
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Compensation Soars 69 Percent to $42.1M - jkestner
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/yahoo-ceo-marissa-mayer-compensation-889087
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ryporter
It's important to note that Yahoo's board did not give her a 69% raise this
year or decide that her performance over the last year was worth more than
$42M. This is the compensation she agreed to as part of contract when she
joined as CEO.

Ever year we see a multitude of articles highlighting CEOs of poorly
performing companies who had a huge increase in compensation, but they
completely miss the point. There is no "news" here, per se. It's just like a
professional sports player who signs a very large, guaranteed 5-year deal. It
doesn't really matter if the payments each year are equal or if they are
backloaded so that the player gets a huge "raise" in his final years. Just
take the total size of the contract, divide it by 5, and call that his
effective yearly compensation.

Now, it is certainly the case that we can debate whether the board overpaid
for Mayer, but that's completely independent of this "news".

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bronz
i dont understand why ceos get paid so much. companies are always trying to
cut costs -- we see outsourcing to mexico and massive layoffs fairly
frequently -- but ceos never seem to get cut as a cost. when one is fired
another is hired and paid just as much. 40 million for being the ceo? how is
it possible that you could never find someone who could do the job just as
well who would take 20 million?

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manigandham
Because that is what the job is worth and it's a miniscule amount of what the
company earns and pays out to the rest of the employees (in total).

Nobody seems to complain when their favorite sports athlete or movie star gets
paid millions so why is a CEO any different?

You have to put aside the amount itself (which just seems large since it's
such a big number for many) and realize how the economics of it workout.

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tluyben2
They made $99 million losses in 2015. Sure 42m is tiny compared to 1.09b rev,
but it's half of their losses which does feel weird. If you made losses, why
are you compensated at all with bonuses? But this was obviously negotiated a
while ago but it seems strange when that happens. If your favorite sports
athlete or movie star does not perform year after year they are not going to
get millions.

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ciconia
Can someone explain how this works? Is there any economical logic to this?

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debd1985
Not sure.. didn't they just release relatively poor earnings too? On the other
side maybe she's closer to finding a buyer?

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chris_wot
Maybe _she_ is going to become the buyer? She's got more money than sin.

