Investopedia reports[1]
Marissa Mayer's disappointing reign as CEO of Yahoo (YHOO) is looking pretty rich for her. According to documents filed on [April 24], Mayer will make $186 million once the internet company that she was criticized for running into the ground finally sells its core holdings to Verizon (VZ). The protracted $4.48 billion merger, which was delayed following a number of big security breaches, is expected to be completed in June.
Security filings state that Mayer's Yahoo stock, stock options and restricted stock units are worth up to $186 million, based on Monday's share price of $48.15. That hefty payout, which will come on top of Mayer's regularly salary, bonuses, and stock that she has already sold, will be rewarded to her if Yahoo shareholders vote to sell the company June 8.
[1] They should validate their HTML--especially if they are going to put styling in that. (It's been a long time since I've seen something with anywhere near 388 flagged items.)
(Score: 1) by WillR on Thursday April 27 2017, @12:33PM (6 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 27 2017, @12:40PM (4 children)
You get what you pay for. People paid for shares in Yahoo, and then let the board issue themselves these ridiculous amounts of money.
(Score: 3, Disagree) by GungnirSniper on Thursday April 27 2017, @12:49PM (3 children)
How many of them were the same board that turned down Microsoft's offer?
Yahoo lived half of its existence in fear of Microsoft, but that backward-looking view prevented it from creating the future Google did instead.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 27 2017, @02:40PM
It's filled to the gills with programmers who don't care about what they're building, and with useless business folks who are just scrambling to be the next top dog.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday April 27 2017, @04:00PM (1 child)
By the time Microsoft offered Yahoo $40 Billion, Google had already built the future. It is only in Microsoft's mind that the future had not already happened.
Ballmer failed to understand the power of open source. It may start out small. But it keeps growing and growing. It is not tied to marketing schedules, increasing feature lists. It is only tied to what its developers need. Open source grows and keeps coming. It's like trying to stop the incoming tide with your hands. It may take time for it to come in, but you can't stop it.
Ballmer failed to understand how Moore's Law would affect its business model. Once computers drop from $5,000 to $500, to $50, how will this affect Microsoft's OEM license price of $50 to pre-install a bunch of Microsoft gook?
Ballmer failed to understand the rise of smart phones and mobile devices. He missed the Netbook, but was able to strangle it by resurrecting dead XP and not letting OEMs have XP unless they crippled their Linux netbooks. But Ballmer failed to recognize that decreasing hardware costs would put computers into phones and tablets. Ballmer laughed at the iPhone. And at Android. Then belatedly tried to build a new Windows Phone 7. Then a new but incompatible Windows Phone 8 in order to screw Developers Developers who had invested in Windows Phone 7. Then he was surprised when it didn't sell.
Which brings us to . . .
Ballmer failed to realize that Google had already built the future. Google provided many free internet services. Gmail. Maps. Drive. Docs. Keep. News. And many others. But why and how? Ballmer didn't get it. He laughed at Google for giving it all away. He didn't realize that all these superior free services were the 250 mile wide moat that protected the main castle -- advertising from invaders.
Not realizing that Google had already built the future, Ballmer foolishly offered Yahoo $40 Billion a few years back. It is a pity that this deal didn't go through. It would have drained Microsoft's cash enough to significantly de-fang Microsoft. It also would have been hilarious for years to watch the technical and cultural clash that would result.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday April 27 2017, @06:05PM
Microsoft dodged a bloated Yahoo-sized bullet. And they are by no means losing money [microsoft.com].
Nowadays Microsoft is making a stab at copying Chromebooks and addressing the absolute failure of Windows RT. On the phone front, well... [geekwire.com]
Theoretically, Microsoft could sell their own Android phone packed with Microsoft Skype, Office, etc. Push the phone-dock-to-PC capability which has yet to catch on but could work in an era of flagship smartphones with 6-8 GB of RAM. But the smartphone space is so incredibly saturated, with even Google pushing their own phones.
Microsoft has a good chance to do something exciting on the VR and particularly the AR front, but I don't like the current specs of HoloLens and MS will face a tough fight in the segments from Google, Samsung, Sony, Oculus/Facebook, etc.
Still, Microsoft's future (or present) is bright in spite of all of its failures. They are a turbo-charged AOL, and they have enough money to try to make some more money. Forcibly. By gambling.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday April 27 2017, @01:50PM
186 Million for Jewish Nepotism.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday April 27 2017, @12:48PM (2 children)
Time to move assets from Yahoo. Verislime will not improve matters.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 27 2017, @01:49PM (1 child)
You still on board?
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday April 27 2017, @02:43PM
Wasn't there a billion or so user accounts?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Dunbal on Thursday April 27 2017, @01:00PM (3 children)
Can we replace CEOs with robots already?
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Thursday April 27 2017, @03:23PM (1 child)
Aren't any more purposeful use robots?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Thursday April 27 2017, @04:47PM
You could make it burn $10 bills every minute for power and it would still be cheaper than current CEOs. If you install a simple random number generator that picks between the standard answers on a "Magic 8 Ball" it would be just as useful to a corporation, too.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday April 28 2017, @11:42AM
> Can we replace CEOs with robots already?
you can, but it is not the best idea, we bots basically don't care about meatbags, while the ideal CEOs must actively hate them.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday April 27 2017, @01:26PM (2 children)
I hope her golden parachute turns out to be largely made of heavy gold metal bricks. With the aerodynamic properties of such. A Wile E. Coyote golden anvil of sorts.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 27 2017, @01:59PM (1 child)
But it won't, and we both know that.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday April 27 2017, @04:02PM
You're absolutely right. I know it. But I can dream.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday April 27 2017, @01:52PM (5 children)
sudo mod me up
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday April 27 2017, @02:10PM (4 children)
Her failure was a success -- she successfully dismantled a competitor of Google, where her loyalties lie.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Thursday April 27 2017, @02:55PM
Actually, that might not be a bad idea...
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by kaszz on Thursday April 27 2017, @02:56PM
Carly Fiorina or Stephen Elop class? :p
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Thursday April 27 2017, @05:31PM (1 child)
The initial damage came from within the board by Microsoft's activist, Icahn. He then populated the board with Microsoft's fifth columnists, crippled and removed key divisions, and fired any staff and teams capable of getting Yahoo! back on its feet. After that, whatever Mayer did or didn't do couldn't matter. She was never in a position where she could save the company. And given time and propaganda, people would forget about Icahn slashing the tires. Lately, the revisionists in the Microsoft-beholden media have begun to turn up the heat on the anti-Mayer narrative. Yet the initial destruction was arranged by Icahn, so whatever there is to say about Mayer, don't forget Icahn's role.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday April 28 2017, @01:57AM
Seems Icahn got a position by buying a lot of shares. Question is who provided that money. And now he has this job "Special Advisor to the President on Regulatory Reform". In other news the wolf are guarding the hen house..
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 27 2017, @06:14PM
Back what Mayer came on, everyone was saying Yahoo was worthless without Ali Baba. She created $4.5B worth of value in four years, that's success. She's no Steve Jobs but she earned her money.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 27 2017, @06:24PM
Yeah, mrpg, there are over 330 items in the page's HTML which w3 calls errors.
If you scroll to the bottom of the validator page, however, you'll see that the total count of "flagged items" that are not done to the standard is over 880.
Their coder is very sloppy and doesn't check his work against the standard.
(In my (text-only; no CSS) default presentation, part of the text body is covered up by navigation/promo junk and that made the obviousness of the horrible, unchecked coding jump out at me.)
...but, by either count, their guy is a terrible, careless coder.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 27 2017, @09:16PM (1 child)
Its called a CONTRACT. Get over it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Thursday April 27 2017, @11:07PM
Get over it? No. It's a contract that shouldn't have been made, shouldn't have been offered. The boards, if they aren't hopelessly corrupt and packed with cronies, aren't doing their jobs. The shareholders too are complicit in at the very least not paying attention to and not caring what the board does.
However, small shareholders have been silenced and ignored by various means. Observe how Roger B. Smith ignores Michael Moore in "Roger and Me", if you need evidence. Even a coalition of them all might not be able to muster a 50% majority, and if they could, the bigs could easily split the coalition by buying off enough small voters to knock them below 50%, dangling big carrots in front of them to change sides. There are things that can and should be done to improve the system, but of course the powerful are opposed to anything that dilutes their power. The only real power small shareholders wield is the ability to vote with their feet. Spook them enough, and the rush to the exit will hurt the company's stock value.
Outsized pay for executives is one of the biggest drivers of wealth inequality.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @02:12AM
Marissa Mayer could be my sugar mama!
I think she deserves more money!