Marissa Mayer to face big challenges as Yahoo CEO

Marissa Mayer gears up to face of plenty of complex problems engulfing Yahoo as she takes over as the intenet company's next CEO. The company hired her in an attempt to revive its financial growth and reputation.  

Yahoo!, which is facing stiff competition from rivals like Google and Facebook, has appointed five chief executives, including two interim CEOs, in less than a year.

The troubled company has turned into a vexing brain-twister as its financial performance has steadily deteriorated even though it still boasts one of the Internet's biggest audiences and best-known brands.

Mayer is the fifth Yahoo CEO in the past five years to attempt to turn around an Internet icon that has become as well-known for its follies as its online services.

The biggest challenege for the 37-year-old would be to try and reverse the financial malaise as Yahoo.

Yahoo! reported a marginal decline of 4.2 per cent in net income at $228.4 million for the April-June period this year.

The company's revenue stood at $1.08 billion in the second quarter of 2012, as against $1.07 billion in the year ago period. In the second quarter of 2011 the struggling Internet company had reported net income of $238.5 million.

Yahoo!'s gains in the quarter likely to have flowed from its stake sale in China's Alibaba Group Ltd.

It had bought 40 per cent stake in Alibaba Group in 2005 for about $1 billion, and announced the sale of 20 per cent of its holding to the Chinese firm for about $7 billion.

Mayer's to-do list probably will start with deciding the fate of Ross Levinsohn, who had made a positive impression among analysts during his two-month stint as interim CEO.

With Associated Press inputs