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Yahoo boss Mayer spells it out: We missed on mobile but that is where we are going !

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By Noel Young | Correspondent

October 23, 2012 | 3 min read

New Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's top priority is developing "a focused, coherent mobile strategy, " she has said during a conference call with investment analysts.

Mayer: We should be a mobile company

"At some point at least half our technical workforce should be working on mobile...because Yahoo should be a predominantly mobile company,"she said.

Mayer spoke as the company reported revenue and earnings that modestly beat Wall Street expectations for the quarter that ended in September, said the San Jose Mercury News.

It was the "most extensive view of her plans that she has offered publicly since she was hired from Google as CEO in July to run the Internet giant ," the paper said.

Mayer said she came to Yahoo which has 12,000 employees to "grow and help redefine one of the Internet's most beloved companies."

She said she was not looking at a major reorganisation or large-scale acquisition to change Yahoo's focus. Instead she's looking at ways to improve efficiency and better "align" the company with her priorities.

Moves to improve employee productivity include free food, new smartphones for workers and new performance measures.

She also listed some ways in which she said Yahoo can improve both its search and display advertising business.

Mayer said she wants to link Yahoo's future with mobile Internet technology, as more people use smartphones and tablets rather than desktop computers to surf the web, make purchases and share information.

"Yahoo hasn't capitalised on the mobile opportunity," she added, saying the company has not done a good job of promoting or coordinating its current mobile offerings.

Yahoo should be able to build on the popularity of its websites dedicated to sports, finance and entertainment, along with its email and photo-sharing services.

Those coincide with the things that people use mobile devices to check -- as a "daily habit," she said.

Herman Leung, who tracks Internet companies for Susquehanna Investment Group, told the Mercury News, "I thought she did a pretty good job of articulating her strategy," although her mobile plans "will take some time and effort."

Investment analyst Martin Pyykkonen of Wedge Partners gave Mayer "an A-minus. She was efficient and precise. You felt like this was someone who is not going to let opportunities pass by."

* The 37-year-old Mayer who gave birth to a baby boy last month has told a columnist for Fortune that she and her husband have named their son Macallister.

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