WebProNews

Tag: Yahoo CEO

  • Marissa Mayer: Yahoo CEO Gives Birth to Identical Twin Girls

    Marissa Mayer: Yahoo CEO Gives Birth to Identical Twin Girls

    Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, gave birth to identical twin girls on Thursday. She shared the news via social media a few hours after her daughters were born.

    Many congratulatory Tweets replied to Marissa Mayer’s announcement. She even received one from Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, where she used to work.

    It was just this past September that Marissa Mayer announced her pregnancy.

    Mayer joined Yahoo in 2012 to help the struggling company. To this date, however, it still remains significantly behind both Google and Facebook in advertising, as well as in other areas.

    Despite the birth of her twins, Marissa Mayer doesn’t plan to take an extended maternity leave. Instead she says she will take a “limited” maternity leave and plans to work throughout. She and her husband have hired several people to care for their children. In addition to their twins, Marissa Mayer and Zachary Bogue are also the parents of a three-year-old son named Macallister.

    Yahoo offers its employees up to eight weeks of paid leave when a child is born, adopted, or fostered. Birth mothers–like Marissa Mayer–receive an additional eight weeks.

  • Yahoo’s Reconditioned Board will Reconvene Next Week

    Yahoo and their board of directors have been through a lot lately. Most recently they have lost their CEO, Scott Thompson after a brutal proxy battle with activist shareholder Dan Loeb.

    They have also lost Pati Hart, co-founder Jerry Yang, and longtime chairman, Roy Bostock.

    Next week, the Yahoo board of director will reconvene, but with a fresh configuration and several new faces. Fred Amoroso is now chairman of the board. Shareholder Dan Loeb also has a seat, as does Michael Wolf of MTV fame, and Harry Wilson, well known turnaround specialist.

    You might also recall, Ross Levinsohn has been acting as interim CEO. And while Levinsohn has been actively pursuing strategies and solutions to steady Yahoo and drag it back from the brink of extinction, one of the central themes of next week’s board meeting will be to decide what to do with him. Should Yahoo cement Levinsohn in his current position as CEO, or pursue new leadership?

    Aside from the decision they must make about a CEO, they must also decide what to do with Facebook and their patent dispute. Despite the resignation of Thompson, apparently negotiations are ongoing.

    Also of interest, the board will be discussing what to do with assets from the selloff of its stake in Alibaba. Certainly Loeb, whose main goal is to unlock the shareholder value in Yahoo, will want a piece of that action.

    And finally, the board must decide if they intend to sell their ad tech business to Google. Months ago, Google made their first offer to buy the properties, but talks are still inconclusive.

    So, next week’s meeting should be interesting for the newly configured board, and a good indicator of how things are going to function over at Yahoo from now on. We’ll keep you up to date on Yahoo’s plans going forward.

  • Yahoo Ready to Find Replacement CEO

    Yahoo is ready to start searching for a new CEO. As you may recall, Scott Thompson resigned after a rather lengthy proxy battle with activist investor Dan Loeb a his investment firm, Third Point.

    The surprising climax of that battle was the unearthing of a critical oversight on then current CEO, Scott Thompson’s credentials, claiming he held a computer science degree when he indeed, did not.

    Thompson chose to resign rather than continue on with a tarnished record. Executive Vice President, Ross Levinsohn then stepped in as acting interim CEO. While Levinsohn may be the frontrunner for the job, Yahoo is none the less starting their search for Thompson’s permanent replacement.

    In fact, Levinsohn isn’t wasting any time, and has already moved forward with plans to get the company back on track. His first priority is to divest several assets to build up some cash cash flow.

    Next, he needs to go into damage control from the Thompson scandal, and tie up the loose ends from the current Facebook lawsuit over patent infringement. Finally, he needs to win back his former media buyers and focus on making advertising and brands a key financial component of the Yahoo business model.

    My guess would be, if Levinsohn can accomplish any of this in the short term, he will be the permanent CEO at Yahoo. Can he actually get it done? Nobody knows. Yahoo isn’t in a real great position right now, so any headway would be an improvement. We’ll keep you updated.

  • Scott Thompson Steps Down From F5 and Splunk Inc.

    Scott Thompson’s not so subtle departure from Yahoo left some wondering if he in fact, does have health problems or just fabricated a clever excuse to sidestep allegations that he intentionally perpetuated the myth that he held a bachelors degree in computer science. In any event, he stepped down as CEO of Yahoo and now we find he has also resigned several other boards where he held positions of influence.

    As of Friday, Thompson resigned his position on the board of directors at F5, a technology company focused on the organization of internet traffic. No specific details were given about the departure, but we can assume it is related to him recently being diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

    Today, we hear that he is resigning from his board of directors position at Splunk as well. After joining the software company in October last year, his resignation was made official on Friday. Splunk Chairman and CEO Godfrey Sullivan comments on Thompson’s departure, “On behalf of the company’s management and board of directors, we thank Mr. Thompson for his contributions to the company. In regard to recent health issues, we wish Scott all the best for a fast and full recovery”.

    As you might recall, Thompson officially resigned from Yahoo, but it is widely believed he was forced out after the scandal over his credentials. Yahoo claimed there was due “cause” for him leaving and was justified in not paying him severance, but he was allowed to keep his make-whole stock options which yielded him millions off his work at Yahoo.

    No real evidence has been offered verifying the 54-year-old’s cancer diagnosis, but he has explained that he wishes to keep the details of his personal health private. We will keep you updated on Thomson’s health and the dealings over at Yahoo as 2012 continues to bring change.