Marissa Mayer has hit out at sexist coverage of her leadership at Yahoo, as she agreed to sell the bulk of the internet pioneer’s assets to Verizon for $4.8bn cash, ending the independence of the star of the 1990s dotcom boom. Speaking after announcing a deal that will bring the company set up 22 years ago by Jerry Yang and David Filo under the same roof as fellow internet pioneer AOL, Ms Mayer decried reporting about her that focused on her gender. “I’ve tried to be gender blind and believe tech is a gender neutral zone but do think there has been gender-charged reporting,” she told the Financial Times. “We all see the things that only plague women leaders, like articles that focus on their appearance, like Hillary Clinton sporting a new pantsuit. I think all women are aware of that, but I had hoped in 2015 and 2016 that I would see fewer articles like that. It’s a shame.” Ms Mayer, who has been repeatedly criticised by analysts for making a series of bad acquisitions and poor hires, will stay at Yahoo until the deal closes, but is unlikely to join Verizon, according to people familiar with the matter. After she said in a post on the company’s Tumblr page that she planned to stay “to see Yahoo into its next chapter”, she admitted that it was unclear what would happen once the deal closes early next year. “[Tim Armstrong] will be leading the integration on their side and I will be doing it on my side and the question is what happens post close,” she told the FT. Ms Mayer, who joined Yahoo four years ago from Google with the promise of reviving the historic brand, could receive $55m in cash and stock if she is removed as chief executive within a year of the sale. Under the deal, Verizon will buy Yahoo’s core internet operations, while Yahoo will retain its cash, its stake in Chinese ecommerce group Alibaba, its shares in Yahoo Japan, its convertible notes, certain minority investments, and its “Excalibur” portfolio of non-core patents. Yahoo’s core business has been shrinking as advertisers turn to Google and Facebook to spend their digital dollars. The market value of Yahoo has dropped from its January 2000 peak of $125bn to about $37bn on Monday. Most of the company’s value is linked to its 15 per cent stake in Alibaba. Investors had relied on Ms Mayer’s experience as a former Google executive and product expert to deliver new digital marketing and advertising opportunities through mobile, video and social media. Despite her attempts to boost growth, the company continued to struggle to find its way. Revenue from these areas dropped in the second quarter and Yahoo was forced to take a further writedown on Ms Mayer’s largest acquisition, the $1bn for blogging site Tumblr. Yahoo shares have risen nearly 150 per cent since Ms Mayer took over as chief executive, however, most of the increase has been attributed to growth of the Alibaba stake. As one of Silicon Valley’s most high-profile female chief executives, media attention around Ms Mayer has often focused not only on her work. Five months pregnant when she was appointed chief executive of Yahoo, Ms Mayer took only two weeks of maternity leave, prompting debate about the example this set for other mothers taking leave. Shares in Yahoo were about 2.5 per cent lower at about $38.40 in after the deal was announced on Monday. Verizon shares lost about 0.7 per cent to $55.70.