The luxe life of Yahoo's Marissa Mayer: Haute couture, high art & lavish parties

There is one person sitting pretty in Verizon’s acquisition of the ailing tech company Yahoo for $4.83 billion — embattled Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. In an email announcing the deal, Mayer told Yahoo employees that she will be staying with the company. While it is not clear what will happen to Mayer once the deal closes in six to nine months, according to a Yahoo SEC filing, she would get a $54.9 million severance package if she’s let go by Verizon. It’s no secret that the former Google executive and self-professed nerd leads a luxurious life, filled with high fashion, fancy apartments and exclusive parties. A look at Mayer’s charmed journey:

1. Mayer is known for her high-fashion sensibilities, regularly choosing clothes by designers like Carolina Herrera and Alexander McQueen. She once paid $60,000 to have lunch with Oscar de la Renta and has said the designer’s three-quarter cashmere cardigan has become her work uniform. She owns one in ivory, navy, black, hot pink, teal, red and royal blue.

2. In May 2015, Mayer joined Jennifer Lawrence, Wendi Deng and Gong Li as co-chairs of the Met Gala, which is the biggest night of the year for fashion. She wore a gorgeous Oscar de la Renta gown. Yahoo co-sponsored the event. Though it’s unknown just how much the company paid to be a sponsor, hedge fund manager Eric Jackson claimed it cost as much as $3 million.


Mayer’s $5.2 million house in Palo Alto

3. Mayer married San Franciscobased entrepreneur and angel investor Zachary Bogue in a glitzy ceremony on San Francisco’s Treasure Island in 2009. She wore a hand-beaded Naeem Khan gown, while bridesmaids wore jewel-toned dresses by Reem Acra. After the ceremony, guests enjoyed a fireworks show while dining on lobster and caramelised beef tenderloin prepared by a Four Seasons chef. The rehearsal dinner included a surprise performance by rock band, The Killers.

4. She set up a nursery at the Yahoo offices so that her son Macallister and his nanny could come to work with her every day. Mayer and her family’s primary residence is a penthouse apartment in San Francisco’s Four Seasons hotel. The penthouse is reportedly worth $5 million, and Mayer is known to have hosted exclusive cocktail parties there.

5. In 2006, she had some 400 pieces of glass art by Dale Chihuly installed in the ceiling of her apartment. The glass pieces typically sell for an average of $15,000 each, and the delivery reportedly caused significant traffic problems in her neighbourhood.

6. Mayer also owns a modest home in Palo Alto, which is estimated to be worth $5.2 million. Located in the city’s University South neighbourhood, the five-bedroom house was meant to be a place to crash after late nights in the office.

7. She also has a taste for pop art, which she says she got from her Finnish art teacher mother. Mayer owns several miniature balloon dog sculptures by Jeff Koons, which she keeps in her kitchen. She also has a Roy Lichtenstein print hanging in the front hall.


The Dale Chihuly glass art in Mayer’s apartment ceiling

8. The home seems to be filled with quirky things. She and her husband bought a 15-foot, twostory model of the Peninsula Creamery, a diner in Palo Alto that’s frequented by Stanford students. They had the replica forklifted into their backyard so that their son could use it as a playhouse once he was big enough. No word on whether the model serves pineapple malts as good as those Mayer enjoys at the real creamery.

9. In 2013, she spent a reported $11.2 million to buy the Roller & Hapgood & Tinney Funeral Home, located just a block east of her Palo Alto home. Though her reasons for buying the mortuary are still unclear, she did convert it into a haunted house for her annual Halloween bash in 2014.

10. When it comes to holiday parties, Mayer spares no detail. On Halloween, she gives out king-sized candy bars to trickor-treaters and decorates her front yard with professionally carved pumpkins. For Christmas, she once put an ice skating rink in her backyard and brought in fake snow.

11. That extravagance apparently extended to company holiday parties as well. In 2015, Yahoo splurged close to $7 million on a Great Gatsby-themed holiday party.

12. In 2010, she hosted a $ 30,000-a-plate fundraising dinner for President Barack Obama at her home.

CLARIFICATION: In an earlier version of this article, ETPanache printed an image of an original artwork of Jeff Koons. Credit for the same was inadvertently not given. The said image was also an erroneous representation of Koon's miniature balloon dog sculptures, which are plate-mounted. This clarification is carried for the information of our discerning readers. The lapses are regretted.