SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Yahoo is hiring longtime Google executive Marissa Mayer to be its next chief executive, the fifth in five years as the company struggles to rebound from financial malaise and internal turmoil.
Mayer, who starts Tuesday at Yahoo, was one of Google’s earliest employees and was most recently responsible for its mapping, local and location services. Mayer, 37, joined Google in 1999 after getting her master’s degree at Stanford.
Ross Levinsohn has been running the company on an interim basis and was thought to be the leading candidate after Hulu CEO Jason Kilar dropped out from consideration. Levinsohn filled in after Scott Thompson lost his job two months ago in a flap over misinformation on his official biography.
Yahoo chairman Fred Amoroso said the board was drawn to Mayer’s “unparalleled track record in technology, design and product execution.”
Yahoo’s website, among the most popular Internet destinations, with 700 million monthly visitors, has struggled to turn them into ad-revenue growth.
