Why Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's job is at stake

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer downplayed the threat posed by activist investors for more than a year, dismissing the danger as a noisy distraction

NEW YORK: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer downplayed the threat posed by activist investors for more than a year, dismissing the danger as a noisy distraction and setting the stage for a showdown that could now cost Mayer her job.

The fight between Mayer and activist investor Starboard Value took a dramatic turn on Thursday when Starboard publicly floated a plan to replace Yahoo's entire board of directors with its own people -a brazen move that would effectively hand control of the internet company to Starboard.

According to some Yahoo insiders, Mayer's recognition and efforts to quell the outside threat came far too late.

"She viewed (Starboard) as a `bit player' be as a `bit player' cause they owned such a small percentage, that this was a standard ploy for them to garner PR and attention," one person familiar with the matter recounted of Mayer's attitude to Starboard's initial criticisms in 2014. "She did not take them seriously, when it first arose."

With Yahoo now under siege by Wall Street activists for the third time in eight years, the company finds itself in an all-too-familiar situation.And for Mayer, who was hired as CEO by the previous activist investor to gain influence at Yahoo, the showdown reflects an poetic culmination to an ambitious and still inconclusive Silicon Valley comeback story.

SMALL STAKE, SMALL THREAT: There's no telling if Starboard will prevail in a looming proxy fight with Yahoo. But the hedge fund has achie ved a fearsome reputation for its aggressive tactics, best exemplified by its success ousting the enti re board of the Olive Garden restaurant cha in's parent company in 2014.

"They'll rip your face off," says one in dustry insider. Even so, there were no alarm bells ringing at Yahoo when the struggling company landed in Starboard's sights a couple of years ago.

source: techgig.com