Virgin Mobile USA CEO Dan Schulman Took In $11.4 Million in 2007; Schulman Declines 08 Increase
By Rafat Ali - Tue 01 Apr 2008 07:43 PM PST
This should get some more fuel to the Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM) naysayers who have hammered the stock in the last month or so after disappointing earnings (though his other move listed below might mollify them a bit): CEO Dan Schulman took in $11.4 million in 2007 compensation, which includes salary, bonus, the value of stock options and other awards granted during the year, and incentives and perks, reports Reuters (NSDQ: RTRSY), citing its first proxy filing since it did its IPO on NYSE last year.
According to the filing, Schulman, who has been the CEO since October 2001, received $592,033 as salary, and $676,800 in bonus.His non-equity incentive plan compensation, under Virgin Mobile’s debt bonus plan, came in at $612,567. He was awarded $9.5 million in 2007 stock options. Prior to VMUSA, he was the CEO of Priceline.com. Form the filing, here’s the rationale from the compensation committee for the company: “Mr. Schulman’s cash compensation has historically been below the median market level due to the emphasis the Company has placed on long-term incentives. The compensation committee discussed the importance of bringing both the cash and long-term incentive pay components for Mr. Schulman in-line with market practice, and as a result they approved a 19% increase to Mr. Schulman’s base salary effective February 1, 2007.”
Also, interestingly, for 2008, the compensation committee approved a base salary increase for Schulman effective January 1, 2008, increasing his base salary from $600Kto $750K per year. But the filing says Schulman declined this increase effective February 15, 2008 “in recognition of the Company’s failure to achieve its 2007 performance targets and lowered expectations for 2008.”
Meanwhile, Richard Branson, owner of 35 percent of Virgin Mobile, said today in a CTIA keynote that he would continue to back VMUSA even as it endures tough times amid a U.S. recession that could last 12 months. Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel is the other major owner.