Yahoo Security Spending For Ceo Marissa Mayer Rose As She Faced Threats

Original Story: siliconbeat.com

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer faced “credible” threats in 2015 that caused the company to drastically boost its spending on security for her and her family.

The Sunnyvale company spent $544,061 for security for Mayer last year, according to recent company filings, including one Monday. That compares with $26,891 in 2014.

Mayer, who’s been under fire from shareholders over the direction of one of Silicon Valley’s iconic companies, in 2015 “faced specific security threats that we believed were credible,” the company said in its filings, without specifying the threats.

Calling Mayer an embattled CEO might be understating it a bit; analysts, investors and the media have scrutinized her every move since the former Google executive took the helm of Yahoo in 2012 — after other CEOs before her failed to bring back the company’s mojo amid the rise of mobile, Google, Facebook and Yahoo’s own missteps.

The company said in the filing that it provides security services for Mayer and her immediate family (she has a husband and three kids) in addition to the business-related security services it pays for, “and that the reported amount of security expense is especially reasonable in light of the fact that Ms. Mayer does not ask the Company to reimburse her private aircraft costs for business travel.”

A Yahoo spokeswoman told SiliconBeat the company would have no additional comment.

This latest figure comes on the heels of other reports based on recent Yahoo filings, including how much Mayer made last year ($36 million, a 15 percent decline from the previous year), and how much she might make if the company is sold and she is fired. Under pressure from activist shareholders who recently grabbed seats on the board, the company is considering bids now, which are reportedly coming in lower than expected.

Back to the security costs: The amount Yahoo spent wasn’t unusual or outrageous compared with what other tech companies have spent on security for their top executives. For example, Pat May wrote last month about how much Facebook and Twitter shelled out in 2015 for security for Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and Jack Dorsey: $4.3 million, $1.2 million and $68,500, respectively. According to a filing, Apple spent $209,151 last year on security for CEO Tim Cook.