Shareholders shouting over Yahoo CEO pay
TEXT OF STORY
SCOTT JAGOW: Yahoo holds its annual shareholders meeting today and it’s safe to say shareholders might be a little ticked off. First quarter profits dropped 11 percent. Google made 64 percent more money. Yahoo’s stock price is down 10 percent in the last year. Google shares are up more than 30 percent. Plus, Yahoo’s CEO is getting a ton of money for that under-performance. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports.
Ashley Milne-Tyte: Shareholders are angry about the millions of stock options Terry Semel receives as part of his $71 million compensation package.
Pat McGurn is with Institutional Shareholder Services. His group is encouraging shareholders to vote against three members of Yahoo’s compensation committee. Because recently, he says, Semel hasn’t exactly earned his pay.
Pat McGurn: His compensation was remaining quite high and fairly consistent, regardless of the company’s stock price performance.
As for the future of Yahoo, Elinor Mills of CnetNews.com says there’s a lot riding on the companya€™s new Internet ad platform, Panama. It’s meant to help Yahoo compete again on the search front, which it used to dominate.
Elinor Mills: Panama has to work for them. It has to excel. They have to increase their search ad dollars, increase their market share in search.
Mills says Yahoo needs someone with credibility and optimism to put the company on a new path. And, she says, many feel that Terry Semel is not the person for the job.
I’m Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.
TEXT OF STORY
SCOTT JAGOW: Yahoo holds its annual shareholders meeting today and it’s safe to say shareholders might be a little ticked off. First quarter profits dropped 11 percent. Google made 64 percent more money. Yahoo’s stock price is down 10 percent in the last year. Google shares are up more than 30 percent. Plus, Yahoo’s CEO is getting a ton of money for that under-performance. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports.
Ashley Milne-Tyte: Shareholders are angry about the millions of stock options Terry Semel receives as part of his $71 million compensation package.
Pat McGurn is with Institutional Shareholder Services. His group is encouraging shareholders to vote against three members of Yahoo’s compensation committee. Because recently, he says, Semel hasn’t exactly earned his pay.
Pat McGurn: His compensation was remaining quite high and fairly consistent, regardless of the company’s stock price performance.
As for the future of Yahoo, Elinor Mills of CnetNews.com says there’s a lot riding on the companya€™s new Internet ad platform, Panama. It’s meant to help Yahoo compete again on the search front, which it used to dominate.
Elinor Mills: Panama has to work for them. It has to excel. They have to increase their search ad dollars, increase their market share in search.
Mills says Yahoo needs someone with credibility and optimism to put the company on a new path. And, she says, many feel that Terry Semel is not the person for the job.
I’m Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.
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