Mattrick's gone (yay!) BUT...Ballmer's in charge (uh oh)...

Mattrick Gets $50M Cash and Stock Package from Zynga - Kara Swisher - News - AllThingsD

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/159654542/Form-8-K

Laughing all the way to the bank!!!

Zynga just filed its 8-K regulatory filing that outlines the compensation it took to attract Microsoft Xbox head Don Mattrick to the troubled social online gaming company as its new CEO, replacing founder Mark Pincus.

In total, without figuring in increases in the stock that have already occurred, the longtime gaming exec is getting about $50 million in cash and stock compensation over several years. This all depends on a number of factors. For example, if the shares pop — the stock is already up significantly since his hiring — the package is obviously much more valuable.

While it is a largely stock-based compensation package, Mattrick will also be getting plenty of cash, with a cash and stock kitty totaling $19.3 million in his first year. That includes a $5 million signing bonus in cash, a $1 million annual salary and a pro-rated but guaranteed cash bonus of $2 million. In the period, he will also receive $11.3 million in Zynga stock in a make-whole grant related to the vesting shares he gave up in leaving Microsoft.

Mattrick is also getting an “inducement” grant of 1,785,714 restricted stock units, valued at $5 million, as well as an option to purchase 7,357,143 shares now worth $10 million, which will also vest over several years.

Beginning in 2014, Mattrick will be eligible for a 200 percent to 400 percent yearly cash bonus of his annual base salary, or $2 million to $4 million.

While these cash numbers are large, most of the value of the overall package is based in equity — large stock grants — that will become very valuable if Mattrick can get Zynga back on track. It's somewhat comparable to how Yahoo has rewarded CEO and former Google exec Marissa Mayer, who has definitely gotten that stock humming since she arrived a year ago.

According to the filing, for example, Mattrick's make-whole grant is $25 million in total — 8,928,571 Class A RSUs of Zynga — that will vest over his first three years at the company and are valued at a price of $2.80, based on Zynga's stock price on June 26.

That means 45.32 percent will vest on the one-year anniversary of the start of his employment — this coming Monday — and 45.32 percent on the day prior to the 2015 annual shareholder meeting. The remaining 9.36 percent, or $2.3 million, will vest on the third anniversary of his start of employment.
Along with the make-whole and inducement grants, Mattrick is also eligible for other grants — similar to those given to other execs at Zynga — which are performance-based and are valued at $7 million.
As is standard, Mattrick will get a payment of $60,000 related to legal fee costs associated with his employment agreement with Zynga, as well as severance of twice his annual salary, two times his target bonus, a pro-rated bonus for the fiscal year of the termination and an accelerated vesting of all his grants.

In related news, with Mattrick's ascension to the board, Zynga said that longtime board member and former Zynga exec Owen Van Natta will be resigning, which will keep the number of directors at nine.

Here's Zynga's filing on Mattrick's money, if you want to read for yourself:
Form 8-K
 
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What does Zynga do again?
 
Only in the crazy world of company exec's can you bring one of your companies flagship products into disrepute and then swan off to a new position in another company with bumper payouts a few days/weeks later - for your average employee the same behaviour would likely result in being sacked and followed by an extended period on the dole.

Turk3y: In all the large organisations I've worked in we've usually tried to avoid upgrading Office due to all the compatibility problems and new bugs that normally come with it. Even when I worked in a 30,000+ desktop environment I can't ever recall us considering an upgrade due to the performance increase on the new version of Exchange - generally I suspect most organisations are forced to upgrade when MS ends support for the older versions. It's also worth noting that each version of Exchange is compatible with multiple versions of the Outlook client anyway so just because you upgrade one you don't have to update the other anyway.

Personally if the infrastructure team was requesting to be upgraded to the latest version Office or Exchange every time one came out - without a very good reason for doing so - then I'd be inclined to think that they weren't doing their job properly.
 
Only in the crazy world of company exec's can you bring one of your companies flagship products into disrepute and then swan off to a new position in another company with bumper payouts a few days/weeks later

Unbelievable! :eek:

Mattrick will also be getting plenty of cash, ... $19.3 million in his first year. ... will also receive $11.3 million in Zynga stock ... “inducement” grant of ... $5 million, ... option ... shares now worth $10 million, ... 200 percent to 400 percent yearly cash bonus of his annual base salary, or $2 million to $4 million.

And the sad thing.... what exactly is going to FUND all this payout? Maybe that us$100 price difference to the PS4 :rolleyes:
 
Unbelievable! :eek:



And the sad thing.... what exactly is going to FUND all this payout? Maybe that us$100 price difference to the PS4 :rolleyes:

People who buy combine harvesters for Farmville thats who lol.
 
Got interrupted finishing that ^^^ but yeah some will be leaving bonus from MS, then Zygna's takings have to fund their side. And of course is the new Xbox/entertainment boss getting something as a sweetener?

I wonder if games would be cheaper if management weren't shifting about so much...
 
No, it's the tabbed bar across the top that links intuitively to the most used features in a context sensitive manner.

And there's nothing wrong with it per se, especially if you're new to Office.

However, if you've already been using Office for years everything is now in the wrong place and it's a complete PITA :suicide:
 
I despised that ribbon with a passion when it first came out but I've grown to like it. Kind of.
 
And there's nothing wrong with it per se, especially if you're new to Office.

However, if you've already been using Office for years everything is now in the wrong place and it's a complete PITA :suicide:

Tell me about it, work just upgraded me to office 2010 from 2003 and just doing simple things is a proper pain. It's difficult to see any advantages as I am a low power user who just wants to create and use basic excel, PowerPoint, email and word docs.
 
Wait until you upgrade to Office 2013 and get all the horrible tacked on Metro style interface additions (i.e. a full screen save option that then just opens the old save dialog when you decide that you don't want to save in it's suggested locations - err why not just give me the old save dialog to begin with to save me some mouse clicks?)
 
Wait until you upgrade to Office 2013 and get all the horrible tacked on Metro style interface additions (i.e. a full screen save option that then just opens the old save dialog when you decide that you don't want to save in it's suggested locations - err why not just give me the old save dialog to begin with to save me some mouse clicks?)

Yeah, saw that and holding off that upgrade!

Don't quite understand why software companies feel the need to update USER interfaces that the users are comfortable with for no apparent value. Also in this category - iTunes.
 
Yeah, saw that and holding off that upgrade!

Don't quite understand why software companies feel the need to update USER interfaces that the users are comfortable with for no apparent value. Also in this category - iTunes.

yea that is dreadful now as well. Its real easy to have the menu's at the top of the screen - you know how its been forever. I must be getting old because I'm struggling these days trying to work out a different ui for every program when they all used to be the same. Seems a step backwards to me.
 
Actually don't get the dislike of the surface. From a technical stand point it's head and shoulder above anything else out there. I have owned an iPad, Nexus 7, Surface RT and now a Surface Pro so my opinion is from experence.

The Surface RT is very much in it's infancy and my main concern is RT will be dead with in a few years and the biggest mitake is allowing it access to a completely pointless (besides office) desktop. It would have been far easier to understand RT if it was market place / metro only rather than a limited version of Windows 8.

The Surface Pro on the other hand is marvelous. Everything I need from a laptop with everything I want from a tablet.

I think when people think of the RT atleast they compare it directly to an iPad and in terms of software availability it really falls behind. In terms of productivity it far ahead of android /iOS. Printers work, usb keyboard and mic. USB memory sticks, Monitor out with the same configuration as Windows8 ( Dual screen, duplicate etc ). Easy access to network shares, full flash support etc.. the list really is great and people have judged quite heavily before investing time in one

if i was to be asked what the best tablet is, the Surface Pro would come out on top any day.

I can HDMI out, bluetooth ( or USB ) keyboard and mouse and it's as if I have a full desktop PC. No limitations.
Throw it in my bag for travelling and I have a very powerful tablet with added bonus of a digitizer capable of running Photoshop with out a hitch.

Also, from a hardware point of view, I can't imagine anyone picking up either the RT or Pro and saying it feels cheap. Both are as high in design and looks as any iPad and any Android Tablet I have seen. Picking up my Nexus 7 now, it feels like a toy. Grabbing an iPad and I feel restricted. Network connectivity, printer support, USB access, the kick stand, the touch and type keyboard. The product ( besides very limited touch friendly software ) has really been thought through.

All I'm trying to say is when someone asks me which tablet is best and they want my opion ( and yes, it's just that ) I would find it hard to recommend anything else. The iPad will always beat it in touch friendly application count and availablity but besides that I'd really struggle to find any other reason to recommend it unless you were very tied into Apples Ecosystem already.


anyway, off topic but I just wanted to highlight some pros and cons of the Surface.

Interestingly, despite the Surface being an excellent piece of kit it has tanked - there are some numbers recently released and MS have dropped nearly a $1 billion on it! 4 million produced but only a million sold!

News: Surface tablet slump costs Microsoft $900m - CVG UK

I seem to remember some analyst saying that the problem for most tablet manufacturers is that there isn't a market for tablets, there's a market for iPads.
 
I had recently asked in the tablet section about the Surface Pro, it seems ideal for a convergence device when you need Win8, but yes, sometimes the market just isnt big enough for something that ticks every logical box... or style wins...
 
They have recently slashed the Surface price to £249 :). Great piece of kit IMO.
 
I seem to remember some analyst saying that the problem for most tablet manufacturers is that there isn't a market for tablets, there's a market for iPads.

I suspect it's more to do with appstore than iPad but really as the iPad is the only tablet connected to the appstore then it wins by default.

Not that I use many apps at all with my tablet, everything through the browser and a happy chap.

Wife loves her iPad but has a windows phone and fancies a surface rt as her next tablet, I think the advert with the covers sold it, and she uses the browser for Facebook as even the iPad app is a bit iffy.
 
Why don't they just send out a rollback to previous firmware, why even update it at all if it works fine.
 

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