Former Yahoo COO slams media coverage of Marissa Mayer as 'remarkably unfair' (YHOO)

May 27, 2016 at 13:47 PM EDT

Bloomberg West

Dan Rosensweig, the CEO of Chegg and former COO of Yahoo, isn't too happy with some of the media coverage Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has received lately.

In an interview with Bloomberg's Emily Chang on Thursday, Rosensweig said a lot of the press reports on Mayer had been "unfair."

"I think a lot of what has been said has been remarkably unfair," Rosensweig said. "Unfortunately, some of these things are fair game whether she likes it or not."

Rosensweig pointed to recent stories about Yahoo's spending over half a million dollars on Mayer's security as examples of unfair coverage, saying it "doesn't really matter" for public investors. Yahoo disclosed in a public filing for its annual shareholder meeting last week that it spent $544,061 on Mayer's security because of "specific security threats that we believed were credible."

Rosensweig believes the press should instead focus on the bigger story around Mayer.

"She should not be under this kind of attack by anybody," he said. "That's the story that should be written. Nobody chooses to write it. Why is a CEO under this kind of attack?"

Rosensweig played a major role at Yahoo from 2002 to 2006, a period when the company grew its user base to 500 million from 200 million and its annual revenue to roughly $4.5 billion from $700 million. Though he left the company after a management shake-up, Rosensweig continues to be involved in some ways, as he is now advising Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert's bid over Yahoo's core internet business.

"I care a great deal about the company, as do many former Yahoos," Rosensweig said. "And so when there are high-quality people interested in understanding the business, we're all happy to help them understand the business."

NOW WATCH: Uber is making customers pay for having drivers wait