Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Gets $30 Million Pay Raise Amid Year of Massive Gaming Layoffs
The CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, is getting a pay raise. A $30 million one.
According to a proxy filing published earlier this week and spotted by NBC, Nadella’s compensation for the fiscal year 2024 totaled $79,106,183. $2.5 million of this was his base salary, $71.24 million was stock awards, $5.2 million was non-equity incentive plan compensation, and the rest was a mixture of other types of compensation.
This is significantly higher than last year, when Nadella’s compensation totaled $48.5 million. While Nadella’s base salary remained flat between years, he saw a massive jump in the past fiscal year in stock awards, going from $39.24 million last year to $71.24 million this year.
Per the filing, the ratio of total annual compensation of Nadella to the median employee at Microsoft was 408 to 1.
Notably, the filing points out that this number actually incorporates Nadella taking a pay cut. The “cash incentive” portion of his pay was reduced at Nadella’s own request due to a security breach in 2023 where a Chinese espionage group hacked government email accounts through Microsoft. Per the filing, without this reduction, Nadella’s non-equity incentive plan compensation would have totaled $10.66 million instead of $5.2 million.
“Since the Board of Directors appointed Mr. Nadella as the third Chief Executive Officer in its history in 2014, Microsoft has nearly tripled revenue to $245.1 billion, nearly quadrupled net income to $88.1 billion, and more than quadrupled diluted earnings per share to $11.80,” the filing reads. “In addition to another year of consistently strong financial performance, Mr. Nadella and his leadership team have positioned Microsoft to continue to drive performance for years to come.”
Microsoft’s 2024 fiscal year took place from July of 2023 to June of 2024. During that period, the company acquired Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, a point that’s celebrated in the Microsoft filing. However, the company also laid off 1,900 staff from its gaming workforce in early January. A few months later, it closed Redfall developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks, and laid off others within Bethesda. And already this quarter, Microsoft has laid off another 650 gaming staff in a move which Xbox head Phil Spencer attributed directly to the acquisition.
Microsoft’s first quarter earnings call for fiscal 2025 will take place next week, providing an update on the company as a whole as well as the gaming division. Microsoft has been doing well on the strength of Azure, Cloud, Office, and its other divisions, and the Activision Blizzard acquisition has provided it with a significant boost to gaming revenue. However, hardware sales have been dipping over the last year (a problem also faced by Xbox’s rivals) and non-Activision Blizzard content sales have been relatively flat over the last year.
Photo by Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].
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