Yahoo has had quite the history of disastrous decisions in the past. But when Marissa Mayer took over the tech conglomerate in 2012, hopes were high – investors, stakeholders, employees as well as users thought Mayer would be successful in bringing back Yahoo to its glorious position among search engines.
When Mayer took over, Yahoo’s share prices rocketed from $15 to $53.12, exhibiting a 254% increase. This period was seen as an optimistic era for Yahoo, when hopes of a glowing comeback were on the rise. The sweet success, however, was affected by a few unfortunate events – the company was faced with two massive data breaches affecting thousands of Yahoo accounts and internal politics where former executives criticized Mayer’s methods.
Mayer also made a number of expensive bets, such as the acquisitions of Flurry and Tumblr. However, Yahoo’s core competency still failed to impress. Many industry experts attributed Yahoo’s share price surge to its holding in Alibaba – the Chinese e-commerce giant.
All said and done, after 5 years, Mayer came to an end of her tenure with Yahoo being acquired by Verizon for a whopping $4.48 billion as the deal was sealed on Tuesday.
Marissa sent an e-mail to her employees with the subject line, “Nostalgia, Gratitude and Optimism.” “Looking back on my time at Yahoo,” she wrote, “we have confronted seemingly insurmountable business challenges, along with many surprise twists and turns.”
She said Yahoo had successfully navigated those hurdles and mountains “in ways that have not only made Yahoo a better company, but also made all of us far stronger.”
What Marissa does next remains a mystery, but there are two schools of thought here: one believes she will remain low-key for some time and make tech investments while the other says she will soon be back with something new.
Megha Shah for TechFunnel.com
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