SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) — A former president of Yahoo and her husband reached a settlement Monday in their long-running divorce involving about $71 million in real estate, stock, cash and other assets.
The fight between ex-Yahoo President Susan Decker, 49, and her one-time investment banker husband Michael Dovey, 52, revealed a seamy side of Silicon Valley. The multimillion-dollar divorce proceedings included allegations of infidelity, drug use and spying, the Marin Independent Journal reported (http://bit.ly/Jv6dgE ).
Marin County Superior Court Judge Verna Adams approved the settlement presented by the former couple's attorneys Monday morning, just before a trial in the case was set to begin.
Decker and Dovey met at Harvard Business School and married in 1992. They have three children.
They filed for divorce in 2007, the same year Decker was promoted president of Yahoo Inc. She resigned in 2009 following a tumultuous period for the company.
Also that year, a confidential letter from Dovey's attorneys to Decker's became public alleging she had extramarital affairs, bugged the couple's condo in Laguna Beach and used illegal drugs.
Dovey's lawyers said Decker had similarly accused him of infidelity and drug use.
"As in any acrimonious divorce, certain statements were made by the parties in the process of litigation that were reckless and in accurate. We deeply regret this," Dovey and Decker said in a signed joint statement released Monday.
The properties involved in the divorce negotiations included the family's five-bedroom home in Belvedere, a wealthy Marin County enclave along San Francisco Bay. The former couple also owned the $6 million Laguna Beach condo, two Lake Tahoe condos worth a combined $2 million and a $1 million parcel of land in Napa. None of the properties carried a mortgage.
Dovey had earned up to $1.5 million as an investment banker at Montgomery Securities but stopped working in his 30s, according to court filings. He had about $13 million in savings when he left his job.
During the protracted court battle, Dovey's attorneys issued multiple subpoenas to Yahoo officials demanding emails and records. Yahoo's head of corporate security was among the witnesses scheduled to testify.
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Information from: Marin Independent Journal, http://www.marinij.com