Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
Credit: Reuters File Photo
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took a $5.5 million pay cut in his salary, The Times of India reported, citing company filings.
Nadella saw a 63 per cent hike in his salary for the financial year 2024. In the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Microsoft revealed that Nadella's total compensation for the year ending June 30, amounted to around $79.1 million (around Rs 665 crore).
The increase was mostly due to stock awards, and as per the filing, the awards went up to $71 million from $39 million the last year. Nadella however, requested a reduction in cash compensation.
His cash incentive for the fiscal year 2024 was $5.2 million, though he was originally slated to get $10.7 million.
As per the filing, Nadella requested the pay cut this year due to multiple security breaches, including the July Microsoft outage that affected systems worldwide.
"Mr. Nadella agreed that the Company's performance was extremely strong, but reflecting on his personal commitment to security and his role as the CEO, asked the Board to consider departing from the established performance metrics and reduce his cash incentive to reflect his personal accountability for the focus and speed required for the changes that today's cybersecurity threat landscape showed were necessary," the filing read, as per TOI.
In April, the US Department of Homeland Security had published a report following an independent review of China's breach of US government officials' email accounts, and Microsoft disclosed the matter in July 2023.
In January this year, Microsoft also confirmed that Russian intelligence had accessed the emails of some of its top executives.
Nadella got $2.5 million as base salary and $170,000 as other compensation.
Nadella's earnings breakdown:
Stock Awards: $71,236,392 (approx. Rs 600 crore)
Non-Equity Incentive Plan: $5.2 million (approx. Rs 44 crore)
Base Salary: $2.5 million (more than Rs 21 crore)
Miscellaneous Compensation: $169,791 (approx. Rs 15 lakh)