indica News Bureau-
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella earned $42.9 million in total compensation for fiscal 2019, a 66% rise over fiscal 2018, the company has announced.
Nadella received a base salary jump of $1 million and an increase in stocks.
“Nadella’s strategic leadership, including his efforts to strengthen trust with customers, drives for a company-wide culture change and successful entry and expansion into new technologies and markets,” Microsoft’s independent directors said in a proxy statement Wednesday.
When he took over from Steve Ballmer in 2014, Nadella took home $84.3 million, the highest earnings in a fiscal year for him so far.
“For fiscal 2019, the annual total compensation for the median employee of the company (other than our CEO) was $172,512,” the company said.
“The past fiscal year offered another record year for financial performance, and Microsoft delivered strong results for our shareholders, including a return of $30.9 billion in the form of share repurchases and dividends,” wrote the board of directors.
During the first five-year performance period under Nadella’s leadership, Microsoft’s market capitalization increased $509 billion (from $302 billion to $811 billion).
“Microsoft’s relative TSR was in the 97th percentile, resulting in Nadella earning and vesting in the maximum 900,000 shares,” the company said in the filing.
Microsoft’s board of directors last month authorized another $40 billion in share repurchases and raised its quarterly dividend by 5 cents, or 11%, to 51 cents a share.
The company bought back $19.54 billion in shares last year. In the previous fiscal year, the buyback was worth $10.72 billion.
“The new share repurchase program, which has no expiration date, may be terminated at any time. The dividend is payable Dec 12 to shareholders of record Nov 21, 2019. The ex-dividend date will be Nov 20, 2019,” the company said in its statement.
The company will hold its annual shareholders meeting Dec 4 virtually. It will be hosted by Nadella, chief financial officer Amy Hood, president and chief legal officer Brad Smith and independent board chair John W Thompson.
Driven by growth in its Cloud and Surface laptop segments, Microsoft posted revenue of $33.7 billion and net income of $13.2 billion for its fourth quarter ended June 30. For the entire fiscal 2019, Microsoft reported revenue of $125.8 billion, up 14%, and net income of $39.2 billion, a record for the company.
Microsoft, which continues to be valued as a $1 trillion company, returned $7.7 billion to shareholders in share repurchases and dividends in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019. —IANS
