Yahoo CEO and President Marissa Mayer will be replaced by Thomas McInerney after Verizon completes its acquisition of Yahoo in a mega-deal worth $4.8 billion.
The Yahoo-Verizon deal has been recently amended with a price dropoff of $350 million after Yahoo suffered a data breach that lowered its valuation.
The acquisition of Yahoo's main digital business will shuffle its board members, prompting the rise of McInerney to the position.
McInerney — An Old New Face Of Yahoo
McInerney has been on Yahoo's board of directors since 2012 and will hold the vacated position of Mayer when the Verizon buyout is done. He was the former Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp from 2005 to 2012.
Following the acquisition of Verizon, what is left of Yahoo will be renamed to "Altaba." Verizon will gain control of Yahoo's core internet operations, leaving behind the 15% share of Chinese internet company Alibaba and a portion of Yahoo Japan. These assets will be separate entities which will operate under the Altaba umbrella name.
McInerney's rise will solidify Altaba's future as a financial company. McInerney has a finance background, having worked at global financial services firm Morgan Stanley from 1990 to 1999. He also served on the board of directors of TicketMaster, HSN, Inc. (a television and online retailer group), as well as Match Group, the internet company that owns the dating site Match.com and OKCupid.com.
An analyst said McInerney is the right man for Altaba, although it will be more of an overseer role.
"He's going to be basically a custodian of two publicly-traded assets and stocks, so there's not going to be a lot to do. His primary job will be a regulatory thing," said Laura Martin, internet analyst from Needham & Co.
Future Ex-CEO Mayer To Get A 'Golden Parachute'
All is well for outgoing CEO Mayer after the Verizon deal.
She will receive a "golden parachute," a $23 million severance pay if she gets terminated without cause or left for a good reason. This package is in form of cash, equity, and benefits — stocks up to $20 million in worth. She will also get $69 million worth of unexercised stock options, plus $97 million of Yahoo stocks she already has in possession.
Mayer is believed to join Verizon with Yahoo's assets. She said before that she planned to stay in the company.
"For me personally, I'm planning to stay. I love Yahoo, and I believe in all of you. It's important to me to see Yahoo into its next chapter," she said.
Mayer is one of the prominent women in the tech industry given her position as Yahoo CEO. She joined the company in 2012 to right the then-beleaguered company. During her stint, Yahoo acquired in 2013 Tumblr, a popular microblogging platform.
Before her arrival in Yahoo, she made her career in Google where she first worked in 1999 as the company's first female engineer (she graduated Computer Science from Stanford University). In Google, she became a product manager, then rose to the director of consumer products. She also became the VP of Google Product Search Unit.
