San Francisco - Even as Twitter raised $1.82 billion in an initial public offering last year, chief executive Dick Costolo’s compensation plunged.
Costolo earned $130,250 (R14 million) in 2013, according to a regulatory filing yesterday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
All of that was from salary, with the chief executive getting no bonus, stock awards or options.
In 2012, Costolo, who isn’t a founder of the San Francisco-based microblogging service, got $11.5 million in salary, stock awards and options.
It has become fashionable for chief executives of technology companies to pick a low salary, especially if they are already wealthy.
Last year, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg got a base salary of $1, following in the footsteps of Google and Apple executives who have done the same.
In 2012, when Facebook went public, Zuckerberg earned $503,205 in salary.
Costolo has also reduced his salary over time.
In August 2013, his annual salary was lowered to $14,000, according to the filing.
The chief executive has plenty of stock and options from previous grants, including $37 million from an April 2012 stock award.
In total, Costolo owns 1.4 percent of Twitter’s shares, according to the filing.
Twitter’s highest-compensated executive last year was Chief Financial Officer Mike Gupta, who helped lead the company’s November IPO.
He made $24.6 million in 2013.
General Counsel Vijaya Gadde earned $15.1 million.
Twitter, with about 241 million users, has seen its share price gain 63 percent since it went public.
The company is working to add more users and expand its advertising offerings, especially on mobile phones.
Twitter reports first-quarter earnings on April 29. - Bloomberg News