Yahoo number 2 Henrique de Castro leaves Marissa's side with millions
Marissa Mayer’s No 2, hired from London as Yahoo! COO the day after she returned to work from having her baby 14 months ago, is leaving. She fired Henrique de Castro after there had been "friction for months," said Bloomberg.
Henrique quits with many millions
De Castro, 48, originally a top Google man, is departing this week, Yahoo said in a US regulatory filing.
He will receive many millions through all of his severance benefits specified in an October 2012 employment letter.
He was on a salary of $600,000 plus a bonus of $1m o be paid within seven days of joining.
De Castro will keep most of the $38m in restricted stock he was awarded when he joined Yahoo in 2012. If he had left Yahoo at the end of 2012, he would have received compensation valued at $26 million.
He was originally based in London on a temporary basis until a work visa enabling him to work in the United States was issued. He was then headed for Sunnyvale, California. The reason for his departure has not been officially disclosed but Mayer was said to be disappointed at the lack of progress in increasing ad revenues.
Mayer herself began work in July 12, but, despite an upturn in the value of Yahoo shares, has yet to deliver meaningful profit growth as the company has failed to kept pace with broad gains in digital advertising spending, said the WSJ.
In October, Yahoo! lowered its revenue and profit outlook for 2013.
A native of Portugal, de Castro joined Google in 2006 after working at Dell and McKinsey. He was once vice president of Google's "media, mobile and platforms" business - where he helped Google pass Yahoo! in selling online display advertising.
In a Yahoo! press release when he was hired , de Castro, said, "This is a pivotal point in Yahoo!'s history, and I believe strongly in the opportunity ahead. I can't wait to join Marissa and the team and get started."
Mayer herself said in the release , "Henrique is an incredibly accomplished and rigorous business leader, and I'm personally excited to have him join Yahoo's strong leadership team. His operational experience in Internet advertising and his proven success in structuring and scaling global organisations make him the perfect fit for Yahoo as we propel the business to its next phase of growth." But it was not to be.