Skip to main content

Yahoo's Ex-COO: "I Was Fired and That's OK"

Article cover image
PARIS – Henrique de Castro just spoke publicly for the first time since being ousted as Yahoo's COO. And he took the high road.
I was fired and that's OK. Being fired is part of your career options."
Much has been written about de Castro's exit. When Marissa Mayer took the head of Yahoo in 2012, she brought de Castro along from Google. Not because they were both Google alums but because Google dominated ad sales and it was logical to look there, de Castro said. But his hiring was controversial: his compensation put him among the highest paid men in corporate America and set equally high expectations for him to turn around Yahoo's troubled advertising business.
De Castro was let go after a little over a year on the job, with ad sales as dreadful as ever. Wild figures circulated about his generous severance: it turned out to be nearly $58 million, including $16 million in performance bonuses that, were I a shareholder, I'd have a hard time to swallow. (De Castro refused to confirm figures – he's under quite the stringent NDA, host Loïc Le Meur warned – but said his kind of pay is "normal:" "These are jobs that pay well because there's a high risk." By this token, nuclear plant workers and firefighters should be billionaires.)
"To be the COO of a non-growing business is a difficult position," de Castro explained. "With hindsight, I don't think a COO was needed."
If you're a company that needs very fast movement, you probably don't need an aggregation of functions under a COO. You need the CEO to have his or her hands in everything."
That's a polite way to refer to rumors that Mayer and he simply did not get along. But he does laud her work. "Search, mobile, video and media are not today what they'll be in the future," he said. "Marissa and the rest of the managing team have done a great job positioning the company to capture these future trends." He compares Yahoo's current situation with Apple in 1998: everyone was leaving and calling time of death on the company, when it was in fact readying to take over the world.
"Now, he says, the question is, will they catch the trends on time?"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HOW DO YOU WANT TO BE REMEMBERED?

Genesis 32:24-32 I read recently about a man who had passed away and what they wanted the funeral parlor to do with the body. This man was a big Pittsburgh Steelers fan, and this is how the family wanted him remembered. So they told the funeral director that instead of placing his body in a coffin, they wanted the man placed on a recliner, with a television playing Pittsburgh Steelers highlights. Next to him there was to be a table with an open can of beer and a package of cigarettes. This is how his family remembered him, and this is how the family wanted the rest of his friends and loved ones to remember him. This was the lasting impression that was imprinted on the minds of people who knew him. The question I have for you today is a simple one: How do you want people to remember you? One day all of us are going to die, and how would you want people to remember you? Some of us might die soon, and some of us might not die for a while, and we have all heard that statement about lasti...
Post a Comment
Read more

FG planning to ban porn sites

                    The Nigerian government has said that it is planning to introduce a law banning all pornographic websites in the country. This was disclosed by the National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki on Sunday, January 25, in Kaduna. Dasuki revealed this at the closing ceremony of a three-day workshop on use of social media organized for Islamic preachers, Imams and youths in the state.              The NSA, who was represented by the Minister of Special Duties, Kabiru Turaki , said: “Government is planning to ban and block websites that inculcate negative attitudes in our children but we need a law to support such move.” “Because without a law, people can go to court and claim infringement on their rights,” he added. The workshop, aimed at correcting anomalies in the use of social media, was organised by the national body of I...
Post a Comment
Read more

EBOLA VIRUS ALL YOU WANT TO KNOW

Ebolavirusdisease(EVD) orEbolahemorrhagic fever(EHF) is the human disease caused by the ebola virus. Symptoms typically start two days to three weeks after contracting thevirus, with a fever, throat and muscle pains, and headaches. There is then typically nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, along with decreased functioning of the liverand kidneys. At this point, some people begin to have problems with bleeding. [ 1 ] The disease is usually acquired when a person comes into contact with the blood or bodily fluidsof an infected animal such as a monkey or fruit bat. Fruit bats are believed to carry and spread theviruswithout being affected by it. Once infection of a human occurs, the disease may be spread from one person to another. Men who survive may be able to transmit the disease via their semenfor nearly two months. To make the diagnosis, typically other diseases with similar symptoms such as malaria, choleraand other viral hemorrhagic feverare first excluded. The blood may then be teste...
Post a Comment
Read more