If you invested in Yahoo the day before Marissa Mayer was announced as the new CEO you’re probably pretty happy right now. The price has climbed from $15.36 per share on July 15, 2012 to close at $26.58 today – a 73% gain. For long suffering employees with underwater stock options and shareholders waiting for the price to move this undoubtedly comes as a welcome change.
Yahoo’s stock price is now at it’s highest since May 2008 thanks to a steady stream of acquisitions including the purchase of the Tumblr blogging service for $1.1B today, policy changes and other positive PR for the company. While this is still a far cry from the 10 year high in late 2005, or peak price of over $100/share in 2000 prior to the dot-com crash, Mayer has done more to move the needle in her 10 month tenure than the 4 predecessors who came after Jerry Yang’s departure in 2009.
Scroll down to see Yahoo vs. Google stock price growth comparison for the past year.
Google vs. Yahoo Stock Price Growth – 1 Year Comparison
HT: Hacker News, Images via Google Finance
Speaking as a former employee whose 2005 options were priced at $40, I think it’s not entirely unfair of me to say: meh.
From your angle Danielle, it does look like a good investment. However Yahoo is still not out of trouble yet. Marissa has been a big morale booster for them and she has lots left to do.