Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO)’s Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer has made headlines again, but this time not about her work ethics or quirky personality. Mayer is firing one of Yahoo’s top people, Henrique de Castro, who has been the Chief Operating Officer for the company for the past 14 months due to disappointment with his attempts at boosting growth, according to people in the know.
The employees of the company were notified of Meyer’s decision through a memo in which Mayer informed them that she came to the decision of dismissing de Castro. People familiar with the company have said that the friction between the two executives has been heating up over the last six months.
Ever since Mayer took the helm of Yahoo in her much publicised switch from Google in July 2012, she has been trying to reinvent the waning company so it could compete with the younger and more innovative corporations such as Google Inc. (GOOG) and Facebook Inc. (FB). A slew of redesigns and transformations, however, affecting everything from products, to email, to advertising and more, have not as yet been translated into profits. Analysts, in fact, anticipate that the company’s spreadsheets will show a 1 percent drop for 2013, while at the same time predicting a e percent for this year and the coming one.
De Castro’s departure, which was announced yesterday, takes effect today with no replacement having been named by the company. Whatever de Castro’s efficiency level may have been, however, the news are bad for the company right now, as his removal leaves a huge hole in the executive team that will have to be properly patched up before normal operations resume smoothly once again.
And if you’re feeling bad about de Castro loosing his high-profile job in such a short notice, here are some facts that may change your mind. According to Equilar Inc., in the 14 months that he has been with Yahoo, de Castro has amassed a fortune of $109 million in salary, stock awards, bonus, compensation for leaving Google and severance payments. Not bad for a little over a year’s work!
