r00fus2• 14 years ago

Good luck in California - worker's rights here are pretty hard to attack.

There's a possibility this is a coup by Google - if Yahoo defects to Google search engine it's nearly checkmate for Bing.

Remember, Melissa and Page were once a thang: http://gawker.com/152210/editorial-googles-power-couple

Regardless, I wish the best for Yahoo and Marissa. It would be good to have a strong Yahoo back in the scene - lots of incredible talent there.

programminggeek• 14 years ago

So she was head of Search at Google at one point right?

I wonder what it would be like to become CEO of a company who has outsourced their whole search and advertising stack to Bing.

Will Yahoo! start caring about search or ads again?

polyfractal• 14 years ago

I wouldn't bother. They are so far behind both Bing and Google that trying to play catch up in the search game is simply a lost cause.

They have significant traffic and brand loyalty for certain services (finance, sports, etc). They need to focus on that, not chase a game they lost ages ago (search).

j_baker2• 14 years ago

Just because they've "lost" search doesn't mean they can't make money off of it. Opera "lost" the browser market a long time ago and is still making money.

potatolicious• 14 years ago

This. IMO Yahoo's days as a technology company have long since ended (if they ever really existed in the first place). They have never been a heavily algorithms-based company like Google is.

IMO Yahoo's best bet is to reinvent themselves as a world-class product company, and rent the relevant tech stack from someone who can actually do a good job of it.

shawnee_• 14 years ago

Doug Crockford gave a great keynote address at the HTML5 conf this year titled "What would Crockford do?" It was basically not about HTML5 and all about what he'd do if he were Yahoo CEO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cukFl7gpjE (Crockford takes the stage ~5:09 )

Tobu3• 14 years ago

Remixed with the slides: http://youtu.be/8HzclYKz4yQ

feronull• 14 years ago

he would fork a Node.js and made Ynode :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HzclYKz4yQ&feature=playe... ~22:40

dmpk2k2• 14 years ago

Why?

sanj• 14 years ago

Marissa is one of the few people that can give Yahoo! any sort of chance at success.

I wish her luck.

yumraj• 14 years ago

Historical precedent: Stephen Elop was head of Business Division at MS before he became Nokia CEO and then Nokia fully fell in MS's lap.

Prediction: Sometime in near future some sort of very close partnership will happen between Google and Yahoo, subject to regulatory approval of course.

Edit: Fixed "MS CEO" to "Nokia CEO" typo. Thanks kreilly

kreilly• 14 years ago

I assume you mean Elop became CEO of Nokia, not MS.

dexen• 14 years ago

Came here to say just that.

Another prediction: such partnership won't help Google very much, but will hurt Microsoft a bit -- due to Yahoo shying away from Bing and possibly MS e-mail technology.

It may also well help developers -- Yahoo's YUI is a very handy and very relevant toolkit; with Marissa as the CEO, I sure hope Yahoo will embrace developers more and YUI will get some more love.

peetahb• 14 years ago

I was discussing the same topic with my coworkers when we heard the news. Yahoo's YUI could be the company's starting point at developing strong products and boosting Yahoo's relevance as a brand. It's a great library.

yuhong• 14 years ago

Yea, IMO Google should have persisted with the Google-Yahoo ad deal and let DOJ sue, then use the appeal to show the bad logic DOJ tried to use to stop the deal.

johnnybgoode• 14 years ago

Wow, years later, even after her de facto demotion at Google, people still think she's some kind of product genius?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1028615

This is a hilarious situation.

mnicole• 14 years ago

Interesting. So that reply was ages old, but in the event that you're dealing with a manager like that today - what is the best thing to do outside of leaving the organization?

gfosco2• 14 years ago

I think leaving is your only option, actually, outside of going to HR and asking to be moved to a different team... and I'd never go to HR to ask that.

acak• 14 years ago

If the organization is large enough, try to make an amicable break and move internally. This is the simplest way if you do not have a conscience about the company or your work (not always a bad thing to be conscience-less about these things). If you can't move internally, pursue two threads of action simultaneously:

(1) In most situations, you will have a smart, rational person you might be aware of in the layer that he/she reports into (though preferable, not necessarily her direct boss). Talk to them about what you see as problems.

Be prepared to back up your claims with documented, solid evidence of the behavior. Keep emotional, hyperbolic, prejudicial expressions or assertions to yourself - they will only work against you in such situations.

Be as paranoid as you can be about who you can trust to back you up in your peer group in case there has to be a discussion. Knowing people who're discontent like you helps only if you know they won't stab you in the back.

Avoid ultimatums. Express faith in the system and the ability for the person to change. Express willingness to change yourself. In other words, come off as the bigger person right from the beginning and at all times.

(2) Have an exit strategy if the situation turns on you. This could include escalation to several layers (CEO/Board) above the layers you're dealing with and looking out for a new job.

swah• 14 years ago

Aren't you getting "We've temporarily limited requests for old items." for that link?

luriel• 14 years ago

http://web.archive.org/web/20100120004349/http://news.ycombi...

JPKab• 14 years ago

This is typical Yahoo bullshit. They hire a CEO not for the primary reason of effectiveness or experience, but instead for their perception of effectiveness in the media. Is she an improvement over Bartz? No doubt, because the first time I saw Bartz discussing Yahoo's future several years ago, it was immediately clear to me that they weren't getting out of their tailspin. Is Mayer a genius? I'm sure of it. But from all the things I've heard from Google employees and their dealings with her, I suspect that a lot of the hype she receives in the media is due to the lack of female role models in the Valley. She damned sure doesn't sound like a good leader. Biting off heads, interrupting people mid sentence, forgetting what happened in the last meeting....... this is the epitome of somebody who has bitten off more than they can chew. The sad part is that there are so, so many women in the Valley that deserve the attention she gets.

nostrademons7• 14 years ago

Eh, I like Marissa, and I've worked on projects (the 2010 websearch visual redesign, and doodles) for which she was the executive sponsor. No, she's not a nice person, and most likely she does not give a shit about you as a person. But she is very often right about her design opinions, and when she's not, she'll listen to data.

I don't think Yahoo particularly needs a nice person as CEO right now. Their culture is dysfunctional enough that they probably need a Steve Jobs type, someone with clear opinions who's willing to ruffle a lot of feathers (and make a bunch of people quit). Steve Jobs wasn't really a nice person either.

mdonahoe• 14 years ago

I know almost nothing about her, but these descriptions remind me of this post about Zuckerberg.

"Working with Zuck" http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=339013388919

"Every time Zuck looks at a product, it is as if he does so with fresh eyes... He doesn't care what he said yesterday"

aidenn0• 14 years ago

That actually makes it sound like she'll fit in at Yahoo just fine.

steve89184• 14 years ago

From the description, her behavior reminds me a lot of how Steve Jobs behaved. If you read the biography, Jobs would often contradict himself, he was extremely rude, he would cry at meetings, he would hear an idea and say it was shit, and then the next week propose the exact same idea as his own, etc.

I'm not saying she is at all comparable to Steve Jobs, but it sounds like they both know what they want, and don't spend a lot of time with what they think is wrong.

I've said this often, but Jobs was about 50% right and 50% wrong. When Jobs was wrong, it was usually a small strikeout, but when he was right, they were monster home runs, which is why people tolerated Jobs' behavior. Mayer needs to be right a lot more than she is wrong, so I guess we'll have to see how that pans out.

RivieraKid• 14 years ago

I read the biography too and this seems only remotely similar. Anyway, if someone shares some of Steve Jobs' bad traits, that means nothing at all. It's not an indication of a good CEO.

packetslave• 14 years ago

Yes. There's a big difference between a genius who's also a jackass, and someone who thinks they have to be a jackass to be a genius. Jobs was solidly in the first category.

c2• 14 years ago

CEOs in general tend to be hard to work with. There are also anecdotes about Gates being rude.

Further, I would say the people who want to judge a character by a few anecdotes are being lazy, small minded, and short sighted. Jobs, Gates, and Mayer are all different people with their own styles. I'm not sure if Mayer's style will be what Yahoo needs, but I wish her the best of luck.

wilfra3• 14 years ago

A lot of people are assholes. That doesn't mean they are like Steve Jobs.

That description of her didn't include a single word saying anything positive about how she did her job. No description of Jobs of similar length, regardless of how much the writer hated him, would have failed to mention that Jobs also had many positive qualities.

tjmc3• 14 years ago

Not a good comparison. Meyer famously tested 41 shades of blue on Gmail. Optimising local maxima is hardly innovation. Jobs was more of the Henry Ford mindset that if he asked people what they wanted they'd ask for a faster horse.

rehack• 14 years ago

Anybody read 'I'm feeling Lucky' by Douglas Edwards? He came across as a good judge of people to me, just based on my reading of the book. And he is not negative on many people in his book.

But he was critical of her, and there were lots of hints of bad blood between them in his book. Although he always remains very subtle in whatever he says.

Reading that comment, you share, reminded me of some sections of the book.

j2labs• 14 years ago

This is so exciting. I can't wait to see what she comes up with. Everyone is gonna benefit from this.

loceng• 14 years ago

I wonder if this was apart of the Kevin Rose acquisition, who seems to have somewhat of a holistic understanding of local. Google better find someone equally amazing to replace her though, and fast.

cft• 14 years ago

That's might be really good news for Google users: I think products that she used to run, like local business reviews on Android maps have a new chance now.

endtime• 14 years ago

Care to elaborate?

SoftwareMaven• 14 years ago

Yahoo! needs to decide if they are a content company or a technology company. I'm not sure which is the right one, but I think Mayer has shown she can focus and can get other people to focus as well.

roadnottaken• 14 years ago

If she tries to make Yahoo be exactly like Google circa ~2007 it will be a massive success.

Tobu3• 14 years ago

How so? They have to compete with the current Google.

varunsaini• 14 years ago

I believe this change of guard might open a possibility of future Yahoo buy out by Google. I feel that it will be very hard for Yahoo to survive and future sale will be an option. In that case, Google might have an upper hand.

grandalf• 14 years ago

Wow this is very huge. Look out Google!

jusben13693• 14 years ago

I guess Yahoo just became a tech company again not a media one. This is actually a brilliant move. YHOO's biggest challenge is retaining quality developers. Developers will feel way more inclined to either a) Stay or b) Think about joining than they were under the previous several leaders.

HardyLeung• 14 years ago

Marissa Mayer: "it was a reasonably easy decision" ...

This is probably what went through her mind... If Larry can lead Google, and I being the smarter one of the two ...

Despite all her flaws, she may actually succeed at Yahoo! just to prove her critics wrong. So congrats, and best of luck!

lobby7nerd• 14 years ago

This will be interesting. She has three big challenges - with little prior experience in each:

1. Running a public company is vastly different and considerably more complex than managing large teams. She has to build an executive team capable of executing on all fronts. This is beyond hiring the best engineers and product managers, it is about hiring a CFO, COO, GMs, VPs, etc. that can execute on the plan set out by the CEO.

2. Managing a stagnating business requires different skills than a rapidly growing business. Google benefitted from exponential growth in usage, users, revenue. Yahoo is already over the hill. Most incoming CEOs do a top-down review of the business to understand assets and liabilities. They visit customers and large investors. In the end, they have to present a credible plan to the BOD for refocusing the business. Where should you invest or divest? Should you be aligned along product lines, geographically, or along customer segments?

3. Yahoo needs deep tech investments - to do so, it must attract and retain brilliant engineers. It is my understanding that Ms. Mayer's focus at google has been product and not technology. Without proper engineering, the best product ideas will fizzle. How will Ms. Mayer attract the best engineers to Yahoo? Without growth, it is hard to convince the best engineers to join your shop.

StacyC• 14 years ago

I don’t even know what Yahoo does. I never use that site, except for a couple crappy-looking Yahoo groups sites.

dave1619• 14 years ago

Congrats goes out to Marissa Mayer. I don't know her reputation inside Google but from the interviews I've watched of her, she seems very articulate and focused. Hopefully she can help Yahoo with clearer focus and better execution.

sandycheeks• 14 years ago

I'm optimistic as long as she is given enough freedom to do what she wants to do.

Wonder if there will be a "Why I Left Google" blog post :)

aespinoza• 14 years ago

This is amazing news. I think Marissa Meyer is the first potential savior of Yahoo! I am excited about this, I think we'll start seeing a set of good things come out of this decision. Big loss for Google though.

the_researcher2• 14 years ago

If I'm not mistaken she has been in charge of Google Local for a while. This is an awful, awful product. Buggy as hell, ugly, and absolutely no inspiration or cleverness anywhere to be found. If that product was truly her responsibility, God help Yahoo.

nostrademons7• 14 years ago

She was in charge of Geo, which is a broad product area that includes Maps, Earth, Local, Street View, Maps for Mobile, Zagat, etc. Local may suck, but most people think Maps is pretty good.

the_researcher2• 14 years ago

Maps was great when she took over. Local was very important because the push was to get all businesses using Google Local (this is why they promoted it to the top of all search results, etc, and why they tried to buy Yelp).

Despite the obvious value to them, the product was and remains very poor.

VikingCoder• 14 years ago

Marissa Mayer (2012-Present)

Ross Levinsohn (Interim) (2012)

Scott Thompson (2012)

Tim Morse (Interim) (2011-2012)

Carol Bartz (2009-2011)

Jerry Yang (2007-2009)

Terry Semel (2001-2007)

Timothy Koogle (1995-2001)

I seriously hope that the Board of Directors has some idea of what they're doing, because their track record certainly doesn't look like it.

EDIT: To be clear, this wasn't meant as a slam on Marissa. What I meant was "It looks like the Board has created a toxic environment that no one could survive."

wilfra3• 14 years ago

When Thompson got pushed out new people took control of the Board, including the hedge fund that outed him for lying about his CS degree.

In the same way you can't attribute past failures to Mayer, you can't attribute them to the current Board either.

wavephorm• 14 years ago

I am very curious what goes in those Board of Directors meetings.

Does everyone just sit around asking eachother "What the fuck does this company do, and how are we still in business?"

Seriously, what does Yahoo do? I don't know, because I haven't been their website since the 1990's. They obviously don't make software or hardware products, because I don't own any and have never paid for any of their products. I have no use for whatever services they might offer because I've never heard of anyone praising or recommending their services. I honestly would like to know how Yahoo still exists.

I think Marissa Mayer has a much harder task in front of her than she might think. Yahoo really doesn't do anything, or have products. How is she going to improve that which does not exist?

unavoidable• 14 years ago

Yahoo has some good niche products that are doing relatively well compared to the rest of the company (fantasy sports is one, Flickr is another). To survive they probably need to do more of those and figure out how to specialize and monetize the products that aren't stagnating.

dbecker• 14 years ago

I hear people say good things about Hadoop... though the stigma of it's development at Yahoo has always kept me from investing the time to learn more.

mathattack• 14 years ago

From http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/directors.cfm. Looks like they don't have many slouches. Heavy on financial services and broadcast. Perhaps light on internet entrepreneurs. Largely independent. A couple big shareholders.

Alfred Amoroso - Chairman, Yahoo! Inc.

John Hayes - Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, American Express Company

Sue James - Retired Partner, Ernst & Young LLP

David Kenny - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Weather Channel Companies

Peter Liguori - Former Chief Operating Officer, Discovery Communications, Inc. Former Chairman and President of Entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Company

Daniel Loeb - Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Third Point LLC

Thomas McInerney - Former Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, IAC/InterActiveCorp

Brad Smith - President and Chief Executive Officer, Intuit Inc.

Maynard Webb - Founder, Webb Investment Network, Chairman of the Board, LiveOps, Inc.

Harry Wilson - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, MAEVA Group, LLC

Michael Wolf - Chief Executive Officer and President, Activate Strategy, Inc.

goatforce5• 14 years ago

Philip Monego spent six months there before Koogle.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/philip-monego-sr/0/11b/967?_mSpl...

arrowgunz• 14 years ago

I am so happy for Yahoo! Hope she gets Yahoo! back to the place where it deserves to be.

dkrich• 14 years ago

One thing I'm wondering as I read this is whether there has ever been a successful turnaround at a dot com company before. I can't think of any. If anybody can think of one, I'd be interested to hear it. I think Yahoo is still going to shrink a great deal, but that has little to do with their CEO. You can't expect one person to reinvent a company that does not have typical operations. By that I mean you can't improve processes or introduce vastly better products. Yahoo's only chance at growing is to expand into new product lines. That's why I don't necessarily think Mayer is a great match. I would be far more interested if a Tim Cook type had been chosen. Not because of the ties to Apple, but because of his expertise in operations and real business experience.

floatboth• 14 years ago

I hope she'll sell all that search and mail junk to Microsoft and turn Yahoo into the Flickr company.

Flickr is profitable and awesome!

pjg• 14 years ago

This is definitely stunning news. Marissa of all the people. All I can say is - wow! Time will tell where this leads to, but hey if anyone has the charisma to pull off miracles Marissa is the one.

jdevonport• 14 years ago

Wonderful news, I actually have optimism about Yahoo's future for the first time in years.

Now the whole board needs to go - there is no question about that.

vtry• 14 years ago

I guess no compete not enforceable in California!

Xavura• 14 years ago

I thought Yahoo! was a dying brand, why would anyone want to leave Google of all places for them at this point?

spaghetti4• 14 years ago

Yahoo is dying but it's not dead. All that remaining traffic has to go somewhere. Google has a clear incentive to take that traffic for themselves instead of letting fb or someone else have it.

jfoster• 14 years ago

Google has already won. Boring.

Yahoo needs to be saved. Challenging.

Gaussian• 14 years ago

She did the right thing. I think she had peaked at Google.

She risks "failure" at Yahoo, but that's why this is the right move. What was she to do at Google -- just drift along as the cofounders continue to (rightly) control the company?

I've never been a huge fan nor a detractor of Mayer, but I'll be rooting for Yahoo now. It's about time for another epic comeback story in SV. Long odds, but that's why this is fun.

wcdolphin• 14 years ago

$100 says Yahoo is acquired by Google in the next three years. Any takers? I am imagining/hoping for a more successful version of the Stephen Elop leaves Microsoft, runs Nokia, forms a strong partnership with Microsoft. But this time, Yahoo is even more in the pits.

SkyMarshal• 14 years ago

I'll take the other side of that bet. Yahoo has nothing Google needs, and won't within 3 years, even with Mayer reforming it.

There's also a cost to acquisition beyond just the monetary - organizational and cultural namely. Not worth it for Google.

MartinCron3• 14 years ago

Yahoo has nothing Google needs

Flickr+Picasa=I might actually use Google products in a social way.

msantos• 14 years ago

Google would only acquire Yahoo, should Yahoo be just about to disappear - if that's even possible - or if it was going down fast. Only than it would justify to take over the patents and staff at a fair price, without paying extra for the "junk" which is supposedly sinking.

However, on the other hand Facebook would do just fine if they acquire Yahoo. As soon as Facebook's stocks get more stable and the fuss settles, I'm guessing Dec/2012 to Feb/2013, Facebook's shares will be going for a "very fair" USD15 ~ USD21. But if they launch their mobile device in that period, then I guess their shares will rock on USD25 ~ USD31 Anyways, considering the mobile device is not arriving before Q2 2013, then without growth and new features and afraid of new comers, the board will realise than they need content and loads of patents if they are to take on Google's array of products. And Yahoo will fit Facebook just like a glove.

However, Microsoft fearing for it's lack of social presence and weak search-engine, will possibly start a bidding war. Cutting the story short, I'd bet Facebook takes over if not completely, at least a good chunk of Yahoo, by the end of 2013.

josephlord• 14 years ago

Don't see it. Would bring antitrust investigations and general regulatory nightmare.

jroseattle• 14 years ago

Wow, this is so crazy it just might work.

I'm not sure what Yahoo would look like in succeeding under Mayer as CEO, but I have to imagine it would be substantively different than what it looks like now.

j45• 14 years ago

While I don't care much for Yahoo or any brand, I love seeing someone who seems to have been over looked for a long time get a chance, albeit with a less than ideal situation but that's half the fun -- doing what others say can't be done.

jacksonmohsenin• 14 years ago

She should start with a new logo.

grsites• 14 years ago

Better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven.

Zenst• 14 years ago

I've not dealt or indeed met her so I can't realy comment much beyond from what I have read that she certainly will not be any worse than what they have had before.

One tip I will give, whoever is CEO of Yahoo, vote the board out as they seem to make alot of bad mistakes and will only end up blaming you for them.

tk999• 14 years ago

Here is what she will do:

1. Cut. Cut as much as possible. 2. Refocus on mobile. May be partner with nokia or microsft or other falling company to provide default content to other platform 3. When yahoo is stable enough. Sell or merge the company.

TWAndrews• 14 years ago

Why would you bring in someone like Mayer to do that? Any MBA type could do that.

klawed• 14 years ago

I'm genuinely surprised that no-one's discussing the possible acquisition of yahoo by google as a result of this. Or is that naive? Or cynical? Or perhaps just dumb...

dspeyer2• 14 years ago

Seems unlikely to me. The Motorola acquisition took forever to get through the EU, and that's a different industry. The legal burden of acquiring a major direct competitor like yahoo would be more than the company was worth.

aneth4• 14 years ago

Her first priority should be to restore Flickr as a leader in photo and video sharing. With her "coolness" factor at the helm (even though personally I don't think she's that cool) this is possible, and the world would be a better place for it.

Flickr is Yahoo's best long term asset.

jasonlingx• 14 years ago

Might just be a new beginning for Yahoo

railswarrior• 14 years ago

Turning around yahoo - a big corporation like that is like changing an old mans behaviour who has been set in his own ways. Mayer though showed success at google has less chances to succeed . Nevertheless considering her experience on search she wouldn't have made a better choice .

jc123• 14 years ago

Wonder if they also asked Sheryl Sandberg? Seems that she would be another one to move given that Zuck is probably going to be CEO for a long time.

redwood• 14 years ago

Guessing she's saying... "First thing we're doing is adding threading to email"

Or... "Internally, we're going to use Gmail for corporate work, Yahoo!"

sas• 14 years ago

I'm really surprised nobody has mentioned the Glass Cliff http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_cliff

"women are more likely to occupy positions that are precarious and thus have a higher risk of failure - either because they are appointed to lead organizational units that are in crisis or because they are not given the resources and support needed for success"

josephcooney• 14 years ago

Her twitter profile now says "@Yahoo". And her and her partner are expecting their first child, due October 7th. Exciting times for them.

marcamillion• 14 years ago

This may be a silly question...but is Mayer now legally obligated to liquidate her Google stock position?

I would assume that owning a large amount of stock of one of your major competitors, as the CEO, could create some conflicts of interest for shareholders...no?

I am not insinuating that this is some sinister plot by Mayer to boost her Google stock holdings - I don't think there is anything she could do at Yahoo to do that, other than possibly shift their entire ad budget to Adwords...but even that.

Either way, I would love to know those sorts of 'quirky' implications on such a decision.

Especially given that the vast majority of her compensation is now in Yahoo stock.

I also wonder if it would be a 'legal' issue, or a moral issue.

jagtesh• 14 years ago

Brilliant move! So they finally managed pull out a rabbit out from their ass. Jokes apart, Marissa is an excellent product manager and a strategist, and with her kind of experience at Google from it's good old days till now - she's just the flu shot that Yahoo needs.

bobsy• 14 years ago

Its a great coup for Yahoo.

I think Yahoo's problem is the fact that its search side of things has collapsed. Primarily it was this that made the company so big. Now that search has effectively collapsed they don't appear to have a core product.

This means the question "What does Yahoo! do?" can't really be answered.

If you ask that question of Google. You answer. Google is a search engine which also does...

If you ask that question of Amazon. Amazon is an online store which also does...

With Yahoo? Yahoo.. owns a bunch on interesting products? It has no core and without a big central product to build around it has been hard for successive CEO's to actually drive the company forward.

I have no idea what Mayer can do to resolve this.

brainsqueezer• 14 years ago

I allways think that Yahoo should split in two, a media/content company and a tech one.

Why? Because now it's a two head horse, and each head wants to go it's way but the other head goes opposite.

What do you guys think?

threepointone• 14 years ago

Calm down, everybody.

tathagatadg• 14 years ago

http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/16/marissa-mayer-the-first-eve... - Respect.

bluetidepro• 14 years ago

It will be very interesting to see her juggle a pregnancy and being a new CEO. I wonder if she goes "MIA" for a bit after she has the baby.

melissamiranda• 14 years ago

Pregnancy doesn't really affect your ability to work (except for complications that require bedrest, and even then you work from home). A newborn does require care from the mother, but many women are able to return to work full time after 6 weeks (and some as early as 3 weeks). She'll probably be on leave for a few weeks after baby arrives, but I'm sure she'll be able to keep an eye on things even while she's gone (this is why the night nurse was invented).

A baby and a career are not mutually exclusive, I just wish people would stop assuming that they are.

narad• 14 years ago

My thoughts goes like this....

Down the line, Yahoo will sell itself to Google. Just like EDS was sold to HP. Consolidation is on the horizon.

rush-tea• 14 years ago

This move would be similar to Sanjay Jha moving from Qualcomm COO to Motorola Mobility CEO. Look at what happened now. Sanjay Jha not only got a nice compensation package from Motorola Mobility but also a great deal from leaving the CEO at MM after Google acquisition and another reputation to boot as being the one who revive Motorola from zero to hero (being acquired)

duncan_bayne• 14 years ago

I swear I read that headline as 'trapped' not 'tapped'.

pmmucsd• 14 years ago

Majority of people surveyed who are familiar with Mayer think she will turn Yahoo around: https://www.google.com/insights/consumersurveys/view?survey=...

Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

Related Stories