Image via Complex Original
When Marissa Mayer, a former vice president at Google, became the CEO of Yahoo on July 12, 2012, many thought it would be the greatest mistake of her career. Taking a beleaguered company like Yahoo! and transforming it into something that could compete with the likes of Facebook and Google seemed like too tall an order for someone who had no experience running a company. However, in the 10 months she's been in charge, Marissa has worked tirelessly to change not only the image of Yahoo!, but also the inner workings.
Mayer's latest acquisition was announced Monday morning. Yahoo bought Tumblr for a reported $1.1 billion. It's too soon to tell if this was a good idea or a bad one, but we do know we're not completely surprised. Mayer and Yahoo have been on a tear as of late, picking up a bunch of smart, interesting, startups dealing in a wide range of areas. So, as Mayer proceeds in trying to put numbers on the board, take a look at what she's been up to over the past 10 months.
Brings Free Lunch to Yahoo!
Date: 6/30/2012
Why: Quality of life
One of Marissa Mayer's first orders of business when taking over at Yahoo! was to bring a little bit of the flavor that made her former place of business, Google, such a great place to work: free food. During her second week as CEO, Mayer made all the food at Yahoo!'s URL Cafe completely complimentary. In addition to that, Mayer also said she plans to make the Sunnyvale, Calif. headquarters much more "collabrative and cool."
Revamped Yahoo! Mail
Date: 12/11/2012
Why: Better usability
How many of you still have a Yahoo! email address? Now, when's the last time you actually used it? Exactly. To bring the hordes of people who once signed up for the email service back home, Marissa Mayer decided to redesign the entire system to make it seem as if it belonged in 2013. This meant cleaner visuals and better navigation. Yahoo Mail general manager Vivek Sharma was quoted as saying Mayer was actively involved in the process of redesigning the service and that it was one of her first initiatives. Under Mayer, the company also released an iOS app for Mail.
Acquired Stamped
Date: 10/25/2012
Why: Talent
Marissa Mayer's first poaching came in the form of a year-old mobile app development company called Stamped. The company launched an iPhone app in November of 2011 that allowed users to keep track of things they-books, movies, restaurants, etc-liked and things their friends liked. Shortly after getting a large round of funding, Yahoo! came through and scooped it from an estimated $100 million.
Acquired OnTheAir
Date: 12/4/2012
Why: Talent
Days after shutting down a number of Yahoo! Messenger products like Chat Rooms, PingBox, and Windows Live Messenger Interoperability, Yahoo! purchased a company called OnTheAir. OnTheAir was a video chat service that allowed people to casually hangout and talk, or to be used like a webinar service in which one person controls the conversation and speaks to a number of people who have tuned in. The move was seen as an attempt to eventually compete directly with Google and its Hangouts feature, as well as other online streaming companies like UStream.
Launched All-New Flickr App
Date: 12/12/2012
Why: A view of new mobile strategy
When Marissa Mayer took the helm at Yahoo! one of her first promises was to get the company focused on where people are most using the Internet: their mobile phones and tablets. To do so, she began instantly working to revamp the company's offerings to compete in a world dominated by new, nimble, stylish apps. The first to see an overhaul was the Flickr app.
Stripped down to its bare essentials and designed to look like it came out in 2013, the new Flickr app was made to go head-to-head with Instagram. The new app better organizes your friends and the photos they take and also gives you 16 filters to make your photos seem as if they were taking by someone with more photographic talent than you."
Acquired Snip.it
Date: 1/22/2013
Why: Talent
To compete with Pinterest, considered to be on of the hottest new start-ups of the past two years, Mayer looked at a small team in San Francisco who ran a product called Snip.It. Similar to Pinterest, Snip.it allowed users to "snip" news articles and photos and arrange them in a visually attractive way, like Pinterest. Since Yahoo! already has a number of photo and news products that it would like to see do better, the company simply purchased the start-up for an estimated $10 million and hired all but one employee.
Acquired Alike
Date: 2/12/2013
Why: Technology
Nearly every big-name software company is putting focus and money into mobile-based location discovery. Looking to eat a little of the Foursquare's dinner, every app would like to help its uses find out exactly where their friends have dined, shopped, or visited in hopes of gaining advertising revenue. To help it do the same, Yahoo! acquired Alike, a mobile app that helps users discover venues and places to visit based on their interests. The technology behind it will be rolled into other Yahoo! apps.
Redesigned Yahoo! Homepage
Date: 2/20/2013
Why: Usability, Functionality
Despite what you may think, Yahoo.com is still one of the most visited websites in the world. More than 100 million people visit Yahoo!'s homepage each day. And you thought it was washed it up? Even though her stated mission was to improve the company's mobile offerings, Marissa Mayer oversaw a complete overhaul of the company's most valuable property. Users are now able to login to the site using their Yahoo! or Facebook account. One of the main new features is the infinite scroll of personalized stories and photos that change depending on the user's taste.
Acquired Jybe
Date: 3/20/2013
Why: Talent, Technology
In another attempt to bolster its mobile products, Mayer went on the offensive and re-hired a bunch of engineers who formerly worked on Yahoo!'s search engine, but left to create Jybe. The app recommended things to mobile users like books, movies, recipes, restaurants, dishes, and recipes, in an attempt to connect people to "the physical world." Once acquired, the app was shut down, and all five key employees (all of whom used to work at Yahoo) was brought back onto the team.
Acquired Summly
Date: 3/25/2013
Why: Talent, Technology
If 15-year-old Nick D'Aloisio ever plans on going to college, his tuition is already paid for. That's because the British programing Wunderkind had his app, Summly, which organizes and summarizes news for over 500,000 thousand users, bought outright by Yahoo. As Yahoo looks to focus its efforts in mobile, the acquisition of the Summly and its underlying technology will help it do so.
Launched All-New Weather App
Date: 4/26/2013
Why: A view of new mobile strategy
To show that its mobile strategy wasn't a flash in the pan, Yahoo! released an all-new Weather app for iOS. Sure, there are tons of weather apps available for the iPhone-some even look as beautiful as this. But none are free or this feature-filled. The best feature, and one that's unique to Yahoo!'s weather app, is the artwork. For each city, the app pulls up photos that reflect the weather. But these just aren't random stock images--these are images taken by users of Flickr, Yahoo!'s photo service. All the photos used in the app are ones that have been submitted to the sites' Project Weather page.
Extended Parental Leave Policy
Date: 4/30/2013
Why: Workplace moral
Marissa Mayer was pregnant when she took the helms of Yahoo! One of her changes was to revamp the company's maternal and paternal leave policies to make it more in line with her former employer. Under her mandate, new fathers at Yahoo! can now take eight weeks of paid paternal leave and new mothers can take an additional eight weeks. On top of that, the new parents get $500 to buy needed items like groceries and baby clothes.
Acquired Astrid
Date: 5/3/2013
Why: Talent, Technology
Probably the most accomplished of all the start-ups purchased by Yahoo! (save for Tumblr), Astrid was doing fine without an infusion of cash. Launched in 2008, it produced apps for all mobile platforms (iOS, Android, Windows) and had a good number of paying premium customers. Once acquired, however, the app was shut down and everyone given a refund. The app helped people stay organized by creating easy to-do lists and helping manage email. Don't be surprised to see some of its features wind up in a Yahoo! Mail app.
Acquired MileWise
Date: 5/9/2013
Why: Talent
May 9, 2013 was very eventful for Yahoo! Not only did it pick up a mobile polling company called GoPollGo, it also scooped up MileWise, a company that made it easy to book flights and hotels with your airline miles and credit card points. Like, GoPollGo, MileWise was shut down shortly after purchase and the team was folded into Yahoo's.
Acquired GoPollGo
Date: 5/9/2013
Why: Talent
What does Yahoo! need with an online polling company? We're not sure, but if we had to guess, we'd say it was for its mobile developers. The company, which had grown quickly in its three years (it says its usership was in the millions) developed a great mobile web version of its software. Once picked up, GoPollGo shut down its operations.
Acquired Loki
Date: 5/10/2013
Why: Talent
One major area of mobile computing that is both profitable and popular is gaming. Marissa Mayer understands this. That's why she gave the okay to pick up mobile gaming company Loki Studios. Founded by students and Stanford, Loki Studios focused on "combining engaging game design with the features unique to the next generation of mobile devices." No one's sure what the team's roll will be once at Yahoo!, but the company did say that it is "thrilled to be joining the exceptional folks at Yahoo!. We believe fully in their commitment to creating outstanding mobile products."
