No matter what Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer, is saying, the chairman Maynard Webb is hinting that the company is up for sale. Hear him;
“The Board also believes that exploring additional strategic alternatives, in parallel to the execution of the management plan, is in the best interest of our shareholders. Separating our Alibaba stake from our operating business continues to be a primary focus, and our most direct path to value maximization. In addition to continuing work on the reverse spin, which we’ve discussed previously, we will engage on qualified strategic proposals.”
However in the same press release published yesterday, this is what Marissa is saying;
“Today, we’re announcing a strategic plan that we strongly believe will enable us to accelerate Yahoo’s transformation,” said Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo. “This is a strong plan calling for bold shifts in products and in resources. We are extremely proud of the billion dollar plus business we have built in mobile, video, native, and social. Our strategic bets in Mavens have enabled us build an entirely new, forward-leaning business of tremendous scale and growth in just three years. The plan announced today builds from that achievement and will dramatically brighten our future and improve our competitiveness, and attractiveness to users, advertisers, and partners.”
Both statements are in sharp contrast and what is clear is that even though Marissa wants to fix and keep Yahoo, the other board members want to sell it.
According to Recode report, “They are emotionally supportive of Mayer and her desire to keep at it, but some of the board just wants to get the company sold for as much money as possible,” said one person close to the situation about the directors. “They’ve had enough.”
Marissa has tried her best in the last four years to save Yahoo from sinking. She made a lot of acquisitions, refocused engineering efforts on mobile and even tried to boos the morale of the employees but all these did not help. Yahoo revenues have been shrinking and top talent have been quitting. When she took the reins for the company, the quarterly revenue was around $1.4billion. Yesterday it reported a fourth quarter revenue of $1.27 billion and profit of $63 million.
The company is in a precarious situation. Even though it is up for sale, investors seem to think that the company is valued at less than nothing. Huffington Post is asking whether anyone will pay for the struggling internet giant.
