“I’m having a great time. Seriously.”
— Marissa Mayer, the chipper Yahoo CEO, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on the same day her company reported profit and sales that beat analyst expectations. Tuesday’s earnings report was seen as crucial for Mayer, who’s two years into her tenure as chief executive of the growth-challenged company. She reiterated in the interview that she expects her turnaround plan to take time. “I have always said it would take multiple years. So to me that could be anywhere between two to five, three to five, somewhere in there,” she said. But what about the investors who happen to want her to try something different, such as merge with AOL? “I think that shareholder viewpoints are always helpful and we always want to engage with them.” She said she would meet with Starboard Value, the hedge fund that’s pushing for a tie-up with AOL.
Yahoo shares are up more than 5 percent today, despite the fact that some analysts remain cautious about Yahoo’s future. They pointed out that Yahoo’s sales grew a mere 1 percent. “Things might be getting less worse,” said Mark Mahaney, an Internet industry analyst at RBC Capital Markets, according to the New York Times. “They beat modest expectations. Congratulations,” said Roger Entner, analyst and founder of Recon Analytics, our own Pete Carey wrote. “Now it all depends on execution.”
Photo of Marissa Mayer by NBC/Associated Press
