Twittter CEO Dick Costolo didn’t get a golden parachute from the company as part of his resignation announced Thursday. But happy investors have given him an $11 million going away present.
That’s because Costolo owns a lot of Twitter stock and now those shares are worth even more. Twitter stock jumped about 3% in premarket trading Friday following news of his departure.
Costolo currently holds about 8.2 million stock options and another 822,545 shares of the stock, which works out to about $11.2 million in new wealth for him.
Overall, Costolo hasn’t been a hit with investors. Shares of the social media company have lost about half their value since late 2013, soon after its successful IPO, which is one of the reasons Costolo was under pressure to resign.
Company filings indicate Costolo will apparently lose about 800,000 in stock options because of his departure from the company.
But he won’t be giving up much in the way of pay by quitting his job. Company filings say his base pay was cut to $14,000 a year in August of 2013, just before the IPO, and the company has not indicated it has increased his pay since, nor do they show any recent stock grants or options.
Most of his total compensation of $175,399 last year was in the form of perks. He had a car service estimated to be worth $32,250 (more than twice as much as his salary) and a security service for his home valued at $127,757.
Twitter chairman and co-founder Jack Dorsey, who will serve as interim CEO while the board searches for a new chief, will not receive any immediate compensation from his new post, but he got an even bigger bump from the rise of the stock. His holdings increased nearly $29 million in premarket trading since he owns more shares.
