Carol Bartz Gets A Golden Goodbye From Yahoo!

Despite having been unceremoniously shown the door with a curt phone call, Carol Bartz will enjoy what can only be described as a golden goodbye from Yahoo. Bartz will walk away from Yahoo with $3 mn in cash, plus a partial bonus for 2011 that will be valued between $1 mn to $2 mn.

Even before she was fired, public filings show that for 2009 alone, Bartz was rewarded with a not inconsequential $47.2 m in compensation.

In a bit of twisted luck, Bartz’s compensation also includes $5 mn in Yahoo stock, and the stock market greeted her departure with approval, boosting Yahoo’s value by more than 4 percent.

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However, there is still more in the Bartz’ parting gift package: As a sweetener when was hired, she received a stock option package of up to 5 mn shares. She can collect on those shares, but she’ll only be able to vest in them if they hit price targets ranging from $17.60 to $35.19. At the moment, YHOO is trading at $13.61, so it has a way to go before Bartz can vest.

No one will be cheering on her successor more than Carol Bartz herself.

A history of excess
Yahoo has a history of shockingly high executive compensation. Terry Semel, who ran the company from 2001 to 2007, received almost a half of billion dollars, $489.6 mn in total compensation, for six years.

During that time, he passed up a chance to buy Google two years before it went public. They balked at paying $5 bn for the company, even though they had paid $5.7 bn for Broadcast.com just few years earlier.

For the complete story, please visit Firstpost.com

Image courtesy: Firstpost.com