Update, 1:55 p.m. PT, Dec. 17
An insider at Yahoo told TheWrap reports of the lavish party are “greatly exaggerated.”
The bill was closer to $2 million-not the $7 million initially reported.
The holiday party was also more of a Roaring 20’s theme than Great Gatsby in celebration of Yahoo’s 20th anniversary.
And criticism against Mayer for sitting in pictures is unreasonable: she was nine months pregnant and ended up giving birth six days later.
Previously
Loyalists of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer are coming to her defense in the face of backlash over a lavish holiday party totaling a reported $7 million.
The party, which had a Great Gatsby theme, was held on San Francisco’s Pier 48. Mayer appeared in “pure white armchair,” according to Vice.
But supporters of Mayer inside Yahoo disputed the number, estimating the price tag was one-third of the $7 million that’s been reported, according to the New York Post.
On top of the Gatsby-party backlash, Yahoo investor Eric Jackson, who’s managing director of SpringOwl Asset Management, slammed Mayer for what he said was $108 million she spends on food for Yahoo employees every year.
Those numbers were also disputed by Mayer loyalists, but Jackson said,”I stand by all the numbers in the report” while calling for Mayer’s firing.
“She’s acting as if she’s the CEO of a $30 billion company,” Jackson told the Post. “But once you take away its stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo! Japan, core Yahoo! is really a $3 billion company.”
Yahoo didn’t immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment regarding the party.