Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Hey, Yahoo, Not Very Smart

Last Friday, I posted an update here on Yahoo's effort to fend off a takeover by Microsoft.

It turns out that on that same day--March 7--Yahoo did a filing at the SEC.

USA Today reported that those documents revealed Yahoo paid Susan Decker, its president, a $1.1 million bonus in 2007. This bonus was up from the $850,000 bonus she was paid the previous year when she was the chief financial officer. She was promoted last June and received a 29% increase in her bonus. A bonus given by a company whose stockholders have been increasingly unhappy with its performance.

Yahoo gave Michael Callahan, its general counsel, a $225,000 bonus, up from $200,000 in 2006.

Well, at least it will give everyone something to talk about at the next annual meeting.

I'm thinking now that Yahoo had a reason for delaying that annual meeting. They probably didn't want this news to come out and be immediately followed by Microsoft's announcement of the new slate of directors with which they want to replace the current board of directors.

Go figure. Apparently no one ever told Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang that most companies give bonuses for an improved bottom line.

2 comments:

Brit Blaise said...

I've been trading this security for a while now...most of time very happily. I've been scratching my head over what's been happening lately.

Maya Reynolds said...

Hi, Brit: With the Microsoft offer pending, this is probably a good time to hold the stock for a while.