Yahoo boss to get $30 million payout

Source: News Corp Australia Network:

March 13, 2017 at 18:41

OUTGOING Yahoo boss Marissa Mayer will receive a $30 million ($US23 million) golden parachute, while her replacement will receive double her base salary.

Yahoo board member Thomas McInerney will run a new company called Altaba, comprising Yahoo’s most valuable parts — investments in China’s e-commerce leader, Alibaba Group, and in Yahoo Japan.

Yahoo’s email and other digital services will then become part of Verizon Communications, under a $6.38 billion ($US4.83 billion) deal struck last July.

New details of the deal were revealed in a regulatory filing on Monday, showing Verizon initially thought the biggest data breaches in internet history merited a $1.22 billion ($US925 million) discount on its acquisition.

That amount was nearly three times more than the two companies finally agreed upon.

The filing doesn’t say why Verizon relented on its original demand, issued on February 1. Verizon ultimately accepted Yahoo’s offer to trim the sale price by $462 million ($US350 million) instead.

Following the July deal, the companies reopened talks after Yahoo revealed that personal information had been stolen from more than one billion of its users in two separate hacking attacks in 2013 and 2014.

The discount reflected concerns that people might decrease their use of Yahoo email and other digital services that Verizon is buying, reducing opportunities to show ads.

Verizon Communications is now aiming to complete the revised $5.92 billion ($US4.48 billion) purchase by the end of June.

Although she hasn’t divulged her plans, Mayer isn’t expected to work for Verizon. If she leaves, Mayer will receive a $30 million ($US23 million) severance package, according to Monday’s filing.

The amount is lower than a $58 million ($US44 million) valuation disclosed in September because $28 million ($US21 million) in stock options and other awards have vested in Mayer’s account since then.

Besides her severance package, Mayer will gain control of stock options valued at $75 million ($US56.8 million), according to the filing.

The stock will help ease the sting of a penalty that Mayer is paying for the big data breaches that occurred on her watch. Yahoo’s board is withholding Mayer’s annual bonus of up to $2.6 million ($US2 million) and a potentially lucrative stock award to punish her.

Besides naming McInerney as Altaba’s CEO, Yahoo also filled several other key positions at the new holding company.

Arthur Chong will serve as general counsel and secretary and Alexi Wellman as chief financial and accounting officer. DeAnn Fairfield Work was named chief compliance officer.