Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) CEO Evan Spiegel notched a massive payday last year following the company’s initial public offering (IPO). According to Snap’s annual report, Spiegel’s bonus following the IPO was $637 million. The tax bite on that could be eye-watering.
To help pay those taxes, Spiegel sold around 1.5 million shares last week for about $25 million. Last month he realized a gain of $50 million on another sale of Snap stock.
Spiegel’s deal with Snap (developer of Snapchat) investors called for him to receive 3% of the company’s stock if he took the company public. Following the IPO in early March of last year, Spiegel received a stock award of more than 37 million shares in the now-public firm.
Snap employees, however, did not fare so well. They were told they had failed to beat internal financial goals and that there would be no cash bonuses.
And that happened before TV celebrity Kylie Jenner said she was going to give up Snapchat. That news cost Snap more than $1 billion in market cap.
Not paying bonuses is, of course, a management decision, but it seems particularly tone deaf when the CEO has just made a large fortune. Morale, according to a Bloomberg report, has been low. The missed internal targets that would have triggered bonus payments, were not defined for employees, according to unnamed sources.
Snap did send around an employee survey last week asking for input on a number of issues related to what they like about the company and they think needs to be improved. The latter could be a long list.
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