Image credit: SarahDepper

People working in most of Silicon Valley companies are cared for by their bosses with giving small perks that makes their work life bearable, and sometimes even fun.  But that’s not the case with Yahoo–they’ve been behind the curve on Valley companies, many of which provide free lunch for employees.  In order to turn things around and draw a silver lining in Yahoo’s grey skies, new CEO Marissa Mayer is bringing something from Google to Yahoo: free food!

Before, Mayer’s arrival, Yahoo employees only had free coffee, but Mayer recently announced that food at Yahoo’s URL Cafe will be free- quite similar to Google.  Though some may think that free food is just a small perk, that’s not the case for Yahoo employees.  Who turns down free grub?

Aside from free food, Mayer is also bringing other Googley stuff to Yahoo like a weekly Friday afternoon all-hands meeting which was already implemented last week, and changes will be made in Yahoo offices to make it more conducive for collaboration amongst co-workers.  The redesigning of cubicles and their HQ is aimed to makes things cooler and more fun.

Sources are also saying that Yahoo is going back to their roots and will be focusing on platforms and products.

Mayer is also said to be carefully studying the company’s organizational chart, indicating that there will be a company restructuring.  Sources say that Ross Levinsohn, the interim CEO who was passed for the position, will be leaving the company soon, which begs the question, “What will happen to Michael Barrett?”  Will he get sacked since Levinsohn was the one who hired him or will he keep the position as Yahoo’s Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer.  If Barrett gets to keep his job, could this possibly mean that Mayer will be hiring more Google execs?  That’s possible, since she seems to be turning Yahoo into Google, one step at a time.

Acquisitions in the pipeline?

Another thing that Mayer is said to be prepping for is an acquisition.  Yahoo need to become relevant again so a good acquisition may just boost their image.  AllThingsD suggests that advertising company Pubmatic would be great for their Yahoo’s ad strategy whilst Flipboard, the social magazine will be great as a product add-on and will have a positive effect on their mobile presence.  Yahoo’s most recent acquisitions involves Spreets, the Australian group buying site, and IntoNow, which merges social, news and TV viewing experience.

Yahoo hasn’t commented on the changes made in the company or changes to come.  Guess we’ll just have to wait for their official announcements and brace ourselves as we watch how Yahoo is slowly transforming into a new company.