As board weighs in, bell tolls for Yahoo chief

The next big fight could soon be coming to Yahoo's boardroom.

And this time it could mean the end of the line for Marissa Mayer's tenure as Yahoo's CEO.

Over the last few weeks, the news surrounding Yahoo has been bad.

On Wednesday, SunTrust analyst Bob Peck wrote about a doomsday scenario for the company's taxfree Alibaba spin-off in which Yahoo actually loses money.

On Thursday, activist hedge fund Starboard Value wrote a letter to the Yahoo's board arguing that it shouldn't pursue its planned spinoff of a 15% stake in Alibaba but should instead spin out the company's core business.

Starboard's argument is that Ya hoo's spin-off is simply too risky and no longer has shareholder support. As a result, Starboard believes Yahoo must change its strategic direction. In a conversation Friday morning, Peck said that indications from the letter are pretty clear: Starboard will seek some sort of board representation, or perhaps nominate an entirely new slate of directors, if the board remains unresponsive to their suggestions.