Yahoo boss’ $US23m payout makes Spark MD cringe
And former Spark exec Chris Quin calls the US company "dishonest."
Hot Topic
Hawke’s Bay
Simon Moutter had an angry reaction to news that Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer will get a $US23 million golden handshake as her company is sold to Verizon.
“This makes me cringe after the years of hell Yahoo has put our company and our customers through,” the Spark managing director posted to Twitter last night.
Former Spark executive Chris Quin also weighed in, calling Yahoo "dishonest".
To which many Spark customers would probably reply: “So why didn’t you bail out years ago?” after so many instances Yahoo Xtra Mail spam, hacking, privacy breaches and outages.
Spark started transitioning several hundred thousand users of its web mail service from Yahoo to the Sam Morgan-backed, Auckland-based SMX in the New Year. It says the process should be finished some time in April.
At times, it has tied up 100 staff, the company says.
Ms Mayer presided over years of losses, a series of failed restructures, aimless strategy and after taking the reins at Yahoo in 2012.
The fallout from the latest data breach scandal alone has seen $US350 million knocked off Yahoo’s (already fire-sale) price to Verizon. Let alone the decision to re-name the rump of Yahoo “Altaba.”
And what of Yahoo co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo, who presided over the company’s glory days of surging share price and profit?
An SEC regulatory filing shows Mr Yang receiving nothing (arguably valid, given his opposition to a proposed Microsoft buy-out costs shareholders billions); Mr Filo gets $US15,000 plus two years’ health insurance.
Chris Keall
Wed, 15 Mar 2017
Wed, 15 Mar 2017
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
Yahoo boss’ $US23m payout makes Spark MD cringe
65596