Susan L. Decker

Former president of Yahoo!; founder and CEO of Raftr

• Born: June 28, 1962
• Place of Birth: Denver, Colorado

Primary Company/Organization: Yahoo!

Introduction

Susan L. Decker has served as a role model for women who want to be successful in their careers without giving up the right to have a family. She is best known for her tenure (2000–2009) at Yahoo, where she began as chief financial officer (CFO) and ultimately became president of the company in 2007. During that time, she was the second most highly paid female business executive in the United States. She grew the company's the advertising base, making key acquisitions and focusing on maintaining transparency with Wall Street. When the economic downturn and a takeover bid from Microsoft led to a difficult period for the company, chief executive officer (CEO) Jerry Yang was replaced in 2009 with an external candidate, Carol Bartz, leading to Decker's resignation from Yahoo! in 2009. Her business acumen and her ability to get along well with others have made her a top choice of company heads such as Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, and Craig R. Barrett when looking for individuals to serve on their boards.

Early Life

Susan Lynne “Sue” Decker was born on June 28, 1962, in Denver, Colorado, where she was raised. She attended Tufts University, earning a bachelor's degree in computer science and economics in 1984. After receiving an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1986, Decker signed on as a media analyst with Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette.

Decker remained with Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette for fourteen years, becoming an equity research analyst. In 1996, she was assigned the task of reporting on Yahoo! Her lengthy report on the new company was so well received that it became a case study at the Stanford School of Business. In 1998, she became the global director of equity research. Part of her job involved managing media, advertising, and publishing stocks.

Life's Work

After becoming friends with Yahoo! executives, Decker was in an excellent position to be considered for the post of Yahoo!'s chief financial officer (CFO) under Terry Semel in 2000. Decker worked well with Semel, who was considered one of the top executives in the United States. They decided to purchase key Internet content in areas such as search, music, jobs, and personals that could be seamlessly integrated into the overall Yahoo! community. By 2002, Decker was also serving as executive vice president of finance and administration, which placed her in charge of human resources, facilities, and investment relations. In 2004, Yahoo!'s net income came close to quadrupling, rising to $840 million. However, as the situation at Yahoo! worsened during the downward slide of the dot-coms, Yahoo!'s revenue plunged 40 percent, precipitating a flurry of top-level departures.

When Decker had come on board, Yahoo! had been outsourcing its searches to Google, but she understood the importance of search engines in promoting advertising, and she brought the search function back home to Yahoo! In 2003, Yahoo! introduced an improved search engine. Decker also worked to expand Yahoo, acquiring almost thirty companies, including Kekkoo SA, a Parisian shopping site; Inktomi; Overture; Hot Jobs; and the music site LAUNCH. In 2007, Decker negotiated Yahoo!'s acquisition of Right Media, an online publisher that merged advertising transactions with publishers and networks by allowing advertisers to bid on advertising space. The acquisition was criticized, since it was carried out in stages, with the first 20 percent purchased in October 2006 and the final 80 percent acquired in April 2007 for an additional $680 million.

Decker's strategy for improving Yahoo's financial status was largely dependent on protecting the features that generated the most revenue for the company: content brands, mail services, personals, and services for small businesses. By 2006, Google had become an Internet company to be reckoned with, and it had become Yahoo!'s chief rival. As a result, Yahoo! instituted a major reorganization plan. Decker became executive vice president of the Advertiser and Publisher Group while still serving as CFO. At the time, Yahoo! was attracting 500 million visitors every month.

Under Decker's guidance, Yahoo! had become one of the top sellers of Internet advertising and was running its own ads on other sites, such as eBay, Comcast, and newspaper sites. Decker's professional rivalry with Google did not extend to personal relationships, and she became good friends with Sheryl Sandberg, who was a senior executive at Google at the time. The two women had met through Sandberg's husband, David, a former head of Yahoo! Music.

By 2007, Yahoo! was reporting $751 million in profits and $6.4 billion in sales. However, with a market value of $162.8 billion as compared to Yahoo!'s $36.5 billion, Google continued to outpace Yahoo! Social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace were also giving Yahoo! stiff competition, and Yahoo! missed out on deals that would have allowed it to sell ads on those sites. Instead, Facebook partnered with Microsoft, and Google inked a deal with Myspace. By that time, Yahoo!'s employment base had grown to twelve thousand, and morale was often low, since the company was seen as too bureaucratic.

In 2007, in the midst of Yahoo!'s financial woes, Decker became president while Yahoo! cofounder Jerry Yang served as CEO. As Yahoo!'s situation became grave, the company faced a Microsoft takeover. Decker was adamant about resisting Microsoft's $44.6 billion offer to buy out Yahoo, but her decision was seen as a mistake by many both inside and outside the Yahoo! circle. Efforts to solve financial problems by partnering with Google failed to win approval from the federal government because of antitrust considerations. When Decker failed to negotiate a buyout of the popular video site YouTube, which was eventually bought by Google, and missed a short window of opportunity to purchase Facebook, her failures were seen as major mistakes.

Yahoo!'s board of directors hired Heidrick and Struggles, an executive recruitment firm, to look for a replacement for Yang when he was ousted as CEO. When Yang was forced out of Yahoo, Decker expected to be named CEO and was generally considered the most qualified person for the job. Instead, the board hired an outsider, Carol Bartz, who was well known in Silicon Valley. Decker stepped down on January 13, 2009, when she was passed over for the position. Despite financial problems, her time at Yahoo! had proved profitable for the company, with revenues growing from $1 billion in 2000 to more than $7 billion at her departure. Bartz's tenure would prove to be unsuccessful: In April 2009, the same month in which Decker's resignation became effective, Bartz accused a number of employees of not doing their jobs and instituted a series of layoffs. When she, in turn, was ousted in 2011, only a third of Yahoo! employees expressed approval of her job performance.

After leaving Yahoo, Decker accepted a ten-month position as entrepreneur in residence at her alma mater, Harvard Business School. In 2010, she was honored with the Alumni Achievement Award, the highest form of recognition offered by Harvard Business School.

Subsequently, Decker became a private investment consultant and focused on family. She has been much sought after as a member of boards of companies, including Pixar Animation Studios, Costco Wholesale, Berkshire Hathaway, Intel, LegalZoom, Vail Resorts, Vox Media, and SurveyMonkey. She was also a board member of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research from 2005 to 2007, a trustee of the charity Save the Children from 2010 to 2016, and a trustee of the Marin Country Day School from 2013 to 2017.

Inspired by her daughter's experience using social media in college, Decker launched Raftr. a curated social network and weekly blog for college students, in 2018. She serves as its CEO as of 2024.

Personal Life

While attending Harvard Business School, Decker met Michael Dovey. They married in 1992. At the age of thirty, with $13 million in the bank, Dovey, an investment banker, gave up a $1.5 million annual salary at Montgomery Securities to retire.

Decker's personal life became a major news story when she and Dovey became involved in protracted divorce proceedings. Beginning in 2007, their battles for child custody and control of $71 million in real estate, cash, stocks, and other assets were drawn out over a five-year period. Divorce papers reflected the lavish lifestyle enjoyed by the high-power couple, who owned residences in San Francisco Bay, Laguna Beach, and Lake Tahoe, land in Napa Valley, a private jet, two sailboats, five motorcycles, and an expensive golf club membership. A private agreement finally reached in 2012 was dubbed the Treaty of Versailles by the media. It resulted in the sale of real estate, with profits divided, and the establishment of large trust funds for the three children produced by the marriage. An avid skier and hiker, Decker settled with her three children in Marin County.

Bibliography

Breslau, Karen, et al. “Big Thinkers for Big Business.” Newsweek 145.24 (2005): 49–60. Print.

Christopher, L. Carol. “Yahoo! Raises Online Ad Ante with Purchase of Right Media.” Seybold Report 7.10 (2007): 2–3. Print.

Heffes, Ellen M. “Something to Yahoo! About: An Internet Winner.” Financial Executive 20.3 (2004): 32–36. Print.

Helft, Miguel. “Can She Turn Yahoo! into, Well, Google?” New York Times, 1 July 2007: B1+. Print.

Kim, Cherry. “On the Record: Yahoo!'s Susan Decker.” CFO 21.12 (2005): n. pag. Print.

Kopytoff, Verne. “Yahoo!'s Embattled CEO to Step Down.” San Francisco Chronicle 18 Nov. 2008: A-1. Print.

Pachal, Peter. “How Carol Bartz Blew It as Yahoo! CEO.” PC Magazine 30.10 (2011): n. pag. Print.

Schack, Justin. “Susan Decker: Yahoo!” Institutional Investor (Americas edition) 39.2 (2005): n. pag. Print.

"Sue Decker." LinkedIn, 2024, www.linkedin.com/in/sue-decker. Accessed 8 Mar. 2024.