Yahoo’s new CEO, Marissa Mayer, will focus on devising a
comprehensive mobile strategy to bring the floundering search engine
into the future.
Mayer, who revealed her plan in a conference call with analysts Oct.
22, said although Yahoo has under-invested in mobile in the past, it is
“a huge wave for us to ride.”
Mayer, of Google fame, is determined to work her magic on Yahoo by
focusing on users’ “daily habits” such as e-mail, the home page and
Internet search as well as mobile devices.
“While we have a lot to do, the future of Yahoo is incredibly
bright,” Mayer said, adding Yahoo is “well-positioned in the era of
tablets and Smartphones” because of its content leadership.
Mayer also discussed forming a closer relationship with Microsoft,
its software provider and Web search partner, while using technology to
bolster its display ads business through such features as automated
buying.
She also said Yahoo will pull out of international businesses that
fail to grow. The company announced last week its plans to shut down its
struggling business in South Korea before the new year.
Yahoo’s quarterly earnings surpassed analysts’ expectations pushing
shares up by about four percent to $16.46 in after hours trading.
Yahoo earned $177 million in operations income and adjusted net
earnings of 35 cents per share. The earnings do not include the
company’s $2.8-billion gain due to the sale of its Alibaba Group shares.
Yahoo’s net revenue is sitting at $1.09 billion up from $1.07 billion in 2011’s third quarter.
Mayer, who took on her position in July has already made her presence
known with a thorough redesign of Yahoo.com. Until the redesign, which
was unveiled earlier this month, the search engine website had sported
the same look for years.
The new look, which was largely cosmetic, included a redesigned logo.
Yahoo.com is Yahoo’s most valuable product. According to ComScore,
170 million people visit Yahoo sites each day and the majority of them
are directed to this page.
