Yahoo Inc. has been courting controversy the past few weeks. First came its edict banning current employees from working at home; now the tech company is facing a lawsuit from a former executive who claims that it fired him to avoid shelling out millions of dollars in promised compensation.
Michael Katz joined Yahoo when the Internet giant bought his ad-targeting company, Interclick, for $270 million in December 2011. As part of his compensation, Yahoo allegedly promised Katz four bonus payments totaling $4.5 million, along with vested stock options.
But on Dec. 9, just two weeks before he was set to receive his first $1.35 million bonus check, Yahoo’s HR head Jackie Reses summoned him to a bar and fired him, effective on Dec. 14, according to his lawsuit. Katz says that his abrupt firing, which came after “a year of industry-leading performance,” was an obvious attempt by Yahoo to avoid paying him his promised compensation.
He is now suing his former employer for breach of contract, and is seeking unspecified damages.
Read more at Reuters.
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