The last two years have been a turning point for Microsoft. With Steve Ballmer stepping down as CEO and Satya Nadella officially taking his place, we have seen many changes from the Redmond based company. From the beginning of his reign, Satya’s stance on Microsoft’s future as been pretty clear; Microsoft’s success is based on reinvention. Over the past two years, Satya has had to make some difficult choices, refocusing Microsoft’s mobile efforts, while expanding many of its services to be featured on other platforms. We were able to see just how far these changes have reached when Apple invited Microsoft on stage to demo Microsoft Office during its unveil of the iPad Pro this September. Although Microsoft still has a way to go, the company seems to believe Satya is leading it down the right road as made evident by the CEO’s finical earnings released today.
Just last year, Satya’s base salary was brought him $919,000 with a bonus of $3.8 million. According to the annual proxy statement released today, Satya earned $1.2 million in salary on top of his $4.3 million bonus, not to mention $12.8 million gained from his stock award, totally $18.3 million. Microsoft’s finical report goes on to say:
Mr. Nadella provided strong, consistent vision and execution on our mobile-first and cloud-first strategy, continued to effectively guide the transformation of the Company’s culture and he effectively represented the Company with customers, partners, investors and employees.
Mr. Nadella established and articulated the Company’s three broad ambitions to focus the Company’s offerings, and consolidated the operating systems and devices groups into the Windows and Devices Group. Under his leadership, Windows 10 was successfully launched and the executive compensation program became significantly more performance-based,” the statement continued.
Over all, it does appear as though Satya Nadella is leading Microsoft in the right direction but will it be enough to keep Microsoft relevant in the years to come? Do you believe Satya’s performance warranted his hefty salary? Let us know in the comments below.
