The Last Days Of Marissa Mayer?

The Yahoo CEO was viewed as a saviour back in 2012. But insiders say that she now leads a company without a vision or a viable turnaround plan. As top executives flee in droves, it’s plausible that Mayer might soon join them.

- Miguel Helft

The late October offsite meeting for more than 120 of Yahoo’s top executives at the Park Central Hotel in San Francisco started well enough. The first day jumped from strategy sessions to upcoming product discussions. But on day two, when the topic shifted to employee engagement, and with CEO Marissa Mayer in and out of the room, things went downhill fast. When Bryan Power, Yahoo’s head of HR, glossed over results from a recent employee survey that showed dramatic double digit drops in metrics like morale and trust in the company’s executive leadership, various vice presidents began venting to one another. Those murmurs of discontent erupted into outright heckling when another session—billed as an opportunity to improve communication—turned into a lecture from Yahoo’s top brass that many found patronising. Vice presidents started calling out their superiors for “not listening”, “not understanding” and “not being interested in changing.” Some cursed.

“It was the most stressful and acrimonious professional meeting I’ve ever attended,” says one participant.