Yahoo’s chief executive Marissa Meyer will not receive her 2016 cash bonus while the company’s top lawyer Ronald Bell has resigned following their mishandling of security breaches which compromised the personal date of millions of users.

In addition to forfeiting the bonus of around $2m, Ms Meyer is voluntarily forgoing stock awards worth millions, calling for the money to be shared among the company’s 8,500 staff – while the board has accepted her offer it is not clear whether the money will be redistributed.

“In late 2014 senior executives and relevant legal staff were aware that a state-sponsored actor had accessed certain user accounts by exploiting the company’s account management tool,” Yahoo said in a statement.

“The 2014 security incident was not properly investigated and analysed at the time, and the company was not adequately advised with respect to the legal and business risks associated with the 2014 security incident,” it added.

Yahoo has endured a turbulent few years and Ms Mayer has repeatedly come under fire for her handling of the 2014 breaches.

“When I learned in September 2016 that a large number of our user database files had been stolen, I worked with the team to disclose the incident to users, regulators, and government agencies,” Ms Mayer wrote in a blog post on Tumblr.

“However, I am the CEO of the company and since this incident happened during my tenure,” she added.

The world’s most valuable brands Show all 10 1 /10 The world’s most valuable brands The world’s most valuable brands 1st - Google Google replaced Apple as the world’s most valuable brand, with a brand value of $109.5bn, according to Brand Finance The world’s most valuable brands 2nd - Apple Apple’s brand value declined from $145.9bn to $107.1bn in 2016 The world’s most valuable brands 3rd - Amazon Amazon's brand value rose from $69.6bn to $106.4bn in 2016 Amazon The world’s most valuable brands 4th - At&t Of the 40 telecoms brands in the ranking, AT&T in 2016 overtook Verizon as the most valuable brand rising to $87bn from $59.9bn the year before The world’s most valuable brands 5th - Microsoft Microsoft's brand value rose marginally from $67.3bn to $76.3bn in 2016 The world’s most valuable brands 6th - Samsung Amazon's brand value rose from $58.6bn to $66.2bn The world’s most valuable brands 7th - Verizon Verizon's brand value inched up from $63.1bn to $65.9bn The world’s most valuable brands 8th - Walmart Walmart's brand value rose from $53.6bn to $62.5bn The world’s most valuable brands 9th - Facebook Facebook's brand value increased sharply from $34bn to just shy of $62bn The world’s most valuable brands 10th - ICBC ICBC saw its brand value rise to $47.8bn from $36.3bn. It was the most valuabe financial brand in the world in 2016 replacing Wells Fargo

Yahoo recorded expenses of $16m in relation to security incidents in the year ended 31 December. The company said it expects that capital expenditures in 2017 will be slightly higher than the amount reported in 2016.