Yahoo's Marissa Mayer to Make $186 Million From Verizon Deal
April 25 2017 - 03:30AM
Dow Jones News
By Deepa Seetharaman
Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Marissa Mayer is set to make some
$186 million as a result of the internet company's sale of its core
business to Verizon Communications Inc., according to securities
filings.
The hefty pay out comes despite Ms. Mayer's inability to
accomplish what she was hired to do five years ago: revitalize the
fading internet icon following its struggles with high employee and
executive turnover and declines in ad revenue.
Instead, Yahoo sold its business--not including some assets like
its stakes in other internet companies--to Verizon last year for
$4.5 billion. That deal is expected to close in June, after months
of delays following Yahoo's disclosure of two massive security
breaches.
Yahoo shareholders will vote on the deal during a special
meeting on June 8, according to a securities filing published
Monday. The measure is expected to pass. As part of their severance
package, Ms. Mayer and other top Yahoo executives are eligible for
accelerated vesting of all stock options, restricted-stock units,
and other equity-based awards outstanding when the deal closes,
according to the filing.
For Ms. Mayer, that includes stock options valued at more than
$84 million and restricted-stock units worth about $25 million at
the current share price of $48.15. She also holds about 1.6 million
Yahoo shares, worth nearly $77 million. Together, those amounts are
worth $186 million at the current share price, according to the
information in the filing. The figure doesn't include salary, bonus
or options she has already exercised.
The total payout figure is far larger than the golden parachute
of $23 million Yahoo said last month that Ms. Mayer would receive
as part of her planned departure from what's left of the company
after the sale to Verizon. Yahoo also said then that Ms. Mayer held
nearly 2.9 million stock options valued at $56.8 million as of
early March.
Supporters and critics alike say Ms. Mayer took on a steep
challenge with Yahoo, but her managerial mistakes, including not
cutting costs quickly enough, complicated the already tricky
turnaround.
Verizon initially agreed last July to buy Yahoo's business for
$4.83 billion. Then Yahoo disclosed two large security breaches,
one in 2014 that hit more than 500 million accounts and another in
2013 that affected more than 1 billion accounts.
The security incidents forced Yahoo back to the negotiating
table, and the two companies said in February they had agreed to
knock off $350 million off the price.
In March, Yahoo's board of directors said Ms. Mayer wouldn't
receive her 2016 cash bonus or 2017 equity awards after a board
investigation found that she and other senior executives failed to
"properly comprehend or investigate" the 2014 breach.
Last month, U.S. officials indicted four Russians, including two
Russian spies, in the 2014 hack.
Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 25, 2017 03:15 ET (07:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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