Business Story

Yahoo finally Googles in a new CEO – Search Engine Leader’s Executive Marissa Mayer is the Third CEO in a year

Yahoo Inc picked Google’s Marissa Mayer to become its new CEO, turning to an engineer with established Silicon Valley credentials to turn around the struggling former Internet power houses.

Mayer, 37, edged out frontrunner and acting CEO Ross Levinsohn to become Yahoo’s third CEO in a year. She hopes to stem losses to Google and Facebook Inc – which her high-profile predecessors failed to do.

Her hiring signaled the Internet Company is likely to renew its focus on Web technology and products rather than beefing up online content.

Mayer, Google’s 20^th employee and first female engineer, has led a number of its businesses, and was credited for envisioning the clean, simple Google search interface still in use today, a major selling point for web surfers.

Also known for her love of fashion and a regular on the society pages, she joins the extremely thin ranks of female Silicon Valley CEOs and told reporters that she was immediately interested when Yahoo’s board reached out to her in mid June.

“This is a very competitive and a tough space. I don’t think that success is by any means guaranteed,” she said. “My focus is always end-users, great technology and terrific talent.” Shares of Yahoo, worth less than half their value during its dotcom heyday, gained 2% to $15.97 in after-hours trading.

“It’s a statement on Yahoo’s part to go with a product-centric CEO choice. It’s a very big commitment on the board’s part to pursue a product-centric strategy,” venture capitalist Marc Andreessen told the fortune industry conference in Aspen, Colorado. Tech companies can be turned around, he said, citing as an example Apple Inc, which had teetered on the brink of bankruptcy before Steve Jobs returned to the company he cofounded.

Mayer will start on Tuesday, when the company is scheduled to report its quarterly financial results, but she will not join the post-release conference call.

Mayer also revealed on Twitter that she is pregnant with her first child, a boy. She told Fortune magazine that the baby is due on October 7 and she expects her maternity leave will only be a few weeks long.