Yahoo was already dying when she joined. Fundamentally the ‘portal’ model was already doomed and there was little she could do to fix it other than buy a social network like tumblr.
Yahoo and aol both had levels of technical debt that are hard to imagine from outside of the company.
I'm guessing better than GP anyway. Or call it a smokescreen if you will, distracting people by making loud decisions while the board got ready for winding down everything. I mean I'm guessing - we'll never know for sure unless someone from Yahoo's leadership comes forward and lays it all out.
Likely an understanding that she would unwind the company gracefully without touching the shiney glass case full of $BABA and a trust that should would execute that understanding faithfully.
Ehh, Yahoo had to gamble big on Marissa. They lost I guess, but it was the correct decision at the time. I think people are forgetting the terrible CEOs prior to that, and the horrible decision not to sell to Microsoft.
Remember the Obama style "Hope" posters with her face on them?
Yahoo and aol both had levels of technical debt that are hard to imagine from outside of the company.