Let me say that what appears here is purely my opinion as someone who has worked for my company for eight+ years and in no way should be construed as anything beyond that.
There, clear? Well, since folks are probably curious about the news today. i might as well share my thoughts.
This will mark my second major change of command. i was there when T.K. took his bows. i remember that, back then, there was a significant upheaval and a radical shift in direction. We were going from just being a destination to something new and ground breaking. We were going to become a Media Powerhouse. We had magazine and TV deals lined up, inroads into production studios and huge acclaim and wonder from everyone in the industry that this, sure as shootin' was the way to go. Heck, we even got a brand new exec straight from the 'biz. We could do no wrong.
Well, ok, we could. In fact, we did a lot wrong. i keep a list of the things my company has done wrong over the years and make sure that folks who are not aware of our history don't doom us to repeat it, but that's neither here nor there. i'll toss in that i wasn't a huge fan of having someone at the helm who wasn't 100% familiar with our products, but i was willing to concede that there were some things that are universal in how one steers a ship. Plus, i was some stupid engineer. What the hell did i know about running a company?
Time marches on, mistakes were made, and efforts were brought about to keep things afloat and i'm still a stupid engineer.
Still, as someone watching from the trench, it was pretty obvious what was going on. This wasn't fun anymore. Well, it is for me, but it wasn't for the guy at the wheel. i could tell that he stopped having fun about a year ago, and the past six months were (how the kids say) teh suck.
"But he got 110 kazillion dollars in pay last year!"
Well, actually, no. He got $600K in salary with option grants of over 110 kazillion dollars vested over four years. He lost 3/4's of that today. He also lost about half of last years pay today, since those options didn't vest by the time he resigned. He ain't hurtin' by any stretch, but he's also not shopping around for a 767 with twin waterbeds.
Good Mr. Semel, regardless of his lack of technical skill, is one of, if not the greatest deal makers in silicon valley. That's what his skills are and that's what he's developed over the years. i will say it again, i'm glad we didn't get YouTube and all the court suits that went with it, and while Facebook is turning interesting, it was sure as hell overvalued when Yahoo came a'callin. i'll also toss in that when Google was shopping themselves around as a search engine, they weren't bad, but then search wasn't what folks were focused on at the time (Like i said, mistakes were made).
Were there other deals that we could have done or passed on? Probably. (again, the guy in the trench doesn't see everything.)
So, what now?
Well, i have to admit, i was pretty much speechless when i heard that Good Mr. Yang was stepping up. Jerry, was, first and foremost an engineer. That's what his doctorate was (going to be) in. Still, Jerry spends more time with the business set than attending tech talks so he may have found something more interesting. Also, while he had previously, and repeatedly said "No" to the offer of being CEO, i think i understand why he may have finally accepted. In a nutshell, he very wisely realized that one does not become CEO as one's first job out of school. He wanted, no needed to learn how to do it from someone else. Not the what so much as the how. How do you broker peace among warring board members, how do you temper good with bad and bad with good, how do you keep from panicking the sheep? Those are not talents one simply has.
i'm thinking that after 12 years of paying attention, he figures he's probably ready to step up, build his crew and pilot the ship he wants. How well he does, only time will tell, but i'm betting he does a pretty darn good job.
Just like last time, don't expect Yahoo! to remain the same. Things will change, hopefully for the better. i've got a lot of faith in Mr. Yang to make the right decisions, and not because i'm a fellow engineer. (Oh trench, you're just so comfy…)
i just hope it's a lot of fun for him for quite some time to come.
Man remember when your company was selling webcams and telephones and cans of soup?
For those of us unfamiliar with the pay structures of high level executives, do they really lose all their unvested shares in all cases? No golden parachute?
And since apparently he's staying on, is he really going to lose them even if that is the case?
PS: It's kinda fun to see a former executive liquidate.
Each CEO and company has a different exit program and pay cycle, so it really depends. In Terry's case, we were told that his options were on a four year vesting schedule, so yeah, the moment he resigned as an employee, the any unvested options are returned to the company.
He's staying on as a director, which has a different role and minimal pay (I think it's around $13K with expenses for things like travel, dining and hotel for board meetings)
Here is a breakdown of Terry's package and remaining moolah.
It's as you say - he gave virtually everything back and the compensation was not quite as wild as quoted. There is no parachute. However, the outside director package is a little sweeter than you suggest (and in fact I'm applying for a position on the board right now):
"As non-executive chairman, Stevens said that Semel will be paid just like any other outside director of the company. In 2006, outside directors received free shares worth $165,000 and a stock option with a grant-date fair value of $159,000."
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I am very comforted to know that Sue is really steering this ship, at least at an operational level. There are a few people that I would follow if they jumped off a bridge. Sue is one of them. Call me a purple Kool-Aid drinkin' fool, but she is something special and I hope that the combination of Yang and Decker is something that the company can really rally around and draw inspiration from.