Marissa Mayer is stepping down from Yahoo's board of directors — if the Verizon deal goes through
Marissa Mayer will be resigning from Yahoo's board of directors once its deal with Verizon is complete, a move that could mark the beginning of the end of a difficult run for one of the youngest female leaders in Silicon Valley.
The company announced on Monday that Mayer would be stepping down from the board as Yahoo completes the sale of its core business to Verizon. There is some doubt, however, about whether that deal will go through due to a sizable Yahoo hack announced last month. Verizon has claimed that it was not aware of the security breach of Yahoo's users before it agreed to pay $4.8 billion for the company's main web and advertising operations.
Mayer, hired in July 2012, was given a difficult task — turning around one of the biggest but also oldest tech companies around. Yahoo's main business of operating websites and selling display ads remained significant but in a definite decline as users moved to smartphones and companies like Google and Facebook became dominant.
The news came in an SEC filing from the company.
The Yahoo-Verizon deal is a little confusing. Yahoo is technically only selling its core business and brand to Verizon, leaving behind a sizable investment in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan. The company that used to be Yahoo will remain, but will now be called Altaba, according to the filing.
Mayer's future remains up in the air, though her possible removal from the board would indicate that she will not have a position at Altaba. Mayer has maintained that she hopes to stay with Yahoo's core operating business (the part that's going to Verizon) despite the sale of its core assets.
A spokesperson for Verizon declined to comment on questions related to whether Mayer could end up going along with Yahoo's core assets in the sale.
A Yahoo spokesperson declined to comment on Mayer's future with the company.
There's still a chance that the Yahoo-Verizon deal does not go through, with the company noting in the filing that Verizon might challenge the deal based on what was revealed about Yahoo's security breaches.
Topics Yahoo
Jason Abbruzzese is a Business Reporter at Mashable. He covers the media and telecom industries with a particular focus on how the Internet is changing these markets and impacting consumers. Prior to working at Mashable, Jason served as Markets Reporter and Web Producer at the Financial Times. Jason holds a B.S. in Journalism from Boston University and an M.A. in International Affairs from Australian National University.
