Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was awarded a $30 million pay raise — 63% greater than what he earned last 12 months — at the same time as the Windows maker slashed its workforce by 2,500 people.
Stock awards for Nadella, who earned $48.5 million in 2023, climbed to about $71 million from $39 million a 12 months earlier, according an SEC filing.
The raise comes after Microsoft shed 1,900 people from its gaming workforce following the corporate’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Months later, it shuttered one other gamer firm, Arkane Austin, and handed out pink slips to 650 employees.
Nonetheless, Nadella was rewarded with a big windfall that might have been higher had it not been for cybersecurity breaches that got the eye of Congress.
Nadella asked for a pay cut that shaved $5.5 million off of his total compensation for fiscal 12 months 2024 due to cyberattacks that rocked the software giant, which the federal government has alleged will be traced back to Russia and China.
A money incentive that Nadella was in line to receive, which was tied mostly to revenue and operating income targets, was slashed from $10.66 million to $5.2 million, based on the filing, first cited by CNBC.
Microsoft said in its filing that Nadella asked the corporate’s compensation committee to take the safety breaches into consideration when determining his pay.
“Mr. Nadella agreed that the Company’s performance was extremely strong, but reflecting on his personal commitment to security and his role because the CEO, asked the Board to think about departing from the established performance metrics and reduce his money incentive to reflect his personal accountability for the main target and speed required for the changes that today’s cybersecurity threat landscape showed were essential,” the committee wrote.
Lawmakers in June grilled Microsoft President Brad Smith concerning the tech giant’s security practices and ties to China a 12 months after alleged China-linked hackers spied on federal emails by hacking the firm.
The hackers accessed 60,000 State Department emails by breaking into Microsoft’s systems in the summertime of 2023, while Russia-linked cybercriminals individually spied on Microsoft’s senior staff emails this 12 months, based on the corporate’s disclosures.
Microsoft, the world’s biggest software-maker, can be a key vendor to the US government and national security establishment.
Microsoft’s business accounts for around 3% of the US federal IT budget, Smith said on the hearing.
Lawmakers grilled Microsoft for its inability to forestall each the Russian and Chinese hacks, which they said put federal networks in danger despite not using sophisticated means.
In May, Nadella circulated a memo to employees titled “Prioritizing security above all else.”
“Should you’re faced with the tradeoff between security and one other priority, your answer is obvious: Do security,” Nadella wrote.
Microsoft said that it will have in mind employees’ contributions to cybersecurity when determining compensation.
Despite the hacks, Nadella has delivered for investors. Since Jan. 1, Microsoft’s stock has risen by greater than 16% — though it still lags the S&P 500, which has yielded gains of greater than 23% year-to-date.
Microsoft is scheduled to report its latest quarterly earnings next week.
The consensus view amongst Wall Street analysts is that the corporate notched a 3% year-over-year increase in earnings per share in addition to a 14% rise in revenues in comparison with the identical period a 12 months ago.
As of Friday, Microsoft, with a market capitalization of $3.2 trillion, was the third most beneficial company on the planet behind Nvidia, which leapfrogged Apple.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was awarded a $30 million pay raise — 63% greater than what he earned last 12 months — at the same time as the Windows maker slashed its workforce by 2,500 people.
Stock awards for Nadella, who earned $48.5 million in 2023, climbed to about $71 million from $39 million a 12 months earlier, according an SEC filing.
The raise comes after Microsoft shed 1,900 people from its gaming workforce following the corporate’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Months later, it shuttered one other gamer firm, Arkane Austin, and handed out pink slips to 650 employees.
Nonetheless, Nadella was rewarded with a big windfall that might have been higher had it not been for cybersecurity breaches that got the eye of Congress.
Nadella asked for a pay cut that shaved $5.5 million off of his total compensation for fiscal 12 months 2024 due to cyberattacks that rocked the software giant, which the federal government has alleged will be traced back to Russia and China.
A money incentive that Nadella was in line to receive, which was tied mostly to revenue and operating income targets, was slashed from $10.66 million to $5.2 million, based on the filing, first cited by CNBC.
Microsoft said in its filing that Nadella asked the corporate’s compensation committee to take the safety breaches into consideration when determining his pay.
“Mr. Nadella agreed that the Company’s performance was extremely strong, but reflecting on his personal commitment to security and his role because the CEO, asked the Board to think about departing from the established performance metrics and reduce his money incentive to reflect his personal accountability for the main target and speed required for the changes that today’s cybersecurity threat landscape showed were essential,” the committee wrote.
Lawmakers in June grilled Microsoft President Brad Smith concerning the tech giant’s security practices and ties to China a 12 months after alleged China-linked hackers spied on federal emails by hacking the firm.
The hackers accessed 60,000 State Department emails by breaking into Microsoft’s systems in the summertime of 2023, while Russia-linked cybercriminals individually spied on Microsoft’s senior staff emails this 12 months, based on the corporate’s disclosures.
Microsoft, the world’s biggest software-maker, can be a key vendor to the US government and national security establishment.
Microsoft’s business accounts for around 3% of the US federal IT budget, Smith said on the hearing.
Lawmakers grilled Microsoft for its inability to forestall each the Russian and Chinese hacks, which they said put federal networks in danger despite not using sophisticated means.
In May, Nadella circulated a memo to employees titled “Prioritizing security above all else.”
“Should you’re faced with the tradeoff between security and one other priority, your answer is obvious: Do security,” Nadella wrote.
Microsoft said that it will have in mind employees’ contributions to cybersecurity when determining compensation.
Despite the hacks, Nadella has delivered for investors. Since Jan. 1, Microsoft’s stock has risen by greater than 16% — though it still lags the S&P 500, which has yielded gains of greater than 23% year-to-date.
Microsoft is scheduled to report its latest quarterly earnings next week.
The consensus view amongst Wall Street analysts is that the corporate notched a 3% year-over-year increase in earnings per share in addition to a 14% rise in revenues in comparison with the identical period a 12 months ago.
As of Friday, Microsoft, with a market capitalization of $3.2 trillion, was the third most beneficial company on the planet behind Nvidia, which leapfrogged Apple.
