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Here is the $16 million offer letter Yahoo sent to poach Lisa Utzschneider, its chief revenue officer, from Amazon

Lisa Utzschneider

Yahoo

Yahoo chief revenue officer Lisa Utzschneider.

Yahoo published a bunch of documents with the SEC on Monday, including:

The letter, from Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, details Utzschneider's compensation at the time.

It provides some interesting insight into one of one of the most powerful - and well-compensated - women in advertising.

  • A $1 million sign-on bonus, made payable on or before her third semi-monthly paycheck.
  • A base salary of $50,000 per month ($600,000 annually.)
  • A recommended restricted stock unit grant with a total target valuation of $16 million. Half of the restricted stock units were subject to a four-year time-based vesting schedule - with a quarter paid on the 12-month anniversary of her start date, then 1/48 thereafter. The other half would vest based on the four-year schedule and "satisfaction of performance criteria" approved by the committee.
  • Yahoo's bonus incentive plan, with a target incentive of 90% of her annual salary. This was pro-rated based on the period of time she was employed at Yahoo.
  • 20-days of vacation in her first year of employment.
  • In the event of Utzschneider's voluntary resignation within the first year following her start date, she would have to repay an amount equal to $83,333 multiplied by 12 minus the number of months of employment she had completed.

There are also some fun Yahoo quirks in the letter.

It opens with: "Dear Lisa: Get ready to yodel."

The sign-off: "Start practicing your yodel!"

Yahoo's latest 10-K filing does not include executive compensation. Yahoo has up to 120 days after December 31, 2015 to submit the information with the SEC.

When Yahoo last filed its executive compensation summary, in April 2015, Utzschneider did not feature. She was promoted to global revenue chief in July 2015. The SEC requires offer letter information for new top-level officers of the company, which is why the document was filed today.

Back in 2014, the executive in the position most closely-matched to Utzschneider's was former COO Henrique de Castro, who left the business in January of that year. In 2013, his total compensation reached $10.9 million. He received a base salary of $600,000, option awards of $10.3 million, and "other compensation" totaling $37,001.

Yahoo was not immediately available for comment.

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