7 ms·

I know the CEO vs Employee payout has been discussed time and time again, yet news like these really make my jaw drop. I guess its just as well so no one will f

I know the CEO vs Employee payout has been discussed time and time again, yet news like these really make my jaw drop. I guess its just as well so no one will feel bad not hiring her again for anything, ever.

jacquesm 9y ago
> I guess its just as well so no one will feel bad not hiring her again for anything, ever. Companies will line up to hire her again.
- wolco 9y ago
  I'm not sure there is a big market for the type of ceo that devalues and ultimately distroy a core brand but you never know.
  - mixmastamyk 9y ago
    No one has really succeeded at running Yahoo, since the 90s.
    - sbarre 9y ago
      Exactly.. No one was going to come to Yahoo and 'right the ship' or turn it back into a growing successful company.. The best they could do was give it a graceful exit..
  - briandear 9y ago
    Perhaps she could go to Uber?
  - rocky1138 9y ago
    Let's be fair: Mayer didn't have a real chance at fixing this company and to pin the blame on entirely on her for "destroying a core brand" is disingenuous at best and irrational at worst. I much prefer to go in with the mindset that she tried her best but the situation was unwinnable.
    - wolco 9y ago
      I disagree, many people with a variety of skillsets could have taken over Yahoo at that point and stopped the downfall / changed the culture. Remember under her leadership the email hacking came to light and that did the most to tarnish the brand. The yahoo brand no longer exists. I think if you randomly choose someone on hn they could have at least saved the brand name.
    - opo 9y ago
      >...Let's be fair: Mayer didn't have a real chance at fixing this company As a user, I found almost all of the changes made to sites like I once used (like the main page or flickr, or the finance page) to be worse than before she was there. She did some very bad hires such as Henrique de Castro who in 15 months got over 100 million in salary, stock and severance. She wasted billions on acquisitions that did not add value. The comments from Yahoo employees since she was hired were never very good, and her behavior with employees was said to sometimes be somewhat bizarre (such as reading a children's book at a comm meeting) I agree that she likely never had a real chance at fixing the company, but I don't think that proves that no one couldn't have improved the company.
- skuhn 9y ago
  I personally don't think that she will ever work again. She'll be a board filler at a bunch of places I'm sure, but probably not CEO again. We'll see though.
  - eggbrain 9y ago
    It also depends if she _wants_ to be CEO of a company again, and at what level. For example, let's assume she couldn't become CEO of something near the level of Yahoo again (which I think she still could possibly, although perhaps slim). I still bet you at the lower end that there would be plenty of 5MM-25MM/year revenue companies that would love for her to be CEO, if not for the press and connections she brings to the table. At that level it becomes whether she wants to accept a salary that she probably would make off the interest of her net worth alone.
  - enraged_camel 9y ago
    Why would she want to work after making literally hundreds of millions of dollars? Why would anyone? That's what I don't get about these people. I'm not saying they should retire, but they can still keep their professional connections and a semblance of "work" life by sitting on various boards or doing non-profit stuff, and not actually have to deal with the humongous stresses of C-level work. I mean let's be honest: $186M is enough to last Marrissa's descendants forever and ever. If I were in her position, I would figure out a way to make my exit. It's not like she's the founder of Yahoo so there won't be any emotional or moral attachment.
    - kooshball 9y ago
      >That's what I don't get about these people. The thing is, the reason you think this way is the same reason why you won't be as successful as her. Because by the time you make your 1MM, you won't take these big risks any more. Money was clearly not the issue. She was at Google very early and ended up VP. Clearly she didn't need the money.
      - jacquesm 9y ago
        I didn't see MM take any big risk here. Success -> large payout, failure -> still a large payout. Elon Musk is taking risks.
vaishaksuresh 9y ago
>I guess its just as well so no one will feel bad not hiring her again for anything, ever That seems counterintuitive to me. As a CEO, she was responsible for the company's direction. If Yahoo failed, she is responsible and that should affect her employability or at the very least, her worth to a potential employer right? What makes her deserve a reward instead? I know it is part of her contract and all, but I don't understand why an employer would have such a contract in the first place!
- crispyambulance 9y ago
  Yahoo had been in trouble for a long time before Mayer got in the driver's seat. She got picked. She tried. It didn't work out, but one has to admit it was a long shot for "success" if your idea of "success" is completely turning around a behemoth floundering company. What would it have taken to make Yahoo viable again? I don't know if anyone could have done it. Now the next best thing is a sale and that appears to have been a success of sorts.
  - vaishaksuresh 9y ago
    When ordinary people take a job and fail, even when the job itself is impossible, they don't get rewarded. CEOs shouldn't be treated differently is my point. If it was impossible and the company couldn't be salvaged, there was no compulsion for her to take the driver's seat. If she was hired to sell the company and she accomplished that, then I'm fine with her getting rewarded. If she was hired to turn the company around, but if instead, she drove it to the ground and ultimately sold, then she does not deserve the reward.
    - crispyambulance 9y ago
      I think they just chose the best executive they could find and hoped for the best. Could they have chosen a c-level that would take zero in the event of a sale? Perhaps. But they did not.
    - sjg007 9y ago
      No "good" C level exec would take the job without a guarantee. You can define "good" based on the company's need. Here it was a high profile exec from one of the most profitable Internet companies ever.
jsnathan 9y ago
With this kind of money, she can easily start her own company. Or companies, for that matter.
- sbarre 9y ago
  Maybe a juicer startup?
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    Test 500 shades of fruit juice.
  - alekratz 9y ago
    I like how you think
gunnyguy121 9y ago
With that money I'd never work again
- twothamendment 9y ago
  That was my first thought too. The only exception might be if I get bored and have an idea worth working on. I was thinking a wifi connected device to open a banana? But only the ones that curve to the left. You'll just have to throw out the ones that curve to the right.
  - losteverything 9y ago
    That idea a-peels to me.
  - kirubakaran 9y ago
    > You'll just have to throw out the ones that curve to the right. You'll be missing out on the opportunity to sell a $600 dongle accessory that converts left-curved banana into right-curved ones by rotating them 180 degrees.
- kruhft 9y ago
  With all that money, I'd never have a job again.
FireBeyond 9y ago
"CEO makes bonus, not just salary, equivalent to over a millennium's worth of engineer time." We need headlines like this to highlight such absurdities.
- ksk 9y ago
  What if the CEO is an engineer, as is the case here?
refurb 9y ago
I know people at Yahoo that did really well with stock grants and options. As someone else mentioned, the stock went from $16 to slightly over $40.
rb808 9y ago
She was employee #20 at Google - I'd think if she stayed at Google working as an engineer, her stock from that would be worth more than the ~$200M she earned at Yahoo.
- jonknee 9y ago
  She was at Google for the IPO and also made a bundle there.

jacquesm 9y ago

> I guess its just as well so no one will feel bad not hiring her again for anything, ever. Companies will line up to hire her again.

wolco 9y ago
I'm not sure there is a big market for the type of ceo that devalues and ultimately distroy a core brand but you never know.
- mixmastamyk 9y ago
  No one has really succeeded at running Yahoo, since the 90s.
  - sbarre 9y ago
    Exactly.. No one was going to come to Yahoo and 'right the ship' or turn it back into a growing successful company.. The best they could do was give it a graceful exit..
- briandear 9y ago
  Perhaps she could go to Uber?
- rocky1138 9y ago
  Let's be fair: Mayer didn't have a real chance at fixing this company and to pin the blame on entirely on her for "destroying a core brand" is disingenuous at best and irrational at worst. I much prefer to go in with the mindset that she tried her best but the situation was unwinnable.
  - wolco 9y ago
    I disagree, many people with a variety of skillsets could have taken over Yahoo at that point and stopped the downfall / changed the culture. Remember under her leadership the email hacking came to light and that did the most to tarnish the brand. The yahoo brand no longer exists. I think if you randomly choose someone on hn they could have at least saved the brand name.
  - opo 9y ago
    >...Let's be fair: Mayer didn't have a real chance at fixing this company As a user, I found almost all of the changes made to sites like I once used (like the main page or flickr, or the finance page) to be worse than before she was there. She did some very bad hires such as Henrique de Castro who in 15 months got over 100 million in salary, stock and severance. She wasted billions on acquisitions that did not add value. The comments from Yahoo employees since she was hired were never very good, and her behavior with employees was said to sometimes be somewhat bizarre (such as reading a children's book at a comm meeting) I agree that she likely never had a real chance at fixing the company, but I don't think that proves that no one couldn't have improved the company.
skuhn 9y ago
I personally don't think that she will ever work again. She'll be a board filler at a bunch of places I'm sure, but probably not CEO again. We'll see though.
- eggbrain 9y ago
  It also depends if she _wants_ to be CEO of a company again, and at what level. For example, let's assume she couldn't become CEO of something near the level of Yahoo again (which I think she still could possibly, although perhaps slim). I still bet you at the lower end that there would be plenty of 5MM-25MM/year revenue companies that would love for her to be CEO, if not for the press and connections she brings to the table. At that level it becomes whether she wants to accept a salary that she probably would make off the interest of her net worth alone.
- enraged_camel 9y ago
  Why would she want to work after making literally hundreds of millions of dollars? Why would anyone? That's what I don't get about these people. I'm not saying they should retire, but they can still keep their professional connections and a semblance of "work" life by sitting on various boards or doing non-profit stuff, and not actually have to deal with the humongous stresses of C-level work. I mean let's be honest: $186M is enough to last Marrissa's descendants forever and ever. If I were in her position, I would figure out a way to make my exit. It's not like she's the founder of Yahoo so there won't be any emotional or moral attachment.
  - kooshball 9y ago
    >That's what I don't get about these people. The thing is, the reason you think this way is the same reason why you won't be as successful as her. Because by the time you make your 1MM, you won't take these big risks any more. Money was clearly not the issue. She was at Google very early and ended up VP. Clearly she didn't need the money.
    - jacquesm 9y ago
      I didn't see MM take any big risk here. Success -> large payout, failure -> still a large payout. Elon Musk is taking risks.

vaishaksuresh 9y ago

>I guess its just as well so no one will feel bad not hiring her again for anything, ever That seems counterintuitive to me. As a CEO, she was responsible for the company's direction. If Yahoo failed, she is responsible and that should affect her employability or at the very least, her worth to a potential employer right? What makes her deserve a reward instead? I know it is part of her contract and all, but I don't understand why an employer would have such a contract in the first place!

crispyambulance 9y ago
Yahoo had been in trouble for a long time before Mayer got in the driver's seat. She got picked. She tried. It didn't work out, but one has to admit it was a long shot for "success" if your idea of "success" is completely turning around a behemoth floundering company. What would it have taken to make Yahoo viable again? I don't know if anyone could have done it. Now the next best thing is a sale and that appears to have been a success of sorts.
- vaishaksuresh 9y ago
  When ordinary people take a job and fail, even when the job itself is impossible, they don't get rewarded. CEOs shouldn't be treated differently is my point. If it was impossible and the company couldn't be salvaged, there was no compulsion for her to take the driver's seat. If she was hired to sell the company and she accomplished that, then I'm fine with her getting rewarded. If she was hired to turn the company around, but if instead, she drove it to the ground and ultimately sold, then she does not deserve the reward.
  - crispyambulance 9y ago
    I think they just chose the best executive they could find and hoped for the best. Could they have chosen a c-level that would take zero in the event of a sale? Perhaps. But they did not.
  - sjg007 9y ago
    No "good" C level exec would take the job without a guarantee. You can define "good" based on the company's need. Here it was a high profile exec from one of the most profitable Internet companies ever.

jsnathan 9y ago

With this kind of money, she can easily start her own company. Or companies, for that matter.

sbarre 9y ago
Maybe a juicer startup?
- jacquesm 9y ago
  Test 500 shades of fruit juice.
- alekratz 9y ago
  I like how you think

gunnyguy121 9y ago

With that money I'd never work again

twothamendment 9y ago
That was my first thought too. The only exception might be if I get bored and have an idea worth working on. I was thinking a wifi connected device to open a banana? But only the ones that curve to the left. You'll just have to throw out the ones that curve to the right.
- losteverything 9y ago
  That idea a-peels to me.
- kirubakaran 9y ago
  > You'll just have to throw out the ones that curve to the right. You'll be missing out on the opportunity to sell a $600 dongle accessory that converts left-curved banana into right-curved ones by rotating them 180 degrees.
kruhft 9y ago
With all that money, I'd never have a job again.

FireBeyond 9y ago

"CEO makes bonus, not just salary, equivalent to over a millennium's worth of engineer time." We need headlines like this to highlight such absurdities.

ksk 9y ago
What if the CEO is an engineer, as is the case here?

refurb 9y ago

I know people at Yahoo that did really well with stock grants and options. As someone else mentioned, the stock went from $16 to slightly over $40.

rb808 9y ago

She was employee #20 at Google - I'd think if she stayed at Google working as an engineer, her stock from that would be worth more than the ~$200M she earned at Yahoo.

jonknee 9y ago
She was at Google for the IPO and also made a bundle there.