Marissa Mayer under fire for lack of Yahoo turnaround

Yahoo is undergoing lot of pressure from shareholders and Marissa Mayer’s capabilities to save the company are under doubt now.

Investors, who were already disappointed by low momentum under Mayer, were given more to worry about this week.
A hedge fund with a stake in Yahoo urged it to drop its planned spin-off of its holdings in China's Alibaba.

The hedge fund, Starboard Value, said the company should instead sell its "core" Internet operations.
The request came with Yahoo on track to set up a new corporate entity holding its multi-billion dollar Alibaba stake in the coming months.

"We have grown increasingly frustrated with your unwillingness to accept our help and your dismissive approach to our serious concerns about the current situation at Yahoo," Starboard said in a letter to Mayer.


The Alibaba stake spinoff plan has been clouded by concerns that it may not get tax-free status from US authorities, resulting in a hefty tax bill for Yahoo shareholders.

Starboard said in the letter that the spinoff of the entity called Aabaco Holdings "is not Yahoo's best alternative" and argued that "instead, you should be exploring a sale of Yahoo's core search and display advertising businesses."

The hedge fund was worried about the plan to transfer the Alibaba stake to the new company and distributing stock in what could amount to a taxable gift of some $30 billion to shareholders.

Starboard would prefer that Yahoo, instead, split off its own Internet operations in a technical move apparently aimed at avoiding a tax bill.

However the outcome would be the same: one company running Yahoo's core business and another handling the investment in Alibaba.


"The important thing is for the spinoff to happen one way or another," BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis told AFP.

The original decision to split Yahoo's holding in Alibaba was seen as an attempt to calm restless shareholders, starting with activist fund Starboard which lobbied for the strategy.
All these have put immense pressure on Marissa Mayer. An array of senior Yahoo executives have jumped ship in recent months, and some industry observers question how much longer Mayer will remain at the helm.


If Yahoo's core business continues to deteriorate, "there is a good chance that in 12 months from now, Marissa Mayer may not be there," SunTrust analyst Bob Peck told CNBC.

BGC Financial's Gillis added that "it's a difficult business to turn around."

"It's a company that fundamentally needs to be restructured, and it's not her field of expertise."

Several analysts, however, contend that just replacing Mayer will not right Yahoo's listing ship.

"The job of the CEO is to innovate; to outsmart competition, to invest," Global Equities analyst Trip Chowdhry told AFP. "It is not her job to find a way to dodge paying taxes."

Chowdhry saw Mayer as the right person for the job because she understands the technology. If someone needs to go, Chowdhry reasoned, it is chief financial officer Ken Goldman who is "not making the right decision."

Silicon Valley analyst Robert Enderle faulted the Yahoo board, and not Mayer, for lack of turn-around momentum.

"They knew she was going to have a steep learning curve and didn't back her up well at all," Enderle said.

"The right board likely could direct Mayer more successfully and avoid the disruption and cost of replacing yet one more CEO."

(Image credits: Indiatimes)