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Ructions in Yahoo boardroom

by on02 December 2015


Mayer’s future in doubt as the end is near

Yahoo’s board is considering the future of the company and its high-profile CEO Marissa Mayer this week.

Earlier this week the Wall Street Journal reported that it is possible that the company could be sold. There are also plans to spin off more than $30 billion in shares of Alibaba Holding Group.

The company's shares were up more than 7 percent in extended trading.

While Yahoo has not done that great, there are lots of parts of the business which could attract lots of private equity firms. Yahoo Mail and the news and sports sights are popular.

Mayer faces growing pressure over the company's performance. She was hired to turn the outfit around, but while she did have some success she largely failed to return the company to its glory days.

A strategy Mayer introduced in 2014 under the acronym Mavens failed to increase revenues as desktop search ads continued to decline. She bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion deal in 2013 which most considered overpriced. While it did lift Yahoo's user base to about 1 billion advertisers were not impressed.

In September, Yahoo's plans for the spinoff of its stake in Alibaba hit a roadblock when the U.S. Internal Revenue Service denied a request to bless the transaction as a tax-free deal.
Yahoo said it planned to proceed with the spinoff despite the IRS announcement, but has not yet done so.

Last modified on 02 December 2015
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