Marissa Mayer golden parachute goes flat

Ousting chief executive Marissa Mayer could cost Yahoo! Inc. about $12.4 million. Thanks to Yahoo’s declining share price and the vesting schedule of Mayer’s awards, letting her go now would be a bargain compared with 15 months ago.

Had she been terminated in December 2014, Mayer would have been able to col lect $36.1 million in severance and equity awards vesting early, according to Yahoo’s proxy statement.

If her termination would have come within a year of selling the company, the exit package at that time would have swelled to $157.9 million.

Firing a CEO can be a costly move for a company, with the bulk of an exit package’s value often coming from unearned equity awards that pay out on the termination.

Mayer’s golden parachute has diminished because Yahoo! shares slid more than 30% in the past 15 months. Several of her large grants of stock options and restricted shares have also vested, meaning that she owns them now. Mayer, who took over in July 2012, has struggled to drive sales growth even as she’s shifted strategies to attract users.