Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has confirmed that she is to forgo her annual bonus this year, worth $2m, on the back of an ongoing row relating to security breaches suffered by the company in 2013 and 2014.
The security breach in 2014 resulted in the details of 500 million customers being compromised, reported as the worst ever – only to be overshadowed by the subsequent discovery of another breach from 2013, which had affected 1 billion users.
The breaches also sparked questions over Mayer’s leadership of the company.
Those feelings were heightened when an internal review concurred that Mayer, along with her management team, was too slow in dealing with the breach in 2014.
Mayer used a recent Tumblr post to state that she had decided to give up her annual bonus.
She said: “When I learned in September 2016 that a large number of our user database files had been stolen, I worked with the team to disclose the incident to users, regulators, and government agencies.
“However, I am the CEO of the company and since this incident happened during my tenure, I have agreed to forgo my annual bonus and my annual equity grant this year and have expressed my desire that my bonus be redistributed to our company’s hardworking employees, who contributed so much to Yahoo’s success in 2016.”
However, Mayer’s reference to the “26 users that we understood were impacted” by the breach has raised a few eyebrows in the press.
Even Yahoo’s own estimates suggest the number of affected customers was closer to 500 million.
Mayer’s announcement comes amid a difficult week for Yahoo, with the company stating that they believe around 32 million user accounts may have been compromised in yet another a security breach.
Those woes were further compounded when the company’s general counsel Ronald Bell announced he was resigning from his position without severance pay.
The next few weeks could prove decisive in the future of both Mayer and the company.
