Ex-Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is 'looking forward to going back to Gmail'

Following Verizon's $4.48bn (£3.8bn) acquisition of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer resigned as CEO of Yahoo on Tuesday (13 June) after running the company for nearly five years. Discussing her post-Yahoo life at a conference in London less than 24 hours later, Mayer reportedly said that she was "looking forward to using Gmail again", according to tweets from the conference.

Speaking at the AccelerateHER forum, Mayer said she is "always faster when using a tool I designed myself", The Verge reports.

Prior to Yahoo, Mayer worked at Google for 13 years after she was hired straight out of Stanford University as the tech giant's 20th employee. She worked as the vice president of location and search and managed many of its products including search, Gmail, Google's news feature and Google Doodles before moving to Yahoo in 2012.

She later took to Twitter to clarify her statement saying her words were taken out of context and said she will continue to use Yahoo Mail too.

"This out-of-context comment was about Gmail's design and how it has evolved since my work in the early days," Mayer tweeted. "I will continue to use the excellent Yahoo Mail too. The team's hard work paid off with a dramatically better product."

Mayer left Yahoo with an estimated $23m severance package. In an open letter to Yahoo employees on her Tumblr page, Mayer said: "It's been my great honour and privilege to be a part of this team for the last 5 years. Together, we have rebuilt, reinvented, strengthened, and modernized our products, our business, and our company."

She also mentioned Yahoo's achievements over the years, addressed its users, advertisers, shareholders and employees.

"I want to sincerely thank every single Yahoo employee, past and present, for your contributions both large and small,"she wrote. "I'm tremendously grateful for all of the hard work and the many sacrifices you've made. We always endeavored to do the right thing for our users, advertisers, shareholders, and fellow Yahoos.

"This has required the most impressive displays of teamwork, innovation, and resilience I've ever seen, and working with you has made my time as CEO nothing short of a privilege."