In light of Alibaba’s upcoming IPO, Dan Rosensweig, former Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) COO, talked to Bloomberg about the company selling a part of its stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant and said that CEO Marissa Mayer has brought back energy to the once-mighty tech star.
Rosensweig, who left Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) at the end of 2006, was asked what the company would likely do with its stake, estimated to be over $10 billion, after selling some of its shares in Alibaba. The executive who now runs Chegg (NYSE:CHGG) said that Mayer will ultimately decide what to do with its holding.
He said, however, that Yahoo!’s CEO may be looking into returning some of the proceeds to the shareholders as she has done in the past. Furthermore, Mayer will have to look at what areas she wants to take Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) in, and subsequently invest there, he said. Rosensweig also mentioned that it is fairly difficult to acquire companies with the tricky valuation of companies at the moment.
Nonetheless, it appears that Rosensweig is confident in the current Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) boss. He said that she thinks Mayer would be sensible in making her decisions according to her plans and that it would not be advantageous for shareholders in the company to have her removed immediately.
Asked whether he believes Mayer is doing a good job, Rosensweig cited issues and problems which have made the Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) really “difficult” to run.
“It (Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)) has had a string of CEOs, it’s had a string of competitive issues, it’s had a hostile takeover attempt, it’s had an activist shareholder. It has not exactly been the easiest scenario for anybody to come in and run it, but I think what Marissa has done to her credit, is she’s brought back energy for the company, she’s brought attention back on the company, she started to rebuild audience growth into the company, and I think she actually followed what she laid out to do. It’s not an easy job and it does take time and people don’t necessarily have the patience. But I think getting the war chest, getting Alibaba sorted out, starting hiring some people, (and) acquiring a lot of talent puts them in a position where the chance to succeed – and I think her sheer energy, she’s a force of nature – gives Yahoo a real opportunity to grow here,” Dan Rosensweig said.
The full video is available below:
