Yahoo COO In Shock Departure

Yahoo has revealed that its COO, Henrique de Castro, has left the company after just over a year in the job. According to reports, the Lisbon-born executive has been let go from the company following disappointment over recent results and in the face of growing tensions between himself and CEO Marissa Mayer (pictured below).

In a memo sent round to staff leaked to media sources, Mayer said, “During my own reflection, I made the difficult decision that our COO, Henrique de Castro, should leave the company.”

The second most senior executive at the company behind Mayer, de Castro’s main role was to act as Yahoo’s top sales executive and build relationships with advertising clients. He had previously been vice president of worldwide partners at Mayer’s previous employer, Google.

Increased competition

Facing increased competition from rivals such as Google and Microsoft’s Bing, Yahoo has failed to significantly increase advertising revenues for its website and mobile applications, with its last earnings release showing that display-advertising revenue, which accounts for about 40 percent of the company’s sales, fell 7 percent to $421m (£257m) from a year ago in the third quarter.

Mr de Castro was one of the highest-paid executives in Silicon Valley, reportedly earning a $600,000 (£373,000) base salary and a potential annual bonus of up to $540,000, as well as stock options and restricted stock valued at $36m as well as a $1m cash bonus. The regulatory filing of his appointment also mentioned a compensation package worth about $58m, meaning that this could be an expensive payoff for Yahoo.

De Castro was recruited from Mayer’s previous company Google in October 2012 in one of her first major acts as CEO. de Castro followed her across only three months after she joined Yahoo, and the move was seen at the time as an indication that her appointment could relaunch the flagging company’s fortunes.

Yahoo has tried to reinvent itself in recent months, with a number of purchases such as the blogging site Tumblr. The company took to the stage at CES for the very first time last week. with Mayer demonstrating a variety of new products and services in a celebrity-filled keynote. “We have been hard at work re-imagining Yahoo’s core businesses across search, communications, media and video,” she said.

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