The CEO of tech giant Microsoft, Satya Nadella, saw his compensation rise by 63 per cent year-on-year.
It was revealed in the company's DEF 14A proxy statement that its chief exec received $79.1 million in total compensation. Of that, $2.5 million was his salary, while another $71.2 million was from stock awards. There's another $5.2m for 'non equity incentive plan compensation' on top of $169,791 in other compensation.
The bulk of the 63 per cent increase came from an 81 per cent rise in stock awards.
All of this comes following a rather insane year for layoffs in both tech and games. Microsoft has cut around 2,500 roles on its own. So, er, that's cool.
Nadella wrote in the company's annual report that things are cool actually.
"We are bringing great games to more people on more devices," he said. "With our acquisition of Activision Blizzard King, which closed October 2023, we've added hundreds of millions of players to our ecosystem. We now have 20 franchises that have generated over $1bn in lifetime revenue—from Candy Crush, Diablo, and Halo, to Warcraft, Elder Scrolls, and Gears of War.
"And with Xbox cloud gaming, we continue to innovate to offer players more ways to experience the games they love - where, when, and how they want. Finally, we brought four of our fan-favorite titles to Nintendo Switch and Sony PlayStation for the first time, as we continue to extend our content to new platforms."
