Twitter today released the details of how its new executive chairman Omid Kordestani will be compensated. The social media company says that Kordestani, who was poached from Google and was the company’s highest paid employee in 2014, will be paid a base annual salary of $50,000, and will have the option of getting up to 1.2 million shares on top of that.
The shares are divided into two tranches:
Kordestani, Twitter says, “will receive a one-time grant of options to purchase 800,000 shares of the Company’s common stock at an exercise price equal to the closing price of the Company’s common stock on the date of grant and vesting over four years as described in the Offer Letter and subject to the terms of the Company’s 2013 Equity Incentive Plan.”
The official offer letter published as a part of the 8-K filing with the SEC notes that Kordestani will vest 25% of the non-qualified stock options (as these 800,000 shares are termed) on November 1, 2016, with the balance vested quarterly over the following 12 quarters subject to Kordestani’s continued employment at Twitter.
He will also get a performance-related stock grant. “In addition, Mr. Kordestani will receive a one-time stock award in the form of Performance-Based Restricted Stock Units (the “PRSUs”) covering 400,000 shares of the Company’s common stock.”
The PRSUs will be eligible to vest based on Twitter’s achievement of certain performance targets over each of the next four fiscal years beginning in 2016, and are based on Kordestani staying with the company. The performance targets are not detailed in the SEC filing but says they will be detailed by the board of directors.
According to Google’s proxy filing for 2014, Kordestani earned just under $130 million that year as he took on the role of Google’s chief business officer with the departure of Nikesh Arora to Softbank:
According to the Google document, Kordestani was given a $6.5 million bonus — $5 million for signing on as the CBO and another $1.5 million as part of the annual bonus program — alongside $123 million in stock awards and a salary of $237,500.
Kordestani was long-time Googler credited with building the company’s first forays into generating revenues through ads, and helping the search company become profitable for the first time.
Although the value of Kordestani’s Twitter award will vary depending on Twitter’s share price over the next several quarters and years, based on today’s share price for Twitter, Kordestani’s compensation works out to around $36 million.
Jack Dorsey, who was appointed permanent CEO last week, will not be drawing a salary in the role.