Somewhere over the rainbow in Marin County, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer dressed herself as Dorothy and her staff as the rest of the characters from “The Wizard of Oz” in an elaborate, expensive photoshoot leading up to one of her famously elaborate, expensive staff holiday parties. Re/code reports that the effort cost $70,000 and some respect. The party itself took place at San Francisco's Pier 48 Business Insider wrote at the time,
“It was very embarrassing, but Marissa thought that it was the way to make employees in Silicon Valley happy,” said one anonymous source. “We really could not argue,” the source added. But were employees clicking their heels with delight, or the desire to get home?
Re/code had the character breakdown as follows:
"Emerging product head Adam Cahan was the Scarecrow; former development chief Jackie Reses was the Wicked Witch; communications head Jeff Bonforte was the Tin Man; media and marketing boss Kathy Savitt was Glinda; top lawyer Ron Bell was a flying monkey; CFO Ken Goldman was the Wizard."
Relatedly, Re/code's Kara Swisher has been circling Yahoo like, I don't know, guys, a tornado of solid tech journalism, reporting yesterday that the struggling company had hired McKinsey to consult on which aspects of its businesses to purge. Meanwhile, Mayer insisted its execs sign a pledge of allegiance to the company, vowing that they stay.
Was that before, after, or during the cosplay session?
Previously: Yahoo! Goes After Former Former Employee For Leaking Secrets