Yahoo Names Google’s Marissa Mayer as Its New CEO

The New York Times: In a surprise announcement, Yahoo has named long-time Google executive Marissa Mayer to be its new CEO. Most observers had expected the company to tap interim CEO Ross Levinsohn for the job.

One of Google’s earliest hires, Mayer headed up Google’s search operations for many years and was the driving force behind Google’s uncluttered home page. More recently, she served as vice president of location and local services. Mayer also sits on the board at Wal-Mart.

In an interview, Mayer said that although she “had an amazing time at Google,” ultimately “it was a reasonably easy decision” to accept the offer at Yahoo. She praised her new company as “one of the best brands on the Internet.”