SUMMARY

• Mayer admits to leading the $1.1 billion Tumblr acquisition, which tanked
• Yahoo missed out on buying Netflix or Hulu, both now worth billions
• The former CEO shares other regrets, like hiring the wrong COO and not doing a tax-free Alibaba spinoff

Marissa Mayer, the ex-boss of Yahoo, got real with us this week about her biggest boo-boos as CEO. Like, remember when Yahoo shelled out a cool $1.1 billion for Tumblr back in 2013? Yeah, Mayer totally led that charge, and it turned out to be a total facepalm. Just three years later, Yahoo had to admit that Tumblr was worth a whopping $700 million less. Ouch.

But wait, there's more! Mayer dished out that Yahoo could've had Netflix or Hulu in the bag. They were priced at $4 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively, and either would've been a way better choice. I mean, Netflix is now worth a jaw-dropping $140 billion, and Hulu is happily nestled under Disney's wing.

Speaking of Netflix, Blockbuster execs must be cringing even harder. In 2000, Netflix's cofounders tried to sell their little DVD rental startup to Blockbuster for a measly $50 million. And guess what? They got laughed out of the room! Fast-forward to now, and Netflix is crushing it, while Blockbuster is...wait, where'd they go?

Today, Marissa Mayer is all about that A.I. life with her new startup, Sunshine. It's an app that uses artificial intelligence to organize your contacts, solving those everyday problems you never knew you had. She even joked about calling the company "Mundane AI." Classic Mayer.

She didn't stop there, though. She 'fessed up to hiring the wrong COO and not doing the tax-free Alibaba spinoff that could've saved Yahoo a casual $10 billion. Sadly, Yahoo is now cutting around 1,000 jobs and planning more layoffs later this year.

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