Think you’ve had a insane week?
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Silicon Valley’s highest-flying female tech boss has given birth to identical twin girls, having said she would be “working throughout” her limited maternity leave.
Imagine how Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer must feel.
On Wednesday, Yahoo announced it was scrapping plans to spin off its stake in Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba and would instead place its core internet business in a holding company.
This is the second time that Mayer’s had to juggle important personal and professional news.
Yahoo, for its part, is generous to new moms, giving a maternity leave that can be as long as 16 weeks.
That put Mayer’s private decision at the center of a very public debate. On the same call, Mayer said that separating the Alibaba investment from the rest of the company will provide more transparency into the value of the business.
This time around, Mayer’s in a trickier professional position.
“Zack and I are excited to announce that our identical twin girls were born early this morning”, Mayer tweeted, referring to her husband, investor Zachary Bogue.
Yahoo disclosed in September that the Internal Revenue Service denied its request for a favorable ruling of the Alibaba plan, but said it would move forward with the proposed spinoff anyway, taking the risk that the IRS could challenge it in a future audit and putting shareholders liable for billions of dollars in taxes.
As with that birth, Mayer says that she will take two weeks off before returning to work.
Mayer has had a nursery installed close to her desk so she could work and help to take care of her child easily while she was at work.
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“In addition to our efforts to increase value and diminish uncertainty for investors, the ultimate separation of our Alibaba stake will be important to our continued business transformation”, CEO Marissa Mayer said in a statement.
