Technology

A CEO Who Has to Go: IBM's Rometty Makes $19.8 Million

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: March 9, 2016 6:28 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 12:12 pm

Virginia Rometty, the CEO of International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) has gone a long way to ruin the huge and storied tech company. Her board rewarded her with $19.8 million in compensation for 2015, an extraordinary repudiation of shareholders who have been livid about IBM’s performance.

Rometty was on the 24/7 Wall St. list of CEOs Who Have to Go in 2016. Here we repeat our case regarding IBM:

CEO: Virginia Rometty
Year started: 2012
One year stock price change: -11.9%
Annual compensation: $19.8 million (updated)

105-year old IBM is one of the greatest conglomerates in U.S. history. The company created some of the most important tech products of all time, including the mainframe computer and PC. The company has been battered by falling demand for large computers, a poor showing in the enterprise software and consulting business, and a weak move into the cloud computing market. IBM reported $103.6 billion in revenue in 2008. Revenue last year was $92.2 billion, and has continued to decline in 2015. Ginni Rometty has been CEO for four years. Rometty has repeatedly told shareholders the company will soon become dominant in cloud computing, mobile, and social media. Instead, it appears the company is having more trouble dealing with the changing tech landscape than Rometty is willing to admit.

Methodology:

24/7 Wall St. considered two groups: S&P 500 companies and post-2010 high-tech IPOs with valuation of at least $1 billion. In the first category, a CEO had to hold office for at least three years to be considered. In the second, the CEO had to be in his or her job for two years.

Finally, the editors used some judgement beyond raw data. CEOs who have repeatedly failed to successfully execute their own primary strategies made this list, even if shares in another S&P 500 or post-2010 IPO company dropped more.