Twitter awards more stock to executives taking on more duties

Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey is rewarding some of his deputies with more equity after giving them more responsibilities, as he seeks to turn around the company and retain top executives.

Adam Bain, the head of revenue recently promoted to chief operating officer with new responsibilities heading up media and human resources, was awarded 1.9 million restricted stock units. They will vest over four years, the company said in a filing Friday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. That's worth about $30 million, based on Twitter's current share price.

Twitter, which lets people post and share 140-character updates, is facing slowing user and revenue growth, even as Dorsey takes steps to grow the audience. Several high-level departures have led to existing top executives taking on more responsibilities. On one weekend in January, Twitter lost five key people, including its heads of engineering, product, news and human resources. Dorsey, who wants to retain the remaining talent and hire qualified people, said on a call with investors this week that his "primary focus" is on recruiting.
 

Adam Messinger, Twitter's chief technology officer who also took on responsibility for engineering and product development, is getting 1.25 million RSUs. Vijaya Gadde, the general counsel who also recently became Twitter's head of communications and public policy, got 600,000 RSUs under the same four-year vesting terms.

Twitter also said it will start making more of its executive compensation performance based. Bain, Messinger and Gadde, also got some restricted stock that they'll be rewarded if they meet performance targets.

Dorsey will keep foregoing all forms of direct compensation, according to the filing. The CEO had a net worth of $1.2 billion at the close of trading Friday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Twitter's shares have declined 31 per cent this year, following a 35 percent slide in 2015.