Marissa Mayer at Yahoo has her figures mocked by Forbes
The tide has turned for Yahoo 's sort-of-new boss Marissa Mayer and not in the best possible way. Forbes magazine indulges in gentle sarcasm in talking about some of the company's latest figures.
Marissa Mayer: Figures disappoint
Call it growth, Yahoo-style, says the magazine - recounting how three months ago, talking of her new company’s fourth-quarter earnings, Mayer claimed to have “resolved 385 of the high-priority obstacles our employees identified to us.”
This quarter, she had an even bigger number to report: Under her watch, Yahoo has launched no fewer than 567 “employee-focused initiatives.”
That’s 182 more employee-focused initiatives launched than high-priority obstacles resolved, for those keeping score, says the Forbes writer. Ouch!
"If Mayer’s been emphasizing the made-up metrics, it’s most likely because Yahoo has been having a tough time with the generally accepted ones," says the Forbes article.
Stripping out traffic acquisition costs, the $1.074 billion of revenue Yahoo posted in the first quarter was a sliver less than it took in during the same quarter a year ago."
The total volume of ads sold fell 7% year over year and the price per ad dropped 2%.
Reducing the ad clutter on Yahoo’s pages was supposed to drive ad rates up, Forbes points out. Mayer assured analysts that would still be the case - after an adjustment period.