Yahoo COO De Castro Departs after 15 Months
Yahoo’s chief operating officer (COO), Henrique de Castro, is leaving the company only 15 months after he moved over from Google.
According to reports, his departure follows clashes with Yahoo chief executive (CEO), Marissa Mayer, who offered him a four-year US$62m deal to move to the company in October 2012.
“During my own reflection, I made the difficult decision that our COO, Henrique de Castro, should leave the company,” Mayer wrote. “I appreciate Henrique’s contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavours.” De Castro was Mayer’s first major hire at Yahoo after she took over as CEO in July 2012, but in addition to apparent clashes between the two he was unable to deliver her goal of reviving growth in Yahoo’s advertising business, which has lost share to rivals Facebook and Google.
Yahoo had only a 5.8% of US digital advertising revenue in the US last year, down from 6.8% in 2012, according to research firm EMarketer. Google, with 39.9% in 2013, and Facebook, with 7.4%, have each gained share in recent years.
A
Wall Street Journal
report suggests that de Castro’s severance package could be worth about US$42.1m, if Yahoo drops limits on the sale of certain restricted shares through accelerated vesting.
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