Not much had been going right for Yahoo until it lured Marissa Mayer away from Google to become its chief executive last summer. The move is shaping up as the best thing to happen to Yahoo since 2005 when it invested US$1 billion (HK$7.76 billion) in what was then a little-known Internet company in China, Alibaba.
Mayer’s magnetism and Alibaba’s prosperity are now combining to transform Yahoo from a tale of woe into a comeback story that is winning over Silicon Valley and Wall Street.
People are spending more time on Yahoo’s flagship website. Talented engineers and entrepreneurs are coming to work for the company. Investors are adding its long-languishing stock to their portfolios again. The signs of renewed interest and hope mark a dramatic change from the feelings of hopelessness that had enveloped Yahoo under the direction of six chief executives in the six years leading up to Mayer’s appointment.
Yahoo’s reversal of fortune will be in the spotlight Tuesday when the company releases its second-quarter financial results on the one-year anniversary of Mayer’s surprise hiring from Google. Mayer, 38, had been a top executive who played a key role in Google’s evolution from startup to powerhouse.
Tuesday’s results aren’t expected to be anything special, but that probably won’t matter as long as Mayer can keep convincing people that Yahoo is making steady progress after years of aimlessness.
Since her arrival, Mayer has orchestrated 17 acquisitions, including a US$1.1 billion purchase of Internet blogging service Tumblr, Yahoo’s biggest in a decade. Yahoo’s home page, email and Flickr photo service have all been redesigned, and a few mobile applications have been upgraded, helping to increase use of the company’s Internet services. And Yahoo’s revenue is increasing, if ever so slightly, after three straight years of decline.
