Newsletter 
Yahoo’s sharp decline has truly been a rise and fall story for the ages, seeing one of the giants of the mid to early internet era stagnate, and eventually fall from grace in rather spectacular fashion. As the downward trend on Yahoo’s books continues, investors are naturally going to become curious and perhaps even a little angry. During Yahoo’s recent shareholder meeting, when CEO Marissa Mayer was put directly in the hot seat, she had an answer that was a bit unexpected. Rather than talking about competition, or about the current market climate in Yahoo’s service area, she said that the company was investing in its products to bolster user growth and engagement.
While the enterprise and international sectors have historically been a huge part of Yahoo’s business, the focus now seems to be shifting toward users. As many jump over to other services, clinging to Google or Microsoft’s ecosystems in droves and leaving Yahoo’s services behind, Mayer says that the company is investing in their core services to “attract the maximum number of users and the maximum amount of their time and energy each day,”. She went on to point out that the decline in their desktop business has been essentially balanced out by their mobile growth, and that the Mavens product line, Yahoo’s multi-platform unified product, is at the level of bringing in about $1.6 billion annually. Yahoo’s sales business, however, has largely been in a state of freefall lately, and Mayer would not breach that subject.
Turning to the subject of Yahoo’s imminent sale of their core products to the highest bidder, an uncomfortable sort of subject for any CEO, Mayer actually handled the subject quite gracefully, saying that interest from some of the biggest names in investing and wireless are a testament to Yahoo’s growth, progress and potential. Yahoo’s business in mobile, native app ads and video ads has been holding firm despite the company’s core businesses taking a beating. While they have yet to actively decline, however, their growth is beginning to stagnate, calling the future of those products into question and ultimately begging the question of what potential buyers may have in mind for Yahoo when the smoke clears.