* Mayer’s salary set at $1 million annually
* $42 million in stock options and other awards
* $14 million in “make whole restricted options”
* Yahoo spokeswoman says Mayer can earn up to $100 mln
By Alexei Oreskovic and Peter Lauria
July 19 (Reuters) – New Yahoo Chief Executive
Marissa Mayer’s compensation package could total more than $70
million in salary, bonuses, restricted stock and stock options
over five years, according to a regulatory filing made by the
company Thursday.
Mayer’s pay package is made up of $1 million in annual
salary, as much as $2 million in an annual bonus, and $42
million in stock options and other awards, as well as $14
million in “make whole restricted options” for forfeiture of
compensation from Google Inc.
Also, by including some stock grants, Mayer could earn up to
a total of $20 million a year, or up to $100 million over five
years, a Yahoo spokeswoman told Reuters.
As the first female Google engineer and one of its earliest
employees, Mayer’s net worth is already estimated to be as much
as $300 million.
Yahoo’s hiring of Mayer as CEO from Google earlier this week
caught analysts and investors by surprise. Mayer, 37, edged out
presumed front-runner and acting CEO Ross Levinsohn to become
Yahoo’s third CEO in a year.
Industry observers believe Mayer’s selection over Levinsohn
is a signal that Yahoo is likely to renew its focus on Web
technology and products rather than beefing up online content.
Her appointment caps a tumultuous year at Yahoo. In May,
Scott Thompson resigned as CEO after less than 6 months in the
job after a controversy over his academic credentials. Thompson
replaced the controversial Carol Bartz, who was fired in
September after failing to revitalize Yahoo.
Thompson’s total compensation at hire was valued at $27
million. He got no severance but was able to keep the $7 million
in compensation he got for leaving Paypal. Bartz got more than
$10 million in severance when she was fired last year.
NEW BROOM
A self-described “geek” with a master’s degree in computer
science from Stanford, Mayer started as CEO on Tuesday, the same
day Yahoo announced weak financial results, with flat net
revenue and a slight decline in second-quarter profit.
Alhough she was on the company’s sprawling Sunnyvale, Calif,
campus, she did not participate in its earnings call. Levinsohn
was also absent from the call, which was led by Yahoo’s Chief
Financial Officer Tim Morse.
Mayer joins Yahoo as something of a celebrity, having
already established herself as one of Silicon Valley’s leading
women, both inside and outside of the office. She is known for
her love of fashion and regularly appears on the society pages
for hosting parties.
In 2009 she married real estate investor Zachary Bogue
–Mayer tweeted that the couple expects their first child, a
boy, in October.
Despite its leadership upheaval, Yahoo remains one of the
world’s most popular websites, with more than 700 million
monthly visitors, according to the company.
But revenue growth has stalled amid an industry wide decline
in online display advertising prices and competition from
Facebook Inc and Google.
