Shutterfly CEO gets “discretionary” bonus
Putting a cherry on top of the 62 percent raise they gave Chief Executive Jeffrey Housenbold this year, Shutterfly’s board approved paying him a discretionary bonus (meaning they didn’t have to pay it and it wasn’t owed him by way of meeting pre-arranged performance goals) of $283,600 for his work last year. Three other top executives “still with the company” also got bonuses, ranging from $46,000 to $57,000.
The last time we posted about compensation for Housenbold, we received more than a dozen comments, many of them from ex-SFLYers who were, shall we say, a bit disenchanted with the company. One comment claimed that the company began laying off 5 percent of its work force at the end of January but we found no mention of that in company filings.
The Redwood City Internet-based digital photo sharing site did report a 14 percent increase in sales last year, yet a more-than-fifty-percent drop in net income. Hence, perhaps, the layoffs, if true.
Housenbold’s bonus money will, if nothing else, ease the pain a bit from his purchase of Shutterfly shares last year, when he paid nearly $150,000 for 12,000 shares at an average per-share price of $12.44, and spent 232,731 for 25,000 more in August for an average of about $9.31 each.
Shutterfly’s stock closed Friday at $9.46, leaving Housenbold holding onto a paper loss of about $32,000 on his purchases.
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Yes, there was a 5% layoff at the company. As a former employee, I know the people laid off, I have to say the people they decided to let go, and the ones to keep, was just strange. Not sure the reason for it and many of the positions filling back up again. Makes you wonder if they did it to make wall street feel better or to get cheaper, and less dedicated, workers.
Funny they laid off people and then turned around a gave Housenbold a nice raise. Way to go “sharing lifes joy” there. Sounds like they haven’t learned anything from the economic crisis or the dot com bust.