Sprint, one of the four biggest telecommunication companies in the US, reportedly paid its CEO over $21.8 million dollars for the 2014 fiscal year. What makes this amount even more staggering is the fact that Claure wasn’t even in the position for the full 12 months, as the SEC filing shows the amount was paid for a time frame of only eight months, lasting up to March 2015.
Marcelo Claure served on the board of directors for Sprint since January of 2014 before switching to his role of CEO in August of that same year. Before that he served as CEO of Brightstar, a distributor and service provider company for the wireless industry, which he started in 1997. As CEO of Brightstar, he was able to turn the company into what Inc. Magazine called “one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S.” Claure has not made any indications that he plans to step down as his role of CEO at Brightstar and will continue to serve in that position as during his time as CEO of Sprint.
Sprint brought Claude on board as CEO in hopes of revitalizing its dying company, which has lost over 50% of its stock value since trading at all-time highs of 10.79 back in 2013. A task which might prove difficult as consumers are not able to justify paying for a service which has considerably less coverage than its competitors.
The $21.8 million should not be taken as the final amount that Claure will make here on out, as it included his bonus of over $2 million dollars. Another factor to note is that a large part of this money is also tied into the performance of the company, as it came in the form of stock awards and options. So if he is not able to make any notable changes to the company, the value of his portfolio will surely decrease.
Since Claure took over in 2014, Sprint has been able to add some subscribers back to its fold and analyst see that continuing into the second quarter. Only time will tell however whether or not Claure is able to turn a company around that has not been able to innovate or make any changes to its policies to make subscribers stay.