Roughly 700 million users visit a Yahoo website every month - putting it in the top ranks globally. But the amount of activity people engage in on many sites is steadily declining, and its smartphone offerings are deemed lackluster.
"The largest change is to be deadly serious about mobile," said a former Yahoo manager who remains in touch with people at the company.
To count Yahoo out would be an enormous mistake.
Yahoo faces tough competition from Facebook and Google, two companies that have taken consumers' time, engineering talent and market value from Yahoo. They are also trying to make the transition to mobile, but it has been difficult.
Some say the direction signaled by Mayer is not so different than strategies espoused by previous CEOs that Yahoo has consistently struggled to implement.
A fragmented culture in which short-term finances usually trump product plans is to blame, according to those who know the company.
The recent departure of CFO Tim Morse could signal a change in approach, said several former Yahoo employees.
Morse was considered the force behind Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group and Yahoo's $7.6 billion deal over the summer, which saw Yahoo sell about half of its 40 percent stake in Alibaba after years of wrangling over terms.
But now Yahoo's Asian partners, including Yahoo Japan Corp, are not on the front burner for Mayer, one source familiar with the situation said.
Whether Wall Street has the patience for yet another Yahoo revival plan remains to be seen.
"Every CEO needs time to have their full vision articulated and understood," said Dan Rosensweig, a former Yahoo chief operating officer, who now serves as CEO of online textbook rental company Chegg.com.
"To count Yahoo out would be an enormous mistake, because the users have not counted Yahoo out.
"It's not like MySpace, where all the users went away," he added.
