Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, received $79.1 million (£61 million) last year, a 63% increase over his salary the previous year.
That was in spite of Mr. Nadella’s request to have one component of his compensation plan reduced due to cybersecurity issues at the computer giant, which meant he received $5 million less than he would have otherwise.
Like many other IT companies, Microsoft has laid off hundreds of employees this year, many of whom were in its gaming section.
However, the board reported that the company’s revenue increased by 16% in the year ending June 30, 2024, in a proxy statement submitted to the US financial regulator.
“Mr. Nadella agreed that the company’s performance was extremely strong,” says a letter sent to shareholders by Microsoft’s pay committee.
He requested that they “consider departing from the established performance metrics and reduce his cash incentive to reflect his personal accountability” in response to many cyberattacks, the report noted.
Microsoft revealed one such incident in July 2023, in which hackers were able to access the email accounts of about 25 companies, including government institutions.
The Chinese embassy in London referred to Microsoft’s claim that the attack originated in China as “disinformation.”
The fiscal period concludes on June 30, 2024, a few weeks before the widespread internet outage that disrupted Microsoft Windows PCs and caused havoc across.
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“Many lifetimes of unwavering luxury”
According to the remuneration committee, Mr. Nadella’s financial salary was cut by more than half to $5.2 million.
Less than 7% of his overall salary is represented by it.
Stock options accounted for the majority of his $71.2 million salary.
Luke Hildyard, director of the High Pay Centre, stated that “superficially” the earnings made sense in light of Microsoft’s impressive financial results.
“However, we might also ask whether the extra $79 million on top of $49 million last year for someone who is already worth hundreds of millions, with more money than they could spend over multiple lifetimes of absolute luxury, is really necessary as a reward of incentive,” he stated to the BBC.
“None of Microsoft’s success would be possible without workers, customers, and wider society, so perhaps the proceeds of that success should be shared a little more evenly,” he said.
In other huge tech news, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, received $63.2 million in 2023, while Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, the most valuable firm in the world, received $34.2 million in the fiscal year 2024.
However, none of them compare to Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, whose salary might reach $56 billion.
SOURCE: BBC NEWS
