Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's newly minted chief executive, is reworking the company's playbook and nothing seems off limits.
According to a filing submitted on Thursday, Ms. Mayer - who joined Yahoo last month - was “reviewing the company's business strategy.â€
The filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission said that she was assessing the company's restructuring plan, its acquisition strategy and its plans to spend the billions in proceeds that it expects to reap from its pending deal with the Alibaba Group. Yahoo, which is waiting to complete a deal to sell a large block of Alibaba shares back to its Chinese partner, has previously said that it would distribute those proceeds to Yahoo shareholders, perhaps through a buyback program.
That plan, however, is now up for debate. “This review process may lead to a re-evaluation of, or changes to, the company's current plans, including its restructuring plan, its share repurchase program, and its previous ly announced plans for returning to shareholders substantially all of the after-tax cash proceeds of the initial share repurchase by Alibaba Group,†the company said in the filing.
Yahoo did not respond to requests for comment. Shares of Yahoo, which slipped 1 percent on Thursday to close at $16.01, continued to fall in after-hours trading.
Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, is close to raising about $8 billion to buy back a 20 percent stake that Yahoo owns. From the deal, Yahoo will reap about $7.1 billion, before taxes.
Ms. Mayer, a former Google executive, is trying to lay out a clear road map for Yahoo, which has been bruised by a string of management shuffles. So far this year, three executives have led Yahoo, including Scott Thompson, the former president of PayPal who left in the wake of an inquiry into his academic credentials, and Ross Levinsohn, who briefly served as the company's interim chief executive. Ms. Levinsohn, who ran Yahoo's media business, resigned last week.
