'Leaks Uncool' According to Yahoo GC's Leaked MemoBrian Glaser Corporate Counsel
09-25-2012
As Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer prepares for a Tuesday unveiling of her new direction for the embattled web company, general counsel Ron Bell is getting some preliminary attention for a leaked internal memo he penned. Its title: “Leaks Uncool.”
According to Kara Swisher, writing in All Things D, Bell told employees:
It’s never OK to share information in an internal memo EVEN if the company issues public communications about the same subject . . . We will fire employees who leak company confidential information and we will avail ourselves of all other legal remedies to protect those confidences.
And just to make sure his point was clear, Bell added, “If you do it, you can go to jail and face a very large fine.”
The GC’s memo comes after a series of employee leaks to media about all manner of Yahoo internal doings, from last week’s finalization of the company’s sale of the Alibaba Group to a preview of Mayer’s Tuesday presentation (which was leaked, again, to Swisher).
In Swisher’s Monday column about Bell’s anti-leak admonishment, she can’t help poking fun at Bell’s earnest tone (“Jeepers, I better lob a call in to Ally McBeal, stat!”), while also pointing out that the GC might be setting an unwinnable goal for Yahoo: “Memo to Ron Bell: Humans like to talk and they like to share, especially at a media company.”
Of course, the focus on Bell’s memo will quickly fade once Mayer takes the spotlight with her eight-point plan to bring the company back from the brink of Internet irrelevance—and after that, all the leaks in the world might not matter much. As Swisher notes: “If Yahoo’s new team actually managed to turn the company around, even a mountain of leaked memos wouldn’t matter one iota.”
See also: "Yahoo CEO Mayer Promotes Ron Bell to General Counsel," CorpCounsel, August 2012.
|
