Gawker: valleywag, susan decker

Sue Decker got a $1.1 million bonus last year and you didn't

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 09:18:01 EDT

While Yahoo profits dropped 12 percent in 2007, Yahoo president Sue Decker's annual bonus got a 29 percent bump, from $850,000 to $1.1 million. The increase, disclosed in an SEC filing, is probably due to Decker's mid-year promotion from CFO. Decker also pulled a $815,000 salary in 2008. Yahoo general counsel Michael Callahan also got a raise. He earned a $225,000 bonus in 2007, up from $200,000 in 2006. Good to know the going rate for moral pygmies these days.

Decker and Yang announce plans to solve Yahoo's problems later

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:00:15 EST

Yahoo's long-missing Sue Decker has, at last, surfaced at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's conference in Phoenix, where she and CEO Jerry Yang told the crowd that everything is fine. Yahoo just needs a little more time. Remember Panama? Decker's hoping you don't.

This time, Decker said, investors and employees should hold their breath for Apex. It's an advertising platform that allows agencies to build one campaign encompassing search, display, mobile and more. Decker said the plan is to launch in the second half of 2008. Which, according Microsoft's Kevin Johnson, means it'll be called Apex Live.

Slightly less kneeling before Zod

Chris Mohney — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:00:45 EST

Last week, Yahoo CFO Susan Decker sent out a memo detailing the structure of the company's new Advertiser & Publisher Group. Buried in the "Marketing Products Division" section, under "Engineering," is this tiny bit:

Qi Lu, EVP, Engineering will lead all engineering efforts for APG and will partner with Mark Morrissey in Product Management to ensure development and delivery of leading edge products. Qi continues to report to Zod [Nazem] with a dotted line into APG.

A dotted line! That's how it starts. Though the language notes that Qi Lu will still technically report (solid line) to Zod, the nefarious dotted line over to the AGP gives Decker the thin end of the wedge into gestating her own engineering group. Innocent synergy or first signs of Zod's legendary influence finally eroding?

Susan Decker, the humblest tech exec

Nick Douglas — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 15:51:54 EDT

Reading stories like the Google founders' fight over king-sized airborne beds and Oracle founder Larry Ellison's big-boat-buying spree, and execs like Google VP Marissa Mayer and Fox Interactive head Ross Levinsohn gabbing to the press whenever possible, the average Valley Joe may think every Silicon Valley suit has an ego the size of a dwarf planet.

Not so! When Yahoo announced its new "Marketplaces" business unit today, with a director who reports to Decker, the Wall Street Journal tried to pump up Decker's prospects. She demurred.

It could also possibly indicate that Ms. Decker is being groomed as a potential candidate to succeed Chief Executive Terry Semel upon his eventual retirement. This is the first time Ms. Decker, 43 years old, has formal responsibility for a part of the company's operations. ("I don't think this announcement is about this," said Ms. Decker. "It's about bringing a great executive into the company.")

Remember that this is the same exec who said Yahoo is comfortable being Number 2 in search. You don't see fake-humble people like the Google execs pulling this, do you?

Yahoo Hires Knight Ridder Executive To Head New Marketplace Unit [Wall Street Journal; photo from Yahoo]

Morning news: Blue Frog croaks

Nick Douglas — Thu, 18 May 2006 12:42:41 EDT

Sun promises to make Java open source. It will be the loss leader for a lovely set of Sun steak knives. [VNUnet]
Blue Security dies. USA Today publishes graph showing the Blue Frog mascot being slowly cooked. [Washington Post]
"I wouldn't take that so literally." — Yahoo CFO Susan Decker, about projected revenue of $4.6 billion to $4.85 billion. Apparently those numbers were metaphorical. [CNN Money]
Napster almost made money this quarter. Who'd have thought that an RIAA-approved walled garden piggybacking off the brand recognition of a stick-it-to-the-man filesharing network wouldn't be a cash cow? [CNET]
Oh, looks like the Internet is just for child porn. At least on Orkut. [Bloomberg]

Yahoo: And I'll have that one too

ndouglas — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 13:50:53 EST

Digg founder Kevin Rose ritually denied the rumor that Yahoo bought his social bookmark venture for $40 million (or was it $30 million?). Let's weigh the possibilities.

Why Yahoo will buy Digg	Why Yahoo won't buy Digg
Kevin Rose denies it.	Kevin Rose denies it.
Social bookmarks — so hot right now.	Yahoo already has del.icio.us.
There's room for more in Yahoo.	Josh Schachter will cut you.
Digg would make a great Yahoo property.	Yahoo would make a great Digg property.
Yahoo is the new home of Web 2.0.	Unless Susan Decker disagrees.
The blogger who leaked this heard about del.icio.us pre-launch too.	No blogger is right twice.
The deal brings in Digg's user base.	Who wants a user base of angry teen boys?
Kevin Rose is sexy.	Dare I say...too sexy?

Yahoo!, Digg Acquisition Rumors [Jiboneus]

Do you Yahoo? No? Oh. Well that's okay.

ndouglas — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 14:38:54 EST

Bloomberg quotes a major Yahoo executive:

"We don't think it's reasonable to assume we're going to gain a lot of share from Google," Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker said in an interview. "It's not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share."

Ouch. At least they're "exceptionally strong" in Asia. "Yahoo: We're big in Japan."

Yahoo! gives up quest for search dominance [Seattle PI]