Just over a year and a half after Marissa Mayer accepted her gig as CEO of Yahoo–for which she was heralded, essentially, as a savior of the aging tech titan–the honeymoon period is over: Yahoo’s fourth-quarter revenue was down, its ad sales are struggling, and its No. 2 executive, Henrique de Castro, was fired by Mayer last month after just over a year on the job.
But it’s not too late to turn things around. For all its challenges, Yahoo remains one of the most powerful forces in tech. Every month, some 800 million people use its diverse online services, which include media, email and search. It helps, too, that Yahoo owns about 24% of Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba (considered likely to hold an IPO soon), giving Mayer a decent financial cushion.
Moreover, analysts say recent acquisitions–Tumblr, news-summary app Summly, mobile-video app Qwiki and talent like Katie Couric–have given Mayer, a member of the 2013 Time 100, the tools she needs to pursue new revenue streams and reinvent the Yahoo brand. “I have a feeling she likes a challenge,” says Susan Bidel, a senior analyst at Forrester.
What could that challenge entail? Time spoke with industry experts, who suggested key stops on Yahoo’s path to success.
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Write to Noah Rayman at noah.rayman@time.com