I do hope they do a better job spreading these packages at the lower levels of the organization than they have in the past. As others have pointed out, the biggest recipients of these pay packages in the past were at the very top of the company. Ever wonder why Terry Semel was the most highly compensated executive in the world for a few years running? It was a result of the board over compensating him with RSU and Stock Options. I think it is the tendency to enrich the top of the corporate hierarchy that has caused Y! to lose so many talented people in such a short amount of time. If it seemed more fair, the employee base might be more content to stick around. Even then, there are still a lot of talented and highly capable yahoos roaming the halls of its offices.

As for Microsoft, it is just desperate. If it is able to pull off this stunt and purchase Y!, I expect an exodus of talented Y! employees before all is said and done (I’ll be waving goodbye as well). In the end, it will succeed in killing off two companies at once. It might still succeed in that, even if it isn’t able to buy Y!. There are still many more obstacles ahead, including a showdown with EU regulators over antitrust concerns while weighed down by its recent antitrust setbacks, a possible Democratic administration which may provide more than a cursory glance over the application, a possible poison pill invoked by the Y! board, disgruntled shareholders of both companies, negative public opinion, an impending drop in revenues as fewer computers are sold combined with open source software eating its lunch, and a tight credit market that will make it harder for any company (including MS) from getting loans to pursue its prey.

Usually, they give out about $25-$50k worth of cash/RSU/options over 3-4 year period.

What is really disturbing (if not compromises fiduciary duty) is how much senior technology management is pocketing. Those programs designed to keep the middle/junior talent, but Zod used to give himself 50,000 RSUs year after year every year. Guys like Qi Lu, David Henke, Ash and others are granting themselves hundreds of thousands of $$ year after year. Useless guys like Mark Morrisey and David Ku whose biggest claim to fame was delivering pathetic Panama project are getting tens of thousands of RSUs, while little guys get nothing. (btw, every year they say that Sr. Mgmt is not eligible - it’s just not true, they get much bigger grants through “Sr. Rock-star” program). No wonder executives are sticking around and all the real talent is leaving every day.

For the rest of us, who in their right mind wants to work at Microsoft? It’s a done deal, it’s just a matter of time. The farewell emails and goodbye lunches are flying fast and furious in Sunnyvale. They could double my salary and my options and I still wouldn’t stay at Yahoo for another 6 months.

Get out while you can.

It was very tough to turn down ~75% of my salary to stay for 18 months, but I did.

One other detail — they actually vest in two chunks, 1 chunk in 9 months (33%) and they other 2/3 in 18 months.

even if they grant you just 500 RSUs after one year you can pocket aprox 15k with the price @USD30. Not bad huh? At the end of the day it is like a bonus.

the forward vesting clause on that acceleration is interesting, but otherwise this is same old same old - yahoo has historically done well with key talent, particularly in the face of google, facebook and others…

yahoo management: you guys are has-beens! just move on. nobody cares about you anymore. remember: theglobe.com, lycos, excite, go.com,…. oh do i really need to continue. your time has come and gone.

1. The RSU’s given to “special” people is nothing new. I received them a few years back and was told to keep it hush hush because the % of folks getting them was very limited. Never heard an actual % though. It was clearly explained to me as a retention tool for the people that the (often misguided) management wanted to keep on the roster. Even then, the vesting was accelerated and I even had some that matured in only 12 months. So this is definitely nothing new at all.

2. The past few years Y! has typically given a mix of options and RSUs. RSU was a response to Google’s use of same. Works nicely when the stock price doesn’t move much over 3-4 years because at least the employee gets something, even if the stock price goes down whereas with an option if it is underwater it is just worthless.

3. I once did hear about some kind of “Rock Star” deal for existing employees that was designed to create a package that was comparable to being part of a decent-sized startup acquisition. That way the “big payoff” allure of going to a startup would be mitigated. As far as I know, however, that real “Rock Star” package never came to fruition.

4. Y! is a fantastic place to work overall. They care about people and really “get” many of the important things. While Y! is a profitable money-printing-machine compared to most companies, the fact that Google outperforming Y! every time just makes them look bad over and over.

5. I am disturbed by the current trends at Y! to keep a lot of the middle management who have been around a long time (resting+vesting types or just lucky-to-get-in-when-the-stock-was-low-and-now-climbing-the-corporate-ladder-year-by-year types) and dumping the more junior folks that really needed some mentoring and leadership to become the future leaders of the company.

@yahooworker, I concur. Despite all the events, I still enjoy working at Yahoo very much. It is a good company to work for and the people are cool.
I also agree that there are still lots of talented people there.
Every company has its stars and underperformers. Saying that only losers are left at Y! is just stereotyping.
That’s like saying that poor and developing countries are struggling because the people there aren’t smart enough.

Don’t know if the “Rock Stars” would now decide to stay longer than they would have otherwise, but i would assume that a lot of self respecting, ambitious and competent yahoos (who didn’t get these RSU’s ) would now ask themselves that are they bleeding (purple) for the wrong firm.

Unfortunately, management has chosen to reward only the few that are considered super stars. This sends a very bad message imo, those of us that didn’t get any stocks are not worthy. In a time when people are leaving left and right, a better strategy would be to grant everyone that received a good review a little something. A few hundred shares here and there would be nice. I’m not talking about thousands of shares, but at the very least, this would show Yahoo cares.

To those that thinks the only people that are left at Yahoo these days are losers that can’t a job, you’re totally wrong. There are still plenty of great talents here. Some of us actually do like working at Yahoo! (overall)..