Ex-Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer regrets not buying Netflix or Hulu

In a recent interview, former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer expressed that, given another opportunity, she would have acquired Netflix or Hulu during her tenure.

During a conversation with Tech Brew, Mayer revealed her three major regrets from her time at Yahoo. These include the inability to spin off Alibaba holdings in a tax-free manner, which would have saved up to $10 billion in expenses. Another regret was hiring then-Google advertising sales chief Henrique De Castro as COO, which led to disappointing advertising performance at Yahoo.

Furthermore, Mayer admits that acquiring the then-popular Tumblr for $1.1 billion in cash in May 2013 was not the best decision. Instead, she should have considered acquiring Netflix, which had a market value of only $4 billion at the time, or Hulu, with a market value of around $1.3 billion. Such a move would have allowed Yahoo to enter the streaming video market, possibly leading to a different trajectory for the company.

As for Tumblr, Yahoo wrote down its value by $712 million in 2016, even predicting a decline in its operational performance and a reduction in future cash flows.

Marissa Mayer left Yahoo after the company was acquired by American telecommunications provider Verizon for $44.8 billion in 2017, merging it with AOL. Currently, Mayer serves as a co-founder of the startup Sunshine Contacts, promoting services and products that utilize artificial intelligence to foster professional relationships.