April 05, 2005
Yahoo Semel Gets More Moola
It's nice to have a desperate competitor willing to pay up to steal you, if you're the CEO of Yahoo. Because Disney was after Semel, Yahoo did its best to retain him with an "aggressive package." Under the new contract, Semel gets the option to purchase 2 million shares of stock and 250,000 restricted shares. Last year he excercised $230 million in options and has $324 million vested left. He also gets a paltry $600,000 salary, which experts believe is low. Shhhh, don't tell the board that Yahoo stock performance is down 65% in the last five years."There is...recognition that Mr. Semel's unique skills, experience spanning the Internet and media industries, and repeated past success make him an attractive candidate to competing organizations," stated Yahoo's proxy filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. "Consequently, (Yahoo's) compensation committee took aggressive action in 2004 to retain Mr. Semel."
