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Don Mattrick gets $50 million pay package to leave Xbox for Zynga

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 03 Jul 2013 9:29 User comments (7)

Don Mattrick gets $50 million pay package to leave Xbox for Zynga

Earlier this week we reported that current Microsoft Entertainment (Xbox) head Don Mattrick was leaving the company to take the helm at struggling casual game maker Zynga.
Mattrick will replace Zynga founder and current CEO Mark Pincus, who may have been out of his league once the company went public last year.

It has been reported today that Mattrick will get a huge pay package for his services, with a base salary of $1 million, a sign-on cash bonus of $5 million and an annual bonus of $2 million.

Additionally, the exec will receive a stock grant of 9 million restricted shares that vest over the next three years. At Zynga's current share price, that stock is worth over $30 million. At the end of his first year with the company, Mattrick will also get another $11 million in shares (based on current valuation), taking his overall compensation package to $50 million.



If Zynga is satisfied with his performance this year, he will also be eligible for new stock valued at $7 million next year as a bonus/grant.

Mattrick formerly had high-ranking positions at EA before coming to Microsoft and taking the Xbox division into the black after years of operating losses.

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7 user comments

13.7.2013 21:53

Is the the IDIOT that said if you wanted to have a Microsoft console and did not have an internet connection, you should USE A XBOX 360?

I think it was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuVl5Tm-R9U

LOVE those horns at the end...just shows what an idiot he was.

23.7.2013 23:33

Yet another overpaid CEO, sucking the life out of another company.

34.7.2013 01:40

actually i find this funny.

Qoute:

"i fully support the xbox one it will be a great console"

Answer:

Then why are you leaving you stupid moron sellout

44.7.2013 12:24

Originally posted by megadunderhead:
actually i find this funny.

Qoute:

"i fully support the xbox one it will be a great console"

Answer:

Then why are you leaving you stupid moron sellout
...um, well, maybe, just maybe it's because he has done all the stuff he wanted to in the design & launching of the Xbox One project & he wants to move on to something new?

Originally posted by Bozobub:
Yet another overpaid CEO, sucking the life out of another company.
Now this I do agree with.
The absurd levels of CEO/senior level pay in many western countries
(where a stunning salary is never enough but various bonuses & a variety of 'packages' are the norm)
IS robbing companies of large amounts of money that could be spent on R&D & a host of other more deserving priorities.

The trouble is top level pay/bonuses etc is decided by the very people who stand to benefit most from it.

IMO there ought to be a maximum pay level set, it is quite obvious that these greedy so & so's will never be satisfied & the grotesque disparity in pay across the western world will only continue to get ever worse.

I have no problem with a guy setting up a successful business recouping the benefit but exec pay is quite another matter (and ditto for politicians)


54.7.2013 21:22

Wow, a few weeks ago it seemed he was trying to destroy the xbox one launch with all the restrictive DRM, that gets reversed, and now he's off to Zynga.

64.7.2013 23:04

Originally posted by Bozobub:
Yet another overpaid CEO, sucking the life out of another company.
Indeed.

They get paid their "bonuses" regardless even if they stuff up... in the case of financial institutions even the taxpayer has to pay it when they stick their hand out for corporate welfare.

75.7.2013 21:09

Zynga just laid off 500 employees, I think?? Well now we know why. They needed the cash for Mattrick's salary.

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