Yahoo sues ex-employee for giving information to reporter

Yahoo Inc. sued a former employee over claims she “brazenly” divulged confidential information about the company to a reporter who was writing a book about Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer’s leadership.

Joel Rosenblatt and Brian Womack of Bloomberg News report, “Yahoo claims that Cecile Lal, a former senior director of product management, broke a confidentiality agreement when she leaked proprietary information to the journalist that she learned during “FYI” meetings with Mayer, according to a complaint filed in state court in San Jose, California.

“Lal’s assistance last year to Nicholas Carlson for his book, ‘Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!,’ included searching confidential archives to support his writings and giving him her credentials to a password-protected site, according to the complaint.

“‘Indeed, Lal was eager to divulge Yahoo’s secrets, even telling Carlson in response to a specific request that ‘[i]fyou know the date of FYI exactly or other topics discussed on that day, it will help [in] finding’ the information he sought,’ Yahoo’s lawyers said.

“The book, which received some positive reviews, charts Mayer’s effort to turn around Yahoo, which has struggled to deliver revenue growth. While the book portrays her as a sometimes effective and tenacious leader, it also lays out the many difficulties she faces to drive success at a company that helped pioneer the Internet.”

Read more here. Carlson is a Business Insider journalist.