Yahoo's Marissa Mayer is up for a $23-million 'golden parachute' severance package - Los Angeles Times
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Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer is up for a $23-million ‘golden parachute’ severance package

Verizon Communications Inc. is in the process of buying Yahoo’s digital services. (March 13, 2017)

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Yahoo Inc. chief Marissa Mayer is up for a $23-million severance package, the company said Monday in regulatory filings that also named the top executives who will lead what’s left of the company after its digital services are sold to Verizon Communications Inc. and disclosed new details about negotiations with Verizon.

Mayer, Yahoo’s chief executive and president, is to stay at the company until the $4.48-billion Verizon deal closes. That’s expected to happen by the end of June.

According to the filing, Mayer will receive a severance package worth about $23 million if her job is terminated within a year of the sale. The package comprises just above $3 million in cash, equity that as of March 8 was worth nearly $20 million, and benefits worth nearly $25,000.

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The figure is lower than the $44-million valuation disclosed in September because $21 million in stock options and other awards have vested in Mayer’s account since then.

Verizon agreed to buy Yahoo’s online business after a long slump at the Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet company, but the deal was later jeopardized after Yahoo disclosed major computer hacking attacks that compromised the personal information of more than 1 billion users. The breaches were the two biggest in Internet history.

Verizon demanded a $925-million discount on the deal to help offset damage from the breaches, a regulatory filing revealed Monday. The telecommunications company ultimately settled on a $350-million concession.

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The filing doesn’t say why Verizon accepted the lower figure, which was previously announced.

Yahoo recently said it won’t be paying Mayer’s annual bonus or giving her a potentially lucrative stock award because an investigation concluded her management team reacted too slowly to one breach discovered in 2014.

Also on Monday, Yahoo said in a regulatory filing that Thomas McInerney will be CEO of the company that’s left over when the deal closes, which is to be called Altaba Inc. McInerney has been on Yahoo’s board since April 2012 and has worked at IAC/InterActiveCorp and Ticketmaster.

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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.

Yahoo shares rose 1.3% Monday to close at $46.57.

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UPDATES:

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2 p.m.: This article was updated with Yahoo shares’ closing price.

11:40 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details from the filings.

This article was originally published at 9:55 a.m.

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