Yahoo Appoints Maynard Webb As Chairman

Yahoo has appointed Silicon Valley veteran executive and investor Maynard Webb as chairman, as the company continues its turnaround efforts under chief executive Marissa Mayer.

Webb, who joined Yahoo’s board in February 2012, has served as interim chairman since the resignation of former chair Fred Amoroso in April. He is a former eBay chief operating officer and was chief executive of LiveOps, a cloud contact centre services provider, from 2006 to 2011.

Executive changes

“Maynard Webb’s leadership and guidance have been an invaluable part of our board since he joined it in 2012,” Yahoo said in a statement. “We are honored that Maynard will continue to serve as chairman of the board.”

Yahoo has seen a number of changes to its board and executive team in recent years as the company has struggled to compete against the likes of Google and Facebook.

Ex-Google executive Marissa Mayer joined Yahoo in July 2012 and has undertaken to revitalise the company’s revenues and market share through measures such as adding tools and services. Under Mayer the company has spent more than $1.2bn (£765m) on the acquisition of more than 20 startups, partly in order to bring engineering talent into the company.

Those acquisitions include social web browser maker Rockmelt earlier this month and blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1bn in May.

At one point, in June, Yahoo acquired two companies in one day – Rondee and Ghostbird. Another buy included Summly, a smartphone news application developed by a UK teenager.

Mayer has also made a number of executive appointments, including chief operating officer Henrique de Castro, who joined the company from Google in October of last year.

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