H 9:06 | Updated
Marissa Mayer, a Google executive, will be the next head of Yahoo, making it one of the most prominent women in Silicon Valley and U.S. companies.The appointment of Ms. Mayer is considered a coup for Yahoo, which has struggled in recent years to attract top talent in its battle with competitors. One of the few public faces of Google, Ms. Mayer, 37, has been responsible for some aspect of the most popular products of the research company.
Despite her experience, Ms. Mayer - who will be chief executive of Yahoo fifth less than a year, two of them through - will face a challenge.
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A pioneering Internet company that helped shape the industry in the 1990s, Yahoo is trying to stay relevant after failing to adapt to changing innovations such as sophisticated search technology and social media tools. Like Google and Facebook have become Web giants, Yahoo is struggling to create a separate strategy, although its audience is among the largest on the Internet. Now, the company moves to lay off thousands of employees, benefits in the face of a stock collapse and dull.The big question is whether Ms. Mayer - or anyone - can help to regain its former stature Yahoo.
It's a very interesting start and a very attractive option," said Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the advertising giant. "It comes with a formidable reputation, but we'll see how it all this analysis. "
With his appointment as President and CEO of Yahoo, on Monday, Ms. Mayer joins a short list of women in the technology industry to hold the first place. The elite club includes Meg Whitman, the CEO of Hewlett-Packard and Virginia M. Rometty, head of IBM Another elderly woman in Silicon Valley, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's officer Chief Operating Officer.(In a bit of personal news, Ms. Mayer disclosed on Twitter Monday night that she is pregnant.)
The switch to Yahoo is an opportunity for Ms. Mayer out on his own and claim a bigger stage. Ms. Mayer, a trained engineer whose first task at Google includes computer programming, was behind the search page unadorned famous white house and how users interact with Gmail, Google News and Google Images. She also served on the Google operating, which is part of a small circle of leaders who had the ear of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.Perhaps as a sign of high ambitions, Ms. Mayer joined the board of Wal-Mart Stores in April, its first seat in a public company. It is one of four women on Wal-Mart's 16-member board.Yet, Ms. Mayer was not a clear path to the upper echelons of Google.
After years of research under its business, most profitable unit of Google, Ms. Mayer became vice-president of the location of the business and local services in late 2010, a group that included Google Maps and more than 1000 product managers. But the following year, another senior promoted Google, Jeff Huber, being the senior vice president for local trade, putting him one level above after Ms. Mayer. Although Google characterized the move as a promotion at the time, some wondered if it would be the content of the reorganization.Ms. Mayer, who was first approached about the job in mid-June after returning from a trip to China, resigned from Google on Monday afternoon by telephone. She begins to Yahoo on Tuesday and will also join the board.
In an interview, Ms. Mayer said she "had a great time Google," where she worked for the past 13 years, but ultimately "it was a pretty easy decision" to take the top job at Yahoo . She said Yahoo was "one of the best brands on the Internet." She recalled that when she started to Google, the company would conduct surveys and "people do not understand the difference between Yahoo and the Internet."
As she presents the strategy of Yahoo hashes, Ms. Mayer said she wanted to focus on strong franchises of the company Internet, including e-mail, finance and sports. It also hopes to do more with their broadband video and mobile activities, drawing on its large base of users.
For Yahoo, the hope is that Ms. Mayer and her discerning eye will provide a direction more than necessary for what has been, recently, a rudderless ship.
"Yahoo has finally someone with business sense at a time and geek cred to the bar," said Chris Sacca, a venture capitalist, who has worked with Ms. Mayer at Google. "It is hard work / play hard, and product engineering-oriented culture, and Yahoo has been missing for years."
But it comes to employment with little experience at a level across the enterprise, which could be problematic because it defines a strategic vision.
"I would be more excited about it," said Shar Van Boskirk, an analyst at Forrester Research. "Yahoo has too many products. I fear that the challenge is that by putting someone in the product first CEO role they will not have someone who has the ability to create a clear and unified vision and strategy for the brand Yahoo. "Ms. Mayer also joins a company that has faced significant upheaval on the management of the last decade that Yahoo has tried unsuccessfully to return to its original glory days. His predecessors had little chance of revitalization of the old Internet pioneer.
In May, Yahoo Chief Executive newest, Scott Thompson, resigned after questions emerged about whether he lied about certain university degrees, he had been at work for only four months. Board of directors of Yahoo has also been reconstituted by adding three new members, including activist investor Daniel Loeb, Third and Michael Wolf, the long-time consultant and former media chief operating officer of MTV Networks Viacom.
For the past few weeks, a half-dozen names had been bandied about to take the top job. But the name of Ms. Mayer was never mentioned. Most analysts said they believed that the board of Yahoo was planning to promote Ross Levinsohn, former head of the media company in the world who had taken over as interim leader after Mr. Thompson left .
"In recent years, given the turnover, there was a lack of attention to user experience," David Filo, co-founder of Yahoo, who still works at the company, said in an interview Monday. "We must go back to basics." He said he was very excited that Ms. Mayer has agreed to join the company. "It will be a surprise to many people."
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