by Search Copywriter
D. Warburton
D. Warburton
As Yahoo! continues to struggle against competitors such as Google and Microsoft in the search engine market, the company's CEO has earned $2 million (£1.2 million) from selling stocks.Carol Bartz became chief executive of Yahoo! in January this year, and made bold promises to save the flagging company. With a pledge to "kick some butt" and achieve "some friggin' breathing room," Bartz's dominion has thus far led to job cuts as well as a range of re-shuffles and re-focuses.
Bartz is employed on a salary of £1 million and is eligible for annual bonuses of up to £4 million. When she became chief executive, Bartz was granted 5 million shares of Yahoo! stock.
The Guardian reports that Bartz has sold two major shares since her inauguration, at more than $830,000 (£500,000) in March and $1.14 million in June. While executives are entitled to sell their stock options, Bartz is facing widespread criticism for giving out the wrong impression so soon after taking over.
Outspoken investor and Ironfire Capital executive Eric Jackson observes: "Two million already cashed out for Bartz is too much, too soon.
"[It] doesn't really fit with her 'I didn't need this job as I was retired' image she portrays."
A spokeswoman has stated that Bartz and the other Yahoo! executives who exercised their share options recently were doing so for tax purposes, but the effect on morale among Yahoo!'s 13,000 employees is expected to be significant.
Yahoo! is still losing search engine market share against Google, with overall revenue down 13 per cent to $1.5 billion (£900 million) for the past three months compared to the same period in 2008. Bartz's takeover has had little impact on Yahoo! thus far, aside from the partnership with Microsoft to hand over control of its search engine business.
