Yahoo's Marissa Mayer Responds To Activist Shareholders: 'We Will Review Starboard's Letter Carefully'

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer released a statement Friday afternoon in response to the letter from activist shareholder Starboard Value LP, which urged Yahoo to combine its business with AOL's.

"We have maintained, and will continue to maintain, an open dialogue with all of our shareholders…we will review Starboard's letter carefully and look forward to discussing it with them," Mayer said in a statement.

Starboard said Friday morning that it has taken a "significant stake" in Yahoo and urged Yahoo management to improve shareholder value. It wants Yahoo to sell its stake in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, cut costs by up to $500 million a year, and combine with AOL, among many other things.

You can read the full statement by Mayer below:

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) today acknowledged receipt of a letter from Starboard Value LP.

"We are committed, as an organization, to acting in the best interests of the Company and all of its shareholders. We have maintained, and will continue to maintain, an open dialogue with all of our shareholders. As part of our regular evaluation of Yahoo's strategic initiatives to drive sustainable shareholder value, we will review Starboard's letter carefully and look forward to discussing it with them," said Yahoo's CEO Marissa Mayer.

"Going forward, we have great confidence in the strength of our business. The management team and the Board of Directors remain committed to building value for all shareholders through the continued execution of our strategy, investing in products that will drive sustainable growth: search, communications, digital magazines and video. We continue to leverage our portfolio of world-class products which include Yahoo Search, Mail, News, Sports, Flickr, Tumblr, and advertising solutions among others. Additionally, we will continue to focus on evaluating various capital allocation initiatives, an update to which we plan to provide on our third quarter earnings call," concluded Mayer.

The Company remains focused on creating shareholder value through its world-class internet assets, its highly successful investments in leading global internet companies and the increasing traction in transforming Yahoo into a mobile-first company. In the last two years, Yahoo has more than doubled its average monthly mobile users. Since July of 2012, Yahoo! has completed over $6.3bn in share repurchases.