Another Media Second Banana Gets Huge Severance

Henrique de Castro

Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer is parting ways with her top executive, an expensive setback in her effort to turn around the struggling Internet portal, according to wsj.com.

Henrique de Castro, the chief operating officer Ms. Mayer poached from Google Inc. in 2012, is departing this week. One of the highest-paid executives in Silicon Valley, Mr. de Castro exits after about a year on the job with a severance package that could be worth more than an estimated $42 million.

The departure is a further sign yet that Ms. Mayer is struggling to revive growth in Yahoo's advertising business, which has continued to lose share to rivals Facebook Inc. and Google. Mr. de Castro, functioning as the company's top ad executive and liaison to marketers on Madison Avenue, failed to convince advertisers to spend more money to reach visitors to its websites and mobile apps.

"There's been no sign of a turnaround at the company," said Mark Mahaney, managing director at RBC Capital Markets.

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