Yahoo is giving its new chief executive Marissa Mayer a compensation package worth more than $59 million over the next several years.
Yahoo Inc. said in a regulatory filing Thursday that Mayer will receive an annual salary of $1 million. She’s also eligible for a $2 million bonus, and $12 million in restricted stock and stock options that will vest over several years.
Meyer, who is 37 and was lured away from Google Inc., will also receive $30 million in the form of a one-time retention award if she stays at Yahoo for 5 years.
Yahoo says it will also give Mayer restricted stock valued at $14 million to partially compensate her for forfeiting money she would have received at Google.
That said, the most she will take home this year is $5.4 million. That includes her salary, bonus and part of the “make-whole” compensation, according to Yahoo spokeswoman Dana Lengkeek.
The typical CEO of a public company in the U.S. made $9.6 million last year, according to an analysis by The Associated Press using data from Equilar, an executive pay research firm.
Yahoo’s previous — and short-lived — CEO, Scott Thompson, had a $27 million pay package. Thompson’s salary and bonus were the same as Mayer’s, but Yahoo dangled more incentives in front of Mayer to lure her away from Google. Thompson stepped aside in mid-May amid an uproar over misleading information on his resume.
On Tuesday, Mayer became Yahoo’s fifth CEO in five years. She spent the previous 13 years at Google. She was the Internet search leader’s 20th employee and helped build some of its most iconic products.
