Internet search engine Yahoo, once the US’s most popular website, is
to be rebranded as Altaba, and the company’s chief executive Marissa
Mayer is to step down if a $4.8bn deal with Verizon goes ahead.
Ms Mayer, along with Yahoo co-founder David Filo, and four other
board members, will all leave the embattled group if the deal goes
through, a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing has revealed.
The move comes amid news that the deal with Verizon was thrown into
doubt following a fresh hacking scandal which was revealed last month.
Yahoo said hackers stole date from more than a billion user accounts
in August 2013, in a separate attack from one it had previously
disclosed, in which 500 million accounts were compromised.
The hack is thought to be the biggest in history, and last week
Verizon said it would evaluate the situation as Yahoo investigates and
would review the “new development before reaching any final
conclusions”.
In the SEC filing, Yahoo said: “In light of the fact that following
the Closing the Company will operate as an investment company under the
Investment Company Act of 1940, the Board has determined that,
immediately following the Closing, the size of the Board will be reduced
to five (5) directors.
“Tor Braham, Eric Brandt, Catherine Friedman, Thomas McInerney and
Jeffrey Smith will continue to serve as directors of the Company
following the Closing, and Mr Brandt will serve as Chairman of the
Board.
“Each of David Filo, Eddy Hartenstein, Richard Hill, Marissa Mayer,
Jane Shaw and Maynard Webb has indicated that he or she intends to
resign from the Board effective upon the Closing, and that his or her
intention to resign is not due to any disagreement with the Company on
any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices.”
Ms Mayer was Yahoo’s sixth chief executive, who had tried to turn
round the company. She left Google to join the company in 2012, taking a
pay package worth more than $59m (£48m).
She was the world’s highest paid female chief executive in 2014, and
if the deal with Verizon goes ahead, is expected to walk away from Yahoo
with a severance package of approximately $55m.
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