Shares of Yahoo!, one of the oldest and biggest websites in the Internet, rose, but its CEO may be on the chopping board.
As reported by America's Markets, concerns regarding current Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer's ability to steer the company upward are growing, but the company's shares had a surprising spike recently.
Breitbart reported that Yahoo!'s stock price actually tripled in the first two years after the current CEO joined the "collapsing" company in 2012.
As a software engineer, long-time usability leader and key spokesperson for Google, it was thought back then that Mayer would take her pedigree and grab the top reins of some start-up with a "unicorn" billion-dollar valuation.
However, she shocked the industry and Wall Street when she chose to lead Yahoo!, a company on the brink of falling.
Mayer, ever since her tenure as the CEO, has been repeatedly saying that it will take time for her to turn the company around.
Although she has brought stability to the company and even mobile growth over the last three years, investors and analysts are still reluctant to give her more time and even speculating whether she should or will be fired soon.
SunTrust Robinson Humphreys Internet equity analyst Robert Peck said that the investment banking firm had discussions with Yahoo! and investors in addition to people in the tech industry about the situation.
Peck said that he had many conversations with leading industry participants and investors to gage what traits and attributes the company requires and who a strong potential CEO candidate would be, should the company decide that Mayer needs to go.
In the midst of Mayer's rumored termination, two "standout" candidates emerged on the list of top 10 potential candidates for the upcoming Yahoo CEO vacancy. Peck said that the most frequently mentioned were Scout Media chairman Ross Levinsohn, a former Yahoo interim CEO and Chegg CEO Dan Rosenweig, also a former Yahoo! employee, but served as COO.
Peck said, "Most of the people that mentioned their names cited not only their public CEO leadership, media and technology acumen, but also their deep intimacy with Yahoo's inner workings,"
He added further, "Much as Jack Dorsey was seen as uniquely qualified to be Twitter's CEO for his intimate knowledge of Twitter, many point to Mr Levinsohn and Mr. Rosensweig for the same attributes."
As reported by CNN Money, he, along with some investors, lamented that Yahoo!'s current CEO may be managing a sinking ship.
Peck said, "With the recent turnover in top level executives, some have questioned whether the CEO's position is stable."
