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I don't think you can put this all on Mayer. It's basically a tug of war between two different groups of key investors, with the concerns about the IRS also pla

I don't think you can put this all on Mayer. It's basically a tug of war between two different groups of key investors, with the concerns about the IRS also playing a role. One group thought that Y! had a shot at a viable business. The other group wanted out, but didn't want to sell until they got their cut from the Alibaba/Y!JP investments (which also propped up the stock price for the whole thing). Mayer was hired by the first group to try and turn the tide. The second group agreed in the hope that it would also bring the stock price up a bit and make the non-Alibaba part of the company more valuable. The IRS finally ruled that Yahoo can't just divest Alibaba &co. without paying a huge bill, and Mayer hasn't been able to do anything about the rest of the company. Which means the second group of investors is basically winning out and spinning off all the assets so they can close out their price at the value of the Alibaba stake and make their profit. It's difficult to say that Mayer is 100% responsible since a good chunk of the board/investors didn't care or were actively against her from day one. Also, she didn't have all the tools that a turnaround CEO has at other companies because she had to protect the share price around the value of the Alibaba investments or that second group would simply fire her. It was always a longshot IMO.

themartorana 10y ago
TIL.
cstejerean 10y ago
She lost support of the investors when it became clear that the turnaround plan was a complete failure. Initially she was given a lot of latitude to make whatever moves she deemed necessary including blowing a lot of money on failed acquisitions and key hires that didn't work out. Now maybe Yahoo was beyond saving, and it was going to fail anyway, but Mayer's execution didn't seem to help it at all. This reminds me of JC Penney, where investors also brought in an exec from abother successful company in the hope that they could replicate that success. In that case it was Ron Johnson from Apple, who tried to replicate Apple's retail strategy at JC Penney with devastating results, and certainly not for lack of being given the latitude to implement whatever changes he asked for. The situation at Yahoo is pretty similar. I wouldn't blame the board and investors for finally trying to cut their losses.

themartorana 10y ago

TIL.

cstejerean 10y ago

She lost support of the investors when it became clear that the turnaround plan was a complete failure. Initially she was given a lot of latitude to make whatever moves she deemed necessary including blowing a lot of money on failed acquisitions and key hires that didn't work out. Now maybe Yahoo was beyond saving, and it was going to fail anyway, but Mayer's execution didn't seem to help it at all. This reminds me of JC Penney, where investors also brought in an exec from abother successful company in the hope that they could replicate that success. In that case it was Ron Johnson from Apple, who tried to replicate Apple's retail strategy at JC Penney with devastating results, and certainly not for lack of being given the latitude to implement whatever changes he asked for. The situation at Yahoo is pretty similar. I wouldn't blame the board and investors for finally trying to cut their losses.