LinkedIn CEO Passes On To Employees A Cool $14 Million

By Jose de la Cruz | Mar 04, 2016 05:49 AM EST

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LinkedIn stocks have plunged 38 percent on Wednesday and its CEO, Jeff Weiner passes on his $14 million stock package to his employees.

Is that Weiner's way to perk up the sagging spirits of his company and his staff? The social media company announced on Wednesday that Weiner is declining his 2016 annual stock compensation in favor of his employees.

This surprise move of the LinkedIn CEO follows a dismal first-quarter revenue and profit forecast which missed the projections of Wall Street last month. Slow growth in the social network's ads business and the challenges it faces in its hiring services outside of North America are the contributing factors to this disappointing performance.

Stocks of LinkedIn closed on Wednesday at $119.68, dropping to almost 38 percent since its frustrating Q4 performance on Feb. 4.

But Weiner was not the first one to use this strategy. Last October, Jack Dorsey, CEO of another social media network, Twitter, also passed on his $200 million stock package to his employees.

Dorsey's company also suffered plunging stock prices at that time, forcing him to drastically lay off 8 percent of his labor force or about 336 employees. His move was largely perceived then as a morale booster for his workers who are connected to a company that is undergoing a massive restructuring.

"Jeff decided to ask the Compensation Committee to forego his annual equity grant, and to instead put those shares back in the pool for LinkedIn employees," said a spokesperson for LinkedIn in an email to Reuters.

The social media network did not give a definite value of Weiner's stock package but Recode, its official website, stated that it was worth around $14 million. The figure was supposedly given by a reliable source from the company.

Previously, the Twitter CEO has received $10.2 million stock awards and other option awards of $8.2million in Dec. 31, 2014.

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