Marissa Mayer is the new CEO of Yahoo!

I’m late to the party, but full on-board that this is a good thing.

Really.

I’m now (sorta) jazzed about Yahoo!, where previous to this, Yahoo! seemed to be circling the drain.

Veddy interesting….

My predictions (and I know nothing):

• There will be layoffs – sad, but true. Necessary.
• Focus on Flickr, Yahoo Finance
• Slow elimination of the whole portal concept
• Big guess: Dump Bing; partner with Google for search/ads (why not go with the best?)
• Big hope: Like Carol Bartz, I hope she tells an interviewer – at some conference – to “fuck off” or some such pushback.

Update 7/19/2012: As expected, Mayer’s compensation package with Yahoo, is, shall we say, generous.

Again – expected. Big bucks for big job that two recent CEO hires – Carol Bartz and Scott Thompson – have failed at. And they did well financially, as well.

And Mayer can’t jump into the ring/shark tank without the unstated announcement that, while she’s a zillionaire (from Google), she doesn’t work for free. Want what I gots? What will the market bear?

My final thought: If Mayer succeeds, it will be big – Yahoo! back (in some way). Could be huge. So the compensation doesn’t matter.

If she fails, Yahoo! is dead – sell off the parts. To me, this is Yahoo!’s last chance to be significant. And so, again, the compensation almost doesn’t matter. Write down the loss…

Personally, I hope Yahoo! succeeds.

Update Deux 7/19/2012: I’ve read/viewed a zillion reports about the Mayer transition, but some – I won’t point fingers – emphasize that she is a “she” (female). And since the report that she’s pregnant emerged, it’s gotten a bit more XX vs. XY oriented.

Here’s my take: I liked what I read about Carol Bartz; she failed. I didn’t know anything about Scott Thompson, but he seemed – to me – “meh.”

I didn’t care about Bartz’s or Thompson’s gender; I don’t care about Mayer’s.

Mayer has chops; she could make the difference. That’s all that matters.