Yahoo was in all kinds of trouble when she took over. I'd argue she made a stupid mistake taking the job, not that they made a stupid mistake choosing her (whatever the motivation).
If it was on a downward trajectory she pointed the nose straight down and went full throttle.
I still remember how mad my then wife was about the childcare fiasco.
What a misogynist comment: What makes you say that Mayer got hired for being female?
They did play it up quite a bit, I remember being annoyed at the stories of how tough she was with her in-office daycare and support staff for her newborn while other non-celebrity women I know had to order their whole lives around a pumping schedule.
How does you being annoyed by the reporting on a CEO's daycare situation, let us deduce that this CEO was not hired based on merit?
Sorry, I wasn't trying to imply that. I don't think she was a diversity checkbox so much as a 'small world in silicon valley' unmeritorious hire, with the diversity checkbox as maybe a small plus.
She didn’t compete. She was a placement pick coming from google where she was essentially a non contributing member of the google adwords leadership team.