When
Marissa Mayer took over Yahoo in July 2012, she was the fifth CEO in five years
to try her hand at saving the once mighty Internet media and search site.
But after less than four years in, as she's been fighting against
employee and user tedium, Mayer is now facing an active rival that wants the
company to fire its entire board of directors and possibly part ways with the
CEO.
If they're successful, that would give Yahoo six CEOs in less than
10 years, which may be a corporate record of sorts.
An
modern investor group called Starboard Value said in a letter to other Yahoo
shareholders Thursday that it wants a new group of people to oversee a "improvement
plan, separation, or sale of assets". Yahoo's
current board includes Mayer
and company co-founder David Filo.
"We believe that Yahoo is deeply underrated and opportunities
exist within the control of management and the Board of Directors to unlock major
value for the profit of all shareholders," Starboard wrote in its letter.
Though it didn't exactly say that it wants Mayer ousted as CEO, the group added
that "we have been extremely disappointed with Yahoo's depressing
financial performance, poor management execution, egregious benefit and hiring
practices, and general lack of answerability and oversight by the Board."
A former Google executive, Mayer's been criticized for some of the
efforts she's made to bring Yahoo back to relevance and keep it economical with
rivals including Facebook, Google and Snapchat. So Starboard has plenty of
ammunition.
Mayer's
mistakes include Yahoo Screen, the company's premium video service, which was
shut down in January. Yahoo confessed it couldn't find a way for the service to
make money, even with the help of newly produced programming including a
revival of the NBC cult comedy "Community." Yahoo admitted the account
of displays sucked up $42 million from its funds.
Its messaging service Livetext, a video chat app (but with no
sound) was shut down eight months after it launched. And eight of the top 10
smartphone apps in the United States in January are made by rivals Facebook and
Google, according
to Comscore. Yahoo's only spot on the top 15 is Apple's Stocks app for
iPhones, powered by Yahoo's financial data.
Yahoo
still has a large audience -- it claims 1 billion people visit all its sites
combined each month. But it hasn't found ways to make that pay, and it hasn't
been able to find sure stability with its products.
The
misses have sunk employee morale, with key executives leaving and Mayer
apparently asking the remaining leadership to make multiyear commitments to
Yahoo. In February, Mayer
unveiled her make or break plan for
the company, including cutting 1,700 jobs. She also put out a call to would-be
buyers, saying she and Yahoo's board are ready to "engage on qualified
strategic proposals."
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