Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has baby boy

By Jeremy C. Owens, San Jose Mercury News

Oct. 01-Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer delivered her first child Sunday night, according to a tweet from her husband Zach Bogue, and the new mother and her baby boy were resting comfortably Monday morning.

Bogue, a well-known Internet investor, did not reveal any other information regarding the new child. A Yahoo spokesperson confirmed the birth to MarketWatch, saying, “Both Marissa and baby are healthy and the family is very excited.”

Mayer revealed she was pregnant and due in October after her surprising hire by the Sunnyvale Internet company in July. Mayer left Mountain View search giant Google (GOOG) — where she was the first female engineer and employee No. 20 — to take the CEO gig, despite Yahoo’s difficulties in keeping up with her former employer and Facebook.

Mayer, 37, plans to take just “a few weeks” of working maternity leave, according to an interview she gave Fortune magazine revealing her pregnancy in July. The Yahoo spokesperson who talked to MarketWatch confirmed that Mayer would be “working remotely and is

planning to return to the office as soon as possible, likely in one to two weeks.”

The couple hadn’t named the boy as of early Monday. Mayer took some time out early Monday to send out an email to some of her friends and colleagues soliciting suggestions for a name.

“She’s crowdsourcing suggestions for Baby Boy Bogue’s name!” tweeted New York University journalism professor and blogger Jeff Jarvis, one of the recipients of Mayer’s group email “How digital can you get?”

Mayer delivered her son less than a week after leading an all-hands meeting at Yahoo, describing her vision of the company’s future to its 14,000 workers. While Yahoo did not officially release any details, employees told various media outlets that Mayer plans to increase users, grow ad revenue, hire or acquire talented people and be a major player on mobile devices by 2015.

Several sources reported that she has defined the company as one that “excels at personalization across content and ads.”

Many of Yahoo’s workers have heard plans from several CEOs: Mayer became the fifth person to run Yahoo in less than a year when she took over last summer. After firing Carol Bartz in September 2011, the Yahoo board appointed then-CFO Tim Morse as interim CEO, replacing him permanently in January with PayPal President Scott Thompson.

After investor Daniel Loeb, founder of Third Point hedge fund, revealed that Thompson had a false college degree on his resume and official Yahoo bio, Thompson stepped down and was replaced on an interim basis by Ross Levinsohn, a prime candidate for the permanent position. However, Mayer was chosen, and both Levinsohn and Morse have now departed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/mercbizbreak.

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