Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer to receive $23m parachute package if company fires her

Marissa Mayer will net $23m (£19m), should she be dismissed upon completion of Verizons acquisition of Yahoo, despite Yahoo’s recent mishaps.

A recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing reveals that the Yahoo CEO is set to receive $3m in cash and a further $20m in stock as part of a ‘golden parachute’ payment, if her contract is terminated ‘without cause’.

Mayer, who joined Yahoo from Google in 2012, announced her intentions to stay last year – though a lot has changed at Yahoo since then.

“I’m incredibly proud of everything that we’ve achieved, and I’m incredibly proud of our team. For me personally, I’m planning to stay,” Mayer wrote in a blog post to staff, after the deal was originally announced. “I love Yahoo, and I believe in all of you. It’s important to me to see Yahoo into its next chapter.”

Yahoo agreed the sale of its core internet business for a reduced price of $4.48bn to Verizon last month. The $350m price reduction came as a result of the two large-scale data breaches suffered by Yahoo in 2013 and 2014 respectively, which only came to light in the last six months.

What remains of Yahoo will be renamed Altaba – representing the 15 per cent stake it has in Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba.

Yahoo CRO Lisa Utzschneider can expect to receive $16.5m and CFO Ken Goldman $9.5m, should their contracts also be terminated.