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Comment by uvdiv | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand much but the Washington Post does:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/new-yahoo-...

* $1 million/year in salary;

* up to $2 million/year in bonuses;

* $14 million in restricted stock & options vesting over three years ($4.7 million/year). Restricted means she won't get these if she leaves before they vest. The real value of these depends on the future value of Yahoo stock

* $30 million retention bonus if she stays 5 years

That's $59 million for the first 5 years ($5M + $10M + $14M + $30M). Yahoo says they expect to pay her a total $100 million over that time period -- they'll award other things on top of these.

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She is super rich already so I would guess money doesn't motivate this lady to work any more (I might be wrong)... I can't understand that kind of spending on a CEO, especially if I was a stockholder...

Anyway I'm not and I guess we live in totally different worlds...

She is but my sense from various web articles is that she's acquired richer tastes as well. If you're income/wealth jumps by a factor of 100x you can be set for life. But if your spending/lifestyle costs jumps by a factor of 100x too, then your ramp shortens and you need to stay a working stiff (admittedly at the executive level) just to keep your lifestyle going. But agreed that even despite this effect, it's probably not the Yahoo pay (bump) that motives her, but the jump to CEO and losing the feeling of perhaps hitting a ceiling inside Google. The competition inside Yahoo is likely not as tough as inside Google too, and there's a great opportunity to move the needle. And even if she tanks as CEO or hates it, she still can't really "lose" because she should still have plenty of FU money. So, arguably a heads-I-win / tails-I-dont-lose opportunity.

I don't think money motivates her exactly, but being paid less than the next CEO guy would demotivate her (yes, it comes to the same thing and no, her needing less won't force her to pay more taxes). Pecking order in the peer group matters to most people. That said, I think as a group CEOs are overpaid wrt to the value they bring to shareholders, but boards are made of CEOs, which explains why the Gini keeps rising.

I think she's only worth $33MM right now, so getting another $100,000,000 in the next five years could still be motivating :)

I saw her current net worth being evaluated at $300,000,000. I doubt this moves has anything to do with money, but she would not want to be seen as a cheap hire either.

As an interesting (if irrelevant) comparison, NFL quarterback Drew Brees just signed a 5 year, $100 million contract with the New Orleans Saints.

IIRC, this sort of comparision is what started all this CEO salary inflation back in the late 70's/early 80's. The CEO's of billion dollar companies were being paid less than baseball players and cried foul.

The $14 million was to make up for unvested options and such she gave up by leaving Google.

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