The financial fall from grace for Yahoo will sting a lot less for CEO Marissa Mayer if its $4.48 billion deal with Verizon is finalized.
A severance package of $23 million awaits Mrs. Mayer if the company is successfully restructured under Verizon as Altaba. The deal was made public in company filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
Still ahead for Verizon will be dealing with class-action lawsuits prompted by Yahoo data breaches of more than 1 billion user accounts. The 2013 and 2014 cyberattacks, which Yahoo blamed on state actors, cut the value of its merger by $350 billion.
Also disclosed Monday was the decision to name Thomas McInerney, the former chief financial officer at IAC, as Mrs. Mayer’s replacement, Fortune magazine reported.
“We continue to be very excited to join forces with Verizon and AOL,” Mrs. Mayer said in a Feb. 21 press release. “This transaction will accelerate Yahoo’s operating business especially on mobile, while effectively separating our Asian asset equity stakes. It is an important step to unlock shareholder value for Yahoo, and we can now move forward with confidence and certainty. We have a terrific, loyal, experienced team at Yahoo. I’m incredibly proud of our team’s strong product and financial execution in 2016, setting the stage for a successful integration.”
Yahoo, which launched in 1995, was worth over $100 billion prior to the technology bubble bursting in 2000.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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