Snap Chief Earns $638 Million In 2017, Third-Highest CEO Payout Ever

Snap Inc Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel received $637.8 million as total compensation as the company went public last year, the third-highest annual payout ever received by a company’s chief executive. Mr Spiegel’s payout trails the 2007 and 2008 compensations of Daniel Och, CEO of hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, according to ISS Analytics, the data arm of Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. Mr Och received $918.9 million and $1.19 billion as annual compensation for fiscal years 2007 and 2008. Mr Spiegel’s compensation is based on stock-based awards worth $636.6 million and salary and other compensation worth about $1.2 million, according to a security filing by Snap on Thursday.
“I believe this is the largest value we have seen in the 10 years we’ve been compiling annual ‘highest-paid’ CEO studies,” said Dan Marcec, Director of Content at executive compensation data firm Equilar. Mr Spiegel’s official annual salary is $98,078 as of last year. Shares of Snap only recovered to its IPO price of $18 in the first week of February, having traded below it since July. The company’s shares fell 8 percent on Thursday, to again trade below the IPO price and analysts attributed the losses to users taking issue with Snap’s latest redesign.