Google’s Marissa Mayer is Yahoo CEO, says she’s pregnant
Yahoo picked Google's Marissa Mayer to become its new CEO, turning to an engineer with established Silicon Valley credentials to turn around the struggling former internet powerhouse. Mayer, 37, edged out frontrunner and acting chief executive Ross Levinsohn to become Yahoo's third CEO in a year. She hopes to stem losses to Google and Facebook — which her high-profile predecessors failed to do. Mayer is pregnant and expecting the baby on October 7.
She confirmed the pregnancy on her Twitter feed late Monday after it was reported by magazine, writing: "Another piece of good news today — @zackbrogue and I are expecting a new baby boy!" A report said Mayer may be the first ever pregnant Fortune 500 CEO. She is arguably the most high-profile woman in Silicon Valley. Mayer disclosed her pregnancy to a Yahoo search committee in late June, and said no one on the company board expressed any concern over hiring a pregnant chief executive, from source.
"They showed their evolved thinking," it quoted her as saying. She said she would take just a few weeks of maternity leave and work through it, telling Fortune : "I like to stay in the rhythm of things." Mayer, Google's 20th employee and first female engineer, has led a number of its businesses, and was credited for envisioning the clean, simple Google search interface still in use today, a major selling point for web surfers.
Also known for her love of fashion and a regular on the society pages, she said that she was immediately interested when Yahoo's board reached out to her in mid-June. Last responsible for Google's local and location services, she joins fellow female tech chieftains Meg Whitman of HP, Virginia Rometty of IBM and Ursula Burns of Xerox.