Washington - Think you've had a crazy week? Imagine how Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer must feel.
Mayer said that she has given birth to healthy twin girls. That came just one day after her company told the world that it would abandon a key part of her turnaround plan for the struggling firm and consider spinning off Yahoo's core business.
This is the second time that Mayer's had to juggle important personal and professional news. When she initially accepted the top job at Yahoo in July 2012, Mayer was in her third trimester. After giving birth to her son that September, she sparked controversy by taking only a few weeks of maternity leave.
With Yahoo again at a crucial transition point, Mayer has said she will take “limited leave” following the birth of her daughters and will again work throughout her time outside the office.
The questions swirling around the company's future - Yahoo's board said on Wednesday that it had scrapped the idea of spinning off its stake in Alibaba Group and will examine a “reverse spinoff” of its other businesses instead - have also focused attention on how much Mayer could make if she and the struggling Internet pioneer end up someday parting ways.
Mayer was not only the highest paid female chief executive last year. She was also one of the best-paid CEOs overall. Depending on which ranking you check, her $42.1-million in 2014 compensation notched her as the 23rd, the 14th or even the fifth most highly paid CEO of a major US company.
While headlines and social media have buzzed this week with the figure of $157.9-million for a potential Mayer payoff in the event of her departure, that giant amount seems unlikely.
In Yahoo's most recent proxy statement, the company indeed estimates the potential value of Mayer's “change-in-control severance benefits,” as of December 31, 2014, at $157.9-million. That's the value of what Mayer's package was estimated to be if she was terminated without cause and if there was a “change-in-control” of the company, such as a sale or merger. (In a conference call with investors, Yahoo chairman Maynard Webb cautioned that there had been “no determination by the board to sell the company or any part of it” and he said the board had “complete confidence” in Yahoo's management team.)
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Washington Post