What Is Yahoo? New 10-K, New Twist

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It's a sign of the times at Yahoo: In its latest 10-K, the company has stopped referring to itself as "a premier digital media company."

The new wording: Yahoo is "a global technology company focused on making the world's daily habits inspiring and entertaining."

It's an interesting twist on the "What is Yahoo?" question that has tripped up many recent CEOs. It is also further evidence that current CEO Marissa Mayer is intent on remaking the company as a technology company that specializes in media, not a media company that gets efficiency through technology. The new buzzwords in Yahoo's 10-K "Overview" section: "personalized," "habits" and "targeted."

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Here's more of the new language describing what Yahoo is, and how it thinks it can gain an advantage over the competition:

"Yahoo!'s competitive advantage centers on the fact that we make people's daily digital habits more entertaining—this includes daily activities like communicating, searching, reading and sharing information. We believe our principal competitive strengths include the usefulness, accessibility, integration, and personalization of the online services that we offer; the quality, personalization, and presentation of our search results; and the overall user experience on our leading premium content properties and other Yahoo! Properties."

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In this year's 10-K, Yahoo says it had 11,700 employees at the end of 2012, down 17 percent from 14,100 at the end of 2011.

—By CNBC's Jon Fortt; Follow him on Twitter: @jonfortt

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