Marissa Mayer, the former CEO of Yahoo, recently revealed in an interview with Tech Brew that she had regrets about some of the decisions she made during her time leading the company. Mayer, who left Yahoo after five years in 2017, said that she would have done three things differently if given the opportunity.
One of Mayer’s biggest regrets was hiring the wrong chief operating officer, Henrique De Castro, who she fired after only 15 months on the job. Additionally, Mayer admitted that Yahoo’s acquisition of the social blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion in 2013 may not have been the best move. She said that the company was also considering acquiring “Hulu or, ironically, Netflix” at the time, and either of those options would have been a better acquisition.
Mayer’s most significant regret was not making “the tax-free Alibaba spinoff to separate the assets of the company,” which she said could have saved shareholders $10 billion in taxes. If the spinoff had been executed, Mayer believed that Yahoo could have continued as an independent company and potentially had more success.
Verizon acquired Yahoo in 2017 for $4.48 billion and combined it with AOL, prompting Mayer to resign. After Mayer’s exit, she received a $23 million pay package. Earlier this year, Verizon sold Yahoo and AOL to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $5 billion, and the company is now known solely as Yahoo.
Mayer’s comments highlight the importance of making strategic decisions and surrounding oneself with the right team. Her experience also shows that hindsight is always 20/20, and even the most successful leaders have regrets. Nonetheless, Mayer’s tenure at Yahoo brought significant changes to the company and the internet industry as a whole, and her insights into her time leading Yahoo provide valuable lessons for future leaders.
