SAN FRANCISCO: The axing this week of Yahoo’s second-in-command sent a signal that reality is setting in for Silicon Valley sweetheart Marissa Mayer, who leads the struggling Internet pioneer.

Hearts soared when Mayer was wooed away from rival Google in July of 2012 to become the seventh chief of Yahoo in five years.

The cultured, stylish and smart veteran engineer promised to bring some of the Internet giant’s money-making magic with her in the move from the Googleplex in Mountain View to the Yahoo campus in Sunnyvale.

While Mayer had become a high-ranking Google executive, the Yahoo post was her first time as chief executive.

Yahoo’s floundering share price climbed with hopes Mayer would succeed where others failed in re-inventing the once flourishing Internet search firm left to wither in Google’s shadow. One of her first big moves was to hand-pick a lieutenant to serve as chief operating officer, who makes sure the Yahoo team effectively hits goals set by Mayer.

But Mayer jettisoned her second-in-command this week, notifying US regulators in a filing. Chief operating officer Henrique de Castro walked away with a $20 million dollar stock award and other compensation after just 15 months on the job.

“To admit you are wrong is not easy for anyone to do, and something with the magnitude and cost of this mistake had to be a serious soul-searching event for Marissa,” said Creative Strategies analyst Tim Bajarin.

“But her fiduciary responsibility is to only have people in the company who are moving the company forward, and if de Castro was not in step she did not have a choice.”

Mayer and de Castro worked together at Google, and she hired him away from the rival with the aim of having him boost Yahoo’s sinking ad revenue.

Yahoo ad revenue continued to sag, and de Castro’s dismissal has financial analysts wondering whether the company will disappoint in a quarterly earnings report due out January 28.—AFP