Daily Report: This Week in Marissa Mayer News

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Yahoo is in the spotlight this week, but not for the reasons that Marissa Mayer, the company’s chief executive, might want.

Ms. Mayer has faced a flood of negative press recently, a trend bolstered by the activist investor Starboard Value pressuring the chief executive last month to sell Yahoo’s core advertising business. This week, The Wall Street Journal and others reported that Yahoo’s directors will discuss a sale of the company’s core business during board meetings.

It’s a reflection of the state of Yahoo and how the once iconic web portal, which has been struggling in recent years, remains in a troubled position. Revenue growth has stalled, advertisers aren’t excited and few of the deals that Ms. Mayer has put into motion in recent years have panned out, write Vindu Goel and Sydney Ember.

It’s all a far cry from the huge expectations that came with Ms. Mayer’s appointment as chief executive of Yahoo more than three years ago. At the time, writes Farhad Manjoo, there was genuine excitement that Ms. Mayer might take the web portal business and reinvent it into something brand new. Instead, her turnaround effort has come in fits and starts, and Yahoo hasn’t materially changed. In fact, her tenure has been boring, Mr. Manjoo writes. “She was picked to be bold, and so far, she’s failed,” he says.