Mellanox Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq:MLNX; TASE:MLNX) has asked its shareholders to approve a $470,000 bonus for chairman, president and CEO Eyal Waldman for 2012. The bonus comes on top of his $450,000 annual salary and his stock options worth $4.9 billion. His total salary cost was $6 million last year. The company has also asked the shareholders to approve for Waldman a special bonus of 65,000 restricted stock units (RSU), currently worth $3.78 million.
Mellanox has mainly been making headlines in recent months of its plummeting share price. The company's value has been halved since September 2012 to $2.5 billion, although the share price has risen 70% since the beginning of last year.
In the past few years, Mellanox has granted employees RSUs instead of options. RSUs offer both the company and employees advantages. The company recognized $14 million worth of options in its 2012 financial report, most of which were granted to new employees. The company also recognized $18 million in RSUs in 2012, up from $7 million in 2011, and $2 million in 2010.
Mellanox mostly grants RSUs to managers; Waldman's salary cost in 2012 was mostly based on his 84,000 RSUs, worth $4.9 million. They were granted and approved in May 2012, after the company's share price began to soar, and was $58, about the current price.
Mellanox will publish its financial report for the first quarter of 2013 in two weeks. It expects $78-83 million revenue, after a disappointing revenue guidance. Two weeks ago, the company calmed investors' fears that it would publish another revenue warning. The question now is over the company's guidance for the second quarter, for which the analysts' revenue consensus is $107 million. They also expect strong demand in the second half of the year.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 10, 2013
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