Yahoo Set to Pass Twitter in U.S. Mobile Ads After Mayer Revamp

Yahoo! Inc. is poised to surpass Twitter Inc. next year to become the third-biggest company in U.S. mobile advertising, bolstering a key part of Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer’s turnaround effort.

Underlying the market-share increase is a meeting that Mayer held in early 2013 at a graffiti-decorated conference room at Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, California, headquarters.

There, the CEO challenged a team of employees to create a new ad feature that would run across mobile devices and desktop personal computers - - and gave them 45 days to complete it.

The group, called “Moneyball” after the book about the scrappy Oakland Athletics baseball team, responded by delivering the new service in 43 days.

The technology laid the groundwork for the effort that’s helping to drive Yahoo’s growth in digital promotions on smartphones and tablets. 

Read more: “We’ve invested deeply in mobile, and those investments are paying off,” Mayer said on a call with analysts in October.