$59 million pay packet for Yahoo’s new boss

Yahoo is giving its new chief executive Marissa Mayer a compensation package worth more than $59 million over the next few years.

The company said in a regulatory filing that Ms Mayer, 37, who was lured away from rival Google, would receive an annual salary of $1 million. She is also eligible for a $2 million bonus, and $12 million in restricted stock and stock options over several years.

She will also receive $30 million in the form of a one-time retention award if she stays at Yahoo for five years.

Yahoo says it will also give Ms Mayer restricted stock valued at $14 million to partially compensate her for forfeiting money she would have received at Google.

But 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 spokesman Dana Lengkeek.

The typical chief executive of a public company in the US 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. His salary and bonus were the same as Ms Mayer’s, but Yahoo dangled more incentives in front of Ms Mayer to lure her away from Google.

Mr Thompson stepped aside in mid-May amid an uproar over misleading information on his resume.

On Tuesday Ms Mayer became Yahoo’s fifth CEO in five years. She spent the previous 13 years at Google where she was the internet search leader’s 20th employee and helped build some of its most famous products.