When Yahoo recruited Marissa Mayer from Google to replace interim CEO Ross Levinsohn, some suggested that Mayer's departure from Google was an indication that she had reached her limit for advancement at the search giant, and that her role at Google was actually not as important as it might have seemed.
Whether the rumors about Mayer's status at Google were accurate or not, one thing was certain: Yahoo was placing a huge bet on the 30-something executive, one that might have been the last such bet it could make.
Less than a year since she joined Yahoo, Mayer has started to make the once-great internet company her own. She has started the process of putting her imprint on Yahoo's corporate culture, and tapped ex-Googlers, including Google ad executive Henrique De Castro, to join her.
So far, there are positive signs that Mayer's strategy is working. Yahoo beat analyst expectations with its last earnings report, and while it still has a long way to go, Mayer is off to about as good a start as Yahoo investors could have reasonably hoped for.
