Mayer: We’ll make Yahoo the best it can be

In addition to these closures, Yahoo disclosed in its earnings release that it will cut 15% of its workforce and shut down five overseas offices, including Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Madrid. “As a result of this four-point plan, Yahoo is expected to return to modest and accelerating growth in 2017 and 2018”. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company also noted it would explore selling non-strategic assets, like patents, which it hopes could raise anywhere between $1 billion and $3 billion, while continuing to focus on its MaVeNS (mobile, video, native advertising and social), all in an effort to try to boost the slumping stock price.

The announcement is the strongest sign yet that the board and Chief Executive may be willing to sell the struggling Internet business, essentially websites, email and online search, under growing pressure from impatient shareholders. “We’ll also exit legacy products including Yahoo Games and Smart TV, while we’ll continue to support a handful of higher-margin, higher-engagement legacy products like Flickr”.

Mayer was also surprisingly blunt about the press reports that portrayed Yahoo as a lavish spending company, including the allegation that it spent more than $7 million on holiday parties and hundreds of millions on free food.

“The plan announced today builds from that achievement and will dramatically brighten our future and improve our competitiveness and attractiveness to users, advertisers and partners”.

Mayer is trying to turn the company around, and mobile is one of the key areas she intends to grow. The stock has fallen by more than 40 percent since the end of 2014 as investors’ confidence in Mayer has faded. Mayer, a former rising star at Google who helped Google eclipse Yahoo, has given no indication she intends to leave. The bulk of the cuts are expected to be completed by the end of March, and by the end of this year the company plans to have about 9,000 employees and fewer than 1,000 contractors. After subtracting ad commissions, revenue plunged 15 percent to $1 billion compared with the previous year – the biggest drop since Mayer became CEO in July 2012. And for the full year, management expects a net revenue decline of 12% to 17%.