Doubt it's about his talent (even though he is very talented). Think it's more of a PR move. It'd look pretty bad for Mayer & Co if he ditched Yahoo in a couple months, and a ton of people would notice / company would get bad press. Keep him & you never have the negative press. Plus the scope of the negative press would dwarf the type of press this blurb is getting.
Question is, is the difference between the $81 million and the amount they would have paid him strictly for talent over the course of the contract justifiable on those PR grounds?
It is for them. Mayer doesnt want Tumblr to go down the drain and for that to work she needs Karp on board. 80M to keep the original visionary on board seems justifiable given the 1.1B total transaction price.
Question is, is the difference between the $81 million and the amount they would have paid him strictly for talent over the course of the contract justifiable on those PR grounds?