Henrique de Castro was employed at Yahoo for just 1 year and 3 months. The former Yahoo Chief Operating Officer left the company with a severance package over $58 million. This is according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission the regulatory agency, on Wednesday
The “golden parachute” as it has been dubbed was amongst the largest and most generous ever in history. It was incredibly notable due to de Castro only working for 15 months at Yahoo.
De Castro was given the door by Marissa Mayer the CEO in January apparently because of a disappointing performance in increasing the revenue at Yahoo in advertising.
Yahoo said in the SEC filing that the former COO did not receive a bonus for the year 2013 because the board believed he did not meet the standards of performance.
Nevertheless, de Castro received other forms of compensation. The former Yahoo executive earned $600,000 as a base salary in 2013, while options and stock grants increased that total to close to $11 million.
In 2012, de Castro earned $39 million, although he will lose a great deal of that due to some stock not being vested at his departure.
Much of the severance packages $58 million value is attributed to the rising price of stock at Yahoo, while de Castro was working with the Internet company.
The filing to the SEC indicates the severance package had a value of just $17 million as of October of 2012. However, by the beginning of 2013, the value was up to a final amount of $58 million. Yahoo shares on Wednesday surged by 6% as the company posted its sales and earnings that were slightly more than expected.
Of particular to note was the success of the company in stemming the declines in sales from its display and search ads, which in recent quarters have flagged.
