- Snap on Thursday published its annual report, which detailed the compensation it paid executives last year.
- The report revealed that the company gave Imran Khan, its chief financial officer, a $100 million stock award in January, days before its initial public offering.
- The report also revealed the value of the massive stock grant Snap gave CEO Evan Spiegel at the time of its IPO; it was worth $637 million.
- The revelations come amid criticism about a recent redesign of the company’s core Snapchat app.
Snap gave CEO Evan Spiegel a gargantuan stock award last year.
More quietly, it also handed out a jumbo-sized award to Imran Khan, its chief financial officer.
In January 2017, mere days before Snap went public, the company handed out $100 million worth of restricted shares to Khan, the company disclosed in its annual report, made public Thursday. The shares — some 6.1 million of them — will vest over the next 10 years.
“This … grant was a one-time performance award granted to Mr. Khan,” the company said in its annual report.
The award was the second major stock grant given by Snap to Khan. The company also gave him a $145 million stock grant in 2015, according to the registration statement it filed before going public.
Khan was one of at least three Snap executives that received large stock awards last year. Most notable was that granted to Spiegel. At the time of its initial public offering, the mobile app maker gave Spiegel 34 million shares worth $637 million.
Snap had previously disclosed the relative size of the stock award it planned to give Spiegel in conjunction with its IPO, but not the value of that award. Unlike Khan’s grant, Spiegel’s vest over a three-year period.
The company also handed out a one-time grant of 2.2 million shares in May to Chris Handman, Snap’s general counsel at the time. Those shares were worth $53.8 million when they were granted and will vest over the next 10 years. Handman, however, left the company in August and now serves as an outside advisor. If Snap cancels that contract, he could lose the bulk of his award.
Snap’s disclosures about executive compensation come as the company’s stock has taken a hit due to criticism about a recent redesign of its core Snapchat app. The company has struggled to impress Wall Street since going public, although it did top expectations with its most recent quarterly report.
The company’s governance and compensation practices have long drawn the scrutiny of certain investors. Snap has a multiclass stock structure that allots no votes to common shareholders, and, instead, grants outsized control to Spiegel. He and fellow co-founder Robert Murphy together have nearly 96% of the voting power at Snap.
In addition to the massive stock award, Snap paid Spiegel $98,078 in salary last year and $1.08 million in “other compensation.” That latter figure includes $561,892 in security-related costs, which was down from the $890,339 it paid for such expenses in 2016.
Khan, meanwhile, received $441,923 in salary last year and $69,728 in “other compensation,” which included relocation expenses.
Leave a Reply
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
