[Gratsby]

The pool of people who are capable of leading a company the size of Yahoo isn't that big to begin with.

Add to that the fact that Yahoo had a recent serial history of hiring then firing CEOs before they brought in Mayer, and the pool of potential people to fill the spot shrinks again.

Yahoo had no pathway to success and was likely to fail spectacularly - especially given the way the board was behaving - which signified to any potential hire that it might be their last job. The pool of potential CEOs shrinks again.

Of course the incoming CEO would negotiate a well-beyond-market severance package. They shouldn't even want to hire someone who didn't have the foresight to do so.

[colordrops]

This is a common argument used to justify these golden parachutes. While you may be right in the context of the current system, you completely ignore the fact that the current system is seriously broken.

[aaroninsf]

I'm going to point out the obvious: that perhaps the problem is that _we think it's a good idea to have companies like Yahoo in the first place_.

Sprawling, disjoint, unfocused, patchwork... these descriptions comes to mind, and they apply as much to Google, whose rise and slip from clarity of purpose and mission is eerily similar in contour to those of us who remember when Yahoo was All That.

This bubble's obsession with unicorns is a fine example of an emergent system marshaling unbelievably vast resources in the service of perversely petty and frivolous aims.

[dikdik]

The "elite" are not actually elite, they are just a wealthy mediocrity. Much more capable people than Meyer are likely sitting around in a cubicle right now, but due to their lack of 'correct' connections/pedigree/experience they will never have even 1/100th the opportunity as Meyer.

[Gratsby]

If you're on the board of directors for a billion dollar search engine, who do you hire as CEO? A guy in a cubicle, or a Stanford grad who was employee #20 at google that spent a career in charge of Search, User Experience, and Location?

You're acting like they just hired Paris Hilton off the street, when the reality is that she busted her ass her entire career in a field that few women have had major success in.

The last CEO to hold onto the job at Yahoo as long as Mayer has is Terry Semel, and he got booted in 2007.