On her first full day at office following the birth of her baby boy, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer announced the joining of yet another Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) employee to her team. The CEO informed staff that Henrique de Castro, a top sales executive at Google, will soon join Yahoo as its chief operating officer.
De Castro, 47, was currently leading the publisher relationships at Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), prior to this he served as president of media, mobile, and platforms. Before joining Google, de Castro worked for two years with Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), managing European sales and business development. He also served as a consultant for McKinsey & Co.
As per a regulatory filing, the hiring of De Castro could cost Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) more than $60 million. De Castro will be getting a base salary of $600,000, plus up to $36 million in stock, based on his tenure at Yahoo and how well the company does while he’s there. He will also receive $1 million as a compensation for the foregone salary at Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), and also 20 million in stock to make up for Google stock that hasn’t vested yet.
Mayer said in a statement, “Henrique is an incredibly accomplished and rigorous business leader, and I’m personally excited to have him join Yahoo!’s strong leadership team”.
On joining Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), de Castro said “This is a pivotal point in Yahoo!’s history, and I believe strongly in the opportunity ahead,” and added “I can’t wait to join Marissa and the team and get started”. De Castro praised Yahoo’s “high-quality content, its renewed focus on outstanding user experience, and its massive reach”.
De Castro will join Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) beginning on January 22 the company said. If de Castro, who the technology blog AllThingsD.com said was born in Portugal, is unable to obtain a work visa prior to his official start date, he will initially work in London for a Yahoo subsidiary, the company said.
Yahoo, the world’s most-visited online property, has been struggling with declining revenues in recent years, amid competition from Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). The company has also been plagued with internal turmoil, resulting in the exit of several CEO’s. The surprise appointment of Mayer, in July, made her Yahoo’s third chief in about 12 months.
Though Mayer has yet to reveal her plans for revitalizing Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), she has made a few high-profile recruitments, including new finance Chief Ken Goldman, and marketing head Kathy Savitt, a former Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) executive
