Amazon to grant new CEO Jassy over $200 million in stock

By Jeffrey Dastin

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc plans to award incoming Chief Executive Andy Jassy more than $200 million in extra stock, which will pay out over 10 years, the company said in a regulatory filing on Friday.

Amazon will record the grant of 61,000 shares on July 5, the filing said, the date that Jassy succeeds Jeff Bezos in the online retailer's first CEO transition since its founding in 1994.

The award's exact value will depend on how the shares are trading when they pay out in future years, encouraging Jassy to grow a company that's worth $1.77 trillion today. Though Amazon did not disclose the vesting schedule, its previous stock grants have not vested right away.

Jassy's base salary has been $175,000, filings show. On top of that, he has $45.3 million in previously awarded stock that is vesting this year, and he had $41.5 million in shares that vested in 2020.

That's still smaller than rival CEOs in the technology industry. Microsoft Corp's Satya Nadella had $215 million in stock vest for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020, on top of a base salary of $2.5 million, a filing showed. Apple Inc's Tim Cook had $281.9 million in stock vest, according to its 2021 proxy.

And Bezos, despite a smaller salary, has been the world's richest person thanks to his being the largest shareholder in Amazon.

The company plans to stop its prior biannual stock grants to Jassy, aiming for the award disclosed Friday to represent most of his compensation for the coming years, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Amazon also will make arrangements to provide for Jassy's personal security, according to the filing.

 

(Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler and Aurora Ellis)