Yahoo Sues Alleged Leaker for Talking to Author

Yahoo doesn't like it when you spill its secrets: An ex-staffer accused of leaking information to an author chronicling Marissa Mayer's leadership is the target of a lawsuit from the company, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. According to the lawsuit, Cecile Lal, a former senior director of product management, was "eager" to provide information for Nicholas Carlson's Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo and searched confidential archives for material that could help him, reports the Chronicle, which notes that the book portrays the CEO as a "sometimes effective and tenacious leader" but also outlines problems she faced.

According to the lawsuit, Lal's leaking of information from confidential meetings with Mayer "also destabilized the trust on which Yahoo relies in providing its employees with the greatest level of information Yahoo has ever shared with its workforce," reports Bloomberg. Neither Lal nor Carlson has commented on the case yet, though Carlson tweeted that he is "looking for a very good First Amendment lawyer." In his book, Carlson said Yahoo and Mayer ordered "former Yahoo employees, personal friends, former colleagues, current colleagues, and admirers not to speak with me for the book," and the sources who did agree to speak to him were risking their careers at Yahoo, Google, and elsewhere in the Internet industry. (More Marissa Mayer stories.)