After effects of the botched Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) initial public offering last May can still be felt around.
NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ)’s management has decided to axe the 2012 bonus of the company’s chief executive, Robert Greifeld, by 62 percent owing to the botched Facebook IPO, report Reuters.
For 2012, Mr. Greifeld has earned a total of $8.9 million, which includes salary, stock awards and a “non-equity incentive plan compensation” of $1.35 million (in 2011 it was $3.59 million). The total compensation of Mr. Greifeld in 2011, was $7.6 million.
Anna Ewing, executive vice president of global technology solutions, also got a cut in the bonus. The company’s top market technology executive got $574,125 as a bonus, which was 53 percent lower than 2011.
NASDAQ management compensation committee and the board revealed in a securities filing on Thursday that they “explicitly considered the Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) I.P.O. in connection with their review and determination of these reduced payouts.”
The most awaited market event in more than a decade, Facebook’s IPO on May 18, 2012 was marred by “systems issues” at NASDAQ. The issues resulted in a delayed opening and missing trade execution messages, due to which the electronic market had to fill out orders by hand for a spell.
After the IPO debacle, Mr. Greifeld said that the group regrets the issues faced during the Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) IPO. He admitted that the company failed to meet its own standards of providing outstanding technology to members and exchange customers. “We have learned from this experience and we will continue to improve our trading platforms’’ Mr. Greifeld added.
To make up for the loss to some extent, suffered by the investors at that time, the market operator has announced the compensation of $62 million, earlier. Unsatisfied with the compensation announced, UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) of Switzerland will ask for full coverage of its losses through arbitration.
NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ)’s stock has gained every year since 2010 and this year util now, they were up 17 percent against the 12 percent increase in Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. The operator’s earnings have exceeded the forecasts for eight of the last nine quarters.
Just a few months back, NASDAQ hired Exequity LLP, a consulting firm specializing in compensation issues, to design the packages for NASDAQ OMX executives.
